With all that had happened in such a short time, Randall hadn't fully understood the extent of his weariness until he woke up again in the van only to find that the sun had long set. An extra blanket had been thrown on top of him. A chorus of frogs and insects chirruping in the nearby swamp now replaced the somewhat distant thrum of cars and machinery. And Tani was nowhere to be seen. A surge of panic nearly took hold of him until he saw the small meal she had lain out: Two sealed containers, one with a strange salad of plants and vegetables both he could and couldn't recognize and the other with shredded pieces of what seemed to be a soft, broiled meat—a kind of fish, probably. There wasn't any note, but based on the preparations and faint steam collecting in the second container, Tani had likely stepped out and hadn't been gone for too long. After rummaging around in the dark for a jug of water, he quickly scarfed down the food—again surprising himself by his own poor state, this time with his ravenous appetite.

A part of him was still terrified at the fact that Tani had gone off somewhere, a little disheartened too that she had left without a word. The idea that she might vanish from his life a second time if he let her out of his sight plagued his mind, and the fact that she seemingly had no problem with it was disappointing. There was so much that they had missed over the years: He had thought that Tani would've wanted to stay by him and hear as much about the monster world as possible. He wanted to know more about her anyway, how she had managed to survive for all these years on her own.

Brows furrowed, he blinked down at his food. He didn't know what all it was, but it was good. Average—like a store-brand frozen dinner—but good. No, Tani hadn't just found a way to survive: She had made something for herself out here. Maybe, at this point, going home… just wouldn't even have any appeal to her anymore… She had said she wanted to go home, but she might still change her mind. To him, it was unthinkable, but to her—who had by now spent nearly a third of her life here—maybe there wasn't another option…

It was just one trickle of doubt Randall had to the many that seemed to flood his head. He couldn't do anything about it if Tani decided she didn't want to risk going back, but what would he do then? He didn't want to stay here. He knew he would never forgive himself if he left her here either. And even if they did find a way back to the monster world together, he then had to worry about getting caught by the CDA or the even more likely scenario of Tani finding out everything. She had hated him for becoming a ROR: What would she think of him for turning into a wanted criminal?

Clouds shifted across the sky, dotting out the moonlight and casting the van into an even deeper gloom. He took a long, deep breath. It's not like either of us could go back right now anyway… He reminded himself. They would need time to set up a plan. He needed to lay low for a while, at least until the heat of things blew over. If it came to it, he could pass off his injuries being worse than they actually were and delay things further. He just needed to take things one step at a time.

Step one was, of course, forming the plan itself. He needed to fully convince Tani that they could escape back home and to somewhere safe without a flaw. They'd need to find a working door to get through and stake things out to make sure that the both of them could slip inside whatever factory they entered without getting caught; as they had talked about, sneaking on and off of a working scare floor would be far from easy. After that, then…

Then we'll see what happens next, he grimaced. Once they were in the monster world, he'd need to find out what happened to Sullivan and Wazowski. If Waternoose had taken them down, then no one would know about their plot. If Waternoose failed though, then chances were that his and the chairman's names were blasted across every paper and news show in Monstropolis—and it wouldn't shock him if the arachnid tossed him under the bus at that point either. If that happened, it would make things much, much more complicated. Who knew: By the end of everything, he might still have to split away from Tani at some point—if only to keep her from learning the truth or because he couldn't face her with it.

Shoveling down the last of the greens—a hard crunch muffling through his teeth as he chewed apart what seemed to be a tough slice of a root—he urged his stiff body up, stretched, and crawled out of the van's back door. Even before his feet had touched the cold, wet earth, every part of him seemed to scream in rejection. A day lost without sleep, then the day following—beaten multiple times and on his legs for the entirety of it—and then today when he had slept for so long just to recover for the two days prior… His muscles were aching and stiff, and his skull began to throb again. Randall paused for a few seconds leaning against the door for support as he momentarily went blind while the blood rushed to his head.

He began to shout Tani's name, but quickly thought against it before he had uttered a sound. He was still paranoid about being spotted by any humans. He wasn't about to risk summoning any by being reckless. Looking across the mounds of garbage, he noted that they towered enough to cast heavy shadows across the otherwise flat strip of land: Strong, though deformed silhouettes against the thin moonlight—and in the distance a dim line of street lamps that could only be recognized by their pinkish glow. He didn't even know where to start looking. He just began to wander through the trash, careful not to step on anything: The last thing he wanted was to add a stabbed foot to the long list of injuries he already sported.

Luckily for him though, he didn't have to search very far. He froze in place at the sound of metal striking metal. Fear dissipated upon investigation when he turned the corner of one of the smaller piles of litter and squinted to see Tani standing over a fallen washing machine with a rusty, bent iron rod in her hands as an improvised crowbar. Again, she struck the edge of the washer with it, trying to pry away the plating.

"What are you doing?" he asked, curiosity winning over caution.

Only then did she notice him, her gaze snapping up as she huffed a soft breath. "You're awake," was all she replied to with at first. Dropping her arms to let them dangle beside her in a relaxed swing, she stretched her back and stood a little straighter. Just like he remembered it, her long, thin tail was curled around one of her thighs to keep it out of the way. "You know how humans always wear clothes?" she finally continued once she had caught her breath, "Not all of them remember to check their pockets."

"…And?" he pressed, shaking his head and folding his lower arms across his chest.

"And sometimes cash will slip into the washer," she swung the rod upward, using it to point to something at a far-off destination only she knew of. "Not like I can walk into the nearest supermarket, but it's still good if I want anything from a vending machine."

That worried him… "You go into the town?" Randall stepped over to her side.

"Only in the dark hours 'til dawn," she reassured him, leaning back down and bracing the rod once more in both hands. "There are a few bars, but usually not much of a 'nightlife' here. The town's not too big."

As she got back to work trying to crack open the machine, he watched her quietly for a moment before squatting down to take a closer look. It was flipped over on its front, but the garbage stacked under it gave him room to slip his fingers under and turn it the other way. He couldn't at first—not without help—but after a small, confused cry of protest from Tani and a gruff murmur in return from him the two reptiles were able to jointly roll the washer around until its front side was facing up with its cracked door.

He felt around until his fingers clutched the levers on either side of the washer's bottom panel. It still took a minute of wrestling from something being jammed inside, but he was able to remove it easily enough—a faintly echoed clang sounding off his success. Inside were a few socks, a dust-like filth, and a handful of bills and coins.

Tani knelt beside him and stared for a long moment at the find. "Well… thank you for making me feel like I wasted a bunch of time for about six of the past ten years…"

"You wear clothes," he fought off laughter, "I'd figure you would've known!"

"I never had that many!" she countered, "My family always just went down to the laundromat! Almost every monster just goes to the laundromat!"

It wasn't like she didn't have a point there. Clothes were pretty pointless to monsters overall, largely meant to cater to whatever taste of fashion suited them at the time or for intolerable weather. While machines like this were more commonplace in the human world, they were more of an unneeded household luxury in their own. Most towns still had at least one laundromat—MU's campus had one—but most people only really knew how to use a washer if they fooled with it often… or if they earned a habit of tinkering with whatever they could to pass the time like he did.

With an embarrassed pout, Tani began to gather the money and dump it into a small bag. His lips drawn back firmly to contain his humor, Randall helped her pick through the mess and clean off some of the filthier coins.

Midway through their task, she stopped. She sat up in thought—brows furrowed—blinked, then turned in place to stare at him with her arm resting on her knee. It took him a second to notice her change in demeanor, and when he did she only continued to stare. "What?"

"I just realized," she said, "we've never really bonded over anything normal, have we?"

The statement caught him off-guard. So much so that he fell into a momentary lapse of silence before finally erupting into the fit of laughter he'd been trying to contain. When she snorted and began to laugh with him, he only laughed harder. The feeling was so foreign to him… foreign, yet nostalgic. Thrilling, but also painful. He laughed because she was kind of right, and because it was so amazing to hear something so unexpected and off-the-cuff like that—so just like her.

"No," he snickered when he could finally get a word in, "No, I guess not…" Sure, they had studied, ate meals, and gone to games together, but that was just regular college stuff that had done mostly with their friends or when they were each busy thinking about other stuff—or they would often add some spin that kept things abnormal. Beyond that, their first meeting hadn't been normal. Their times alone together usually hadn't been normal. Even the days spent studying with Mike or later preparing for the Scare Games weren't exactly normal. And to this day, nothing about either of them had stayed very normal at all.

Randall wiped at his face only for his hand to pull away wet. He still couldn't stop himself from laughing, but he hardened his gaze at his fingertips as he brushed them together—as though not fully understanding why they felt so slick at first. He laughed some more, and as his eyes clouded over he wiped at them again only for his hands to draw back even wetter than before. He felt like he couldn't breathe and that something squeezed tightly at his chest. He didn't know why…

Seeing this, Tani stopped laughing. However, not knowing what was wrong, she could only watch him in silence. He stared back at her, and suddenly felt the urge to take her hand in one of his own. He held it like a lifeline until the last few chuckles slipped past his lips.

Then the both of them fell quiet, catching their breath. The only thing either of them knew to do was to let the moment pass. The silence was a blessing. Randall's feelings came and soon enough went, until finally he could wipe at his face again and his hands come back dry. A part of him felt empty after that, but in a sense that came with relief—like he had shed some huge burden that had clung to his back and weighed him down to the point of drowning. It was only one burden of many, but for right then, it was enough. It made him feel tired all over again…

But, of course, the moment couldn't last. As if the universe itself intended to sever the calm, a car alarm began to blare off in the distance. It wasn't close enough to make them worry, but it was enough to startle them. Both reptilians looked off in the direction of the noise before Tani's eyes flickered back at him and she offered him a faint smile. "Come on," she gave a pointed nod upward before rising to her feet, gently tugging at him to follow her, "Let me show you something."

He obeyed, allowing her to drag him off wherever she wanted. The pair shambled over to one of the much larger piles of garbage and began to climb it, feet finding strange platforms of squishy plastic bags, fragile cardboard, broken sheets of plywood, and other miscellaneous things. She pulled him all the way to its crest. It wasn't much of a sight—there was a tall, plank-lined fence with barbed wire marking the distant perimeter of the dump, and beyond that concrete buildings covered only by the bare minimum growth of trees that separated the swamp from the town—but it cut away the feeling of isolation their previous surroundings gave. Randall couldn't tell how many cars there were, but he could see the flashing lights of the one that's alarm had gone off. A dog had begun barking, and another two somewhere even further away followed suit. Even after someone eventually woke up to the noise and shut the car off, things didn't fully return to their previous calm for some time.

Tani stared at it all with a kind of tragic fondness. She had been right: It wasn't a very big town, not at least by what they could see from where they were anyway. None of the scattered buildings seemed higher than two stories and nothing lit the night besides the streetlights and the occasional passing vehicle. There didn't even seem to be a gas station too close by.

It must've been a bit of a walk to reach anything worthwhile in town from the dump. It brought back some of Randall's concerns and made him wonder if getting home would be even harder than he had initially thought. "Is there a daycare anywhere close?" he asked. They could likely break into one easily enough after closing hours and they could study the kids there to see if any of them had Scarers—given their ages, there could be a wealth of kids that did.

She hummed to herself in thought, "I don't know… I don't think I've seen one, but there is a school."

Given how likely the place would have security cameras it would be harder to scout out without getting caught, but it would have to do. Hopefully, he could just slip inside a classroom through a window in order to investigate. Little kids had a habit of drawing out anything they felt or saw: Plenty of monsters found brutish drawings of themselves on their assigned children's walls. Any kind of clue like that would be perfect. It was either that or staking out individual houses for the off chance they'd get lucky and find a Scarer.

"This weekend, let's check it out," he said. He hated even delaying things that much, but it gave time he needed to heal and for the worst of things to settle down in the monster world. "We'll be less likely to run into any humans if we wait until then."

Tani looked at him, uncertain. "You're still confident that we can make it back home in one piece, aren't you?"

"And where's your confidence?" Randall challenged, "You can't tell me that 'loud and proud' Tani Hartbrooke would give up on something this important." He played her game a bit, like how they used to. A friendly duel of words had always been good bait against her. "You want some 'normal' bonding experience? When we get back, one of the first things we'll do is go see a movie. Would that be normal enough for you?"

It worked. It barely took a second's consideration before a spark lit up in her face and she smiled, "Only if you're getting the snacks, sweetfangs." She cuffed him in the arm, a hand on her hip. "Just none of those human horror flicks for any cheap scares… I think I've already had my fill as it is."