Chapter 9
A torn up red boot angrily kicked at the wooden leg of the coffee table resting peacefully in the center of the living room. The sudden sound of impact caused the silver house bot to jump, startled. He looked up, bright blue eyes stunned, at the 13 year old who was angrily pacing the space between the table he had just attacked and the leather couch. He had been this way for the past half hour while Tenma had been locked up in his office with Astro, and ever since he's been a wreck, worried out of his mind about what his father was discussing with the robot. Would he actually come to his senses and get rid of the piece of scrap metal? Would he really shut him off? Would they be able to return to their lives before all of this had happened? With everything back to normal? Then, Toby's eyes narrowed into slits. Or would his father continue on with this ridiculous notion of loving the robot which was such foolishness and stupidity and-
"Er, Master T-Toby, you really should try to relax and calm down a bit..." Orrin quietly suggested from his corner, throwing a quick glance at Tenma's office door that was still locked shut.
Toby didn't even falter; he continued his back and forth pacing. If anything, Orrin's comment only made him go even faster. He didn't answer right away, staring straight at the ground in silence. Then, a good minute later, he replied briskly, "I'm perfectly fine."
If the house bot could, he would definitely roll his eyes at this. It was obviously the biggest lie he could tell at this time. "You're pulling your hair out and your eyes are twitching..." As soon as Orrin had said it, Toby instantly eased up the grip he had on his hair which he didn't even realize he had been pulling with both hands. When he couldn't stop the twitching in his eyes, however, he threw a frustrated look at the robot that said 'So what?' Orrin sighed and threw both arms out to his sides. " SO you look like you want to KILL somebody!"
"Well maybe I do," Toby muttered under his breath, never missing a beat.
Orrin's mouth hung open at that, certainly not expecting to hear such words to come out of the other's mouth. He had almost forgotten how unbelievably stubborn the young teen could be, so he decided to leave it at that and not question him further. "Look, Toby, maybe you should just go to sleep. It's really late, and I doubt Dr. Tenma will be finished anytime soon..."
"No! I can wait until he's done!" Toby hissed, suddenly stopping mid-pace to glare at Orrin, who immediately wheeled backwards a little. The boy stayed still, hands fisting at his sides, no longer pulling at his hair, and a look of disgust suddenly crossed his features. "And besides, I don't want to sleep on that bed. That robot has slept there for who knows how long!"
The silver robot gave another sigh, rubbing his metallic temple with his hand. "It's been almost two months," he said sadly.
Chocolate eyes widened in slight shock. Two months? Had it really been that long? Then again, to Toby it felt like it had been forever since he had been absorbed by the Peacekeeper. Two months was nothing...
Shaking it off, his usual scowl was back in no time. "I don't care how long ago it was. You guys just don't understand what I'm going through. I-"
He was never able to finish his sentence. A loud, thunderous crash came out of no where from Tenma's office, so sudden it had both Toby and Orrin jumping a good foot off the floor. Orrin lost his equilibrium for a second, trying to balance on his single wheel before finally grabbing the nearby bookshelf for support. Trashcan, who had been snoozing under the coffee table, woke up abruptly, ears perked up. Toby had a hand over his chest where his heart was, willing it to calm down from his sudden fright. He bit his lip, eyes trained on Tenma's office door. "What was that?" He asked.
Whether the question was directed to Orrin or himself, the robot decided to answer it anyway. "I-I'm not sure... It sounds like it could have been one of Dr. Tenma's statues falling over a-"
"And it's just a COINCIDENCE it fell over with that robot in there?" Toby snarled, shaking his head. "I'm going in there." He started for the office.
"No! Master Toby you can't go in and interrupt their discussion! Stop!" Orrin pleaded, quickly making his way over to Toby.
Toby was already a few feet from the office, and Orrin knew he wouldn't be able to reach him in time to stop him from barging in. He reached a hand out as a last resort, trying to catch him but failing miserably. However, Toby did, all of a sudden, halt in his spot, but it wasn't because Orrin had caught him. No, standing before him at a good two feet tall was Trashcan, who glared up at him and let out a slow, deadly growl. Toby backed away slowly, taking a hesitant step back as he arched an eyebrow up. "What the hell is that thing?" He asked, turning his head slightly to the left to signify that this question was, in fact, directed at Orrin.
Orrin remained speechless for a second, watching as Trashcan began to bark loudly at Toby. He waited a moment for Trashcan to stop, but when the robotic dog didn't relent in his verbal attack, he gulped and answered anyway, "Toby, this is Trashcan, Astro's robotic pet and friend. He got him from the Surface and er, he's been staying with us ever since."
"The Surface?!" Toby snapped, astonished at the mention of the abandoned land. He'd only ever heard of that place a couple of times, and everything anyone told him about it had left a bad impression. In his view, it was a giant robot wasteland, isolated from the human population, and there had been rumors that people still lived down there among all that junk. Although Toby was one of those people that didn't believe such nonsense, he was sure that even if there were people on the Surface, they obviously wouldn't last long. Pursing his lips, he looked back down at Trashcan, who had stopped barking to just glare back up at him. "Pft, figures. So that robot visited the Surface, eh? What other junk did he get from there besides this dirty-"
Trashcan didn't even give him a chance to finish before completely lashing out, jumping the few feet in the air to reach Toby's face. The 13 year old's eyes widened, and the last thing he saw was Trashcan's furious face before the dog knocked him right off his feet.
"Toby!" Orrin screamed in terror, watching as Trashcan began to try and paw the living daylights out of Toby's face, however the only thing stopping him was Toby gripping his metal head and trying to push him back away as much as possible. He was losing, though, because Trashcan was much stronger than him, and it seemed with every second he would gain more adrenaline and would come dangerously close to his face, only for Toby to push him away again.
Toby let out a rather loud shout when Trashcan thrashed forward to try and bite him. "O-Orrin!" Toby choked out. "Get this thing off of me! GET IT OFF ME! ORRIN!"
Tenma's office door flew open, and the tall man came running out, followed by Astro. "What on Earth is going on here?!" Tenma bellowed, then stopped suddenly when he saw the robot dog attacking his very own son who was already torn up as it was. "TOBY!"
Astro jumped right into action, dashing toward the two on the floor, and instantly grabbed Trashcan around his body. "Trashcan, stop!" He yelled, trying to pull the robot away. Trashcan just held on tighter, gripping onto Toby with his metallic claws, and the human boy yelped at the sudden sharp pain he felt on his skin. At this, Astro pulled Trashcan more roughly, not using all his strength though because he didn't want to hurt his friend. "Please, let go!" Now, there was a decent amount of space between Toby and Trashcan, the dog almost off of him. Toby had had enough though, so he quickly brought his leg up, knee to his chest, and finally kicked Trashcan off of him. Hard.
The sudden action caused Astro to go flying back, with a whimpering Trashcan in his arms, and they both toppled to the foor. "Take your stupid dog, and don't let that thing near me again!" Toby yelled, quickly getting back on his feet to dust himself off. He winced, bringing his arms up to inspect the small cuts he had. He then touched his cheek, feeling one there as well.
"Toby," Tenma said, voice laced with worry. He ran to his son, kneeling before him until they were eye level so he could check him himself. He ran his finger over his arm, then brought his hand up to rest on his shoulder. He looked up at his son, face full of concern. "Are you alright?"
Said boy's face softened at the concern he saw in his father's eyes, and nodded gently. "I'm alright." His face went hard then, and he shot a glare at the dog who had attacked him. He was still in Astro's arms as Astro tried fixing the small dent Toby had made in his metal chest when he had kicked him off. "I want it gone," he said simply.
"No," Astro spoke up, finally done fixing up Trashcan. He placed the dog gently on the ground, then stood up, glaring back at Toby. "Trashcan isn't going anywhere."
"Yes, he is. You can take him with you on your way out back to your robot junkyard," Toby spat.
"Toby, stop," Tenma said firmly, very disappointed that his son would speak so lowly of anything. The brief idea that the traumatizing experience he went through of being absorbed and noexistent for a while had made him grow cold and bitter crossed his mind, but he quickly put that thought to the back of his head. He would think about that later. He then turned his attention to his other son, and sighed. "Astro, Trashcan did in fact attack Trashcan, and I cannot tolerate such violence. There must be consequences." Tenma had grown to actually like Astro's little friend while he had been staying with them, but despite their small amount of bonding, he knew it was the right thing to do.
Astro opened his mouth, about to talk, but it was Trashcan that started barking again, this time less hostile. He kept going for a moment, and Astro listened to him intently, able to understand every word he was saying while the others in the room just watched. At last, he stopped, and Astro nodded in understanding. He turned back to his father and began explaining, "Look, Dad, you know Trashcan well enough to know that he's not normally violent. Whatever Toby said about his homeland triggered something and he just snapped. If anything he was provoked! I promise it won't happen again."
"Damn right it wont," Toby murmured under his breath, and Tenma tapped him warningly on the shoulder with his hand that was still resting there.
Tenma sighed again, wiping his other hand down his face in slight frustration. It had been a very long day, and he just didn't know what to think anymore about the whole situation. When he looked at Astro's pleading face and listened to Trashcan's whimpering pleas, he nodded once firmly. "All right, he can stay." When Astro started to grin happily, he raised a finger. "BUT, you must keep him under firm control and discipline around Toby because if he attacks him again, he will be going back to the Surface, do I make myself clear?"
Astro nodded happily, all the while Toby's jaw dropped to the floor in shock. "Yes, yes, I promise I'll keep him under control." Trashcan started jumping in cheer, and Astro patted him on the head. It made Tenma smile a little, unaware that his other son was absolutely fuming at his side. "I-"
"Whoa whoa wait just a second," Toby stopped the happy moment, and everyone froze to look at him. He looked up at his father, sputtering like an idiot for a second as he pointed at the two robots he disliked. "Y-You mean they BOTH get to stay?!" He hollered.
Tenma bit his lip, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead in panic. He almost forgot how angry and opposed Toby was to the idea of Astro staying, briefly remembering his angry, yelling words during their discussion. Explaining to him now that he had went against his wishes and did, in fact, allow Astro to stay would just be opening up another nasty can of worms, and this time things would be a lot more messier. "Yes, Toby," he said calmly, tightening his hand on his shoulder in a last minute attempt at comfort. "Astro will not be going anywhere, and neither will Trashcan."
At first, Toby didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. His mouth was so dry that his lips felt glued together. Aside from that, his brain couldn't process it anymore, and he just couldn't form any coherent thoughts. His father, who claimed he loved him so and had missed him while he had been "dead"... had went against his only request of having them return to their normal lives minus the doppleganger robot that had been living his life since he'd been gone. Why couldn't anyone understand? No one understood him anymore. Now, ever since he came back, he was the bad guy. Everyone so far viewed him as some insane child throwing a tantrum. They saw him as some awful person trying to kick some helpless robot out on the streets. But couldn't they see there was more to the situation than that? He wasn't trying to this for FUN. He just wanted his normal life back, before this had all happened. He wanted to forget that fateful day; wanted to forget that he had been absorbed by the Peacekeeper and had been gone for nearly two months. Wanted to forget everything... But that wasn't possible. How could he forget, when the proof was living under the same roof as him and he would have to see it everyday; the robot that looked exactly like him. No, he just couldn't stand Astro living in the same house as him. Every time he would look at him, it would just be painful memories and reminders. He would remember that horrible day. He would remember the dark abyss he had been in. He would remember that his father had moved on, if only for a little while, with a new son. He would remember how everyone favored the robot over him. And most certainly, he would remember that there had been someone that had been living HIS life the whole time. Had taken HIS appearance and HIS brain and HIS memories and HIS father and HIS home, and had somehow turned it all around to make a new life for himself. And all of it just wasn't okay. It wasn't okay in the slightest, and the most messed up part about it all, to Toby, was that no one else could see it but him. No one ever would see it the way he saw it.
He couldn't live with that robot.
He was dimly aware of the fact that Tenma was still talking softly to him, trying to reassure him of God knows what, but he suddenly didn't care anymore. His brain had shut down for the most part, and now he just couldn't find it in him to try anymore. His heart felt empty, and he felt like he was drowning. Without warning, he roughly shoved Tenma's hand off his shoulder, causing the scientist to stop talking immediately. The boy then, without so much as glancing at anyone else, began to walk toward the door. "Toby..." Tenma started. When he got no reaction and his son just continue walking, he went on, "Son, where are you going?"
Toby halted at the closed door, bringing his arm up to slam his fist on the 'open' button. The hostility made Orrin jump, and yet the 13 year old managed to look completely calm and still from behind. "I'm going to sleep in the guest bedroom," he said lowly. Astro's head tilted to the side a bit in curiosity at the dead tone he spoke with, while Tenma looked on in great concern. He took a step, about to make his way to his son, but Orrin was at his side right away, placing his metal hand on his arm. Tenma looked down at him, and the robot shook his head sadly, telling him silently to give the boy some time and privacy. After a second of staring him down, Tenma finally relented, exhaling softly and staying in his spot, watching his son.
The door slid open smoothly, and Toby's heavy feet slowly brought him through the door.
"Hopefully, in a few hours, I'll wake from this awful nightmare."
A.N.- So this chapter is short, but very necessary, ESPECIALLY that long paragraph explaining why Toby really hates the idea of Astro living with him and staying in their lives. Now hopefully everyone understands Toby's anger and hate towards Astro and even Trashcan. He just wants to have his old life back, dont hate him too much guys haha. I think in the next chapter, it'll focus more on how the hate eventually gets to Astro as well, and even though we all know Astro is really nice and loves everyone, he can't stand Toby's anger and ends up disliking him as well. That's where things really heat up between them, and Tenma gets intense as well because just think of all the headaches he has to deal with XD anyway, until next time! Drop a review if you can of any ideas ;) ideas of spicing things up and ways I can make Astro finally crack and start disliking Toby XD