Otto was shuffling down the long and winding corridors until he bumped into a certain robot's leg. Looking up, He was expecting to see XJ93's impassive face staring him down. But he got quite the opposite.
Larry's features softened at the sight of the boy wrapping his arms around his leg.
"Surprise, surprise," Larry cooed, playfully ruffling his hand through Otto's ginger hair.
"Not really," Otto said still holding on tight to Larry's leg. "It was so obvious you were gonna come home anyway."
Larry cocked an eyebrow. Was he REALLY that predictable?
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Tuddrussel could have sworn it was just one of those figments of his imagination when he saw Otto excitedly tugging a very familiar robot towards him. Smiling and screaming his
name."He's back, he's back! Look, Tuddrussel! Larry's back for good!"
And the robot was smiling at him too.
When Tuddrussel took his chances that his imagination wasn't letting him down, part of him was screaming to hug the guy till he died. But the larger part of him hammered and
drilled the words into his head; "Don't do it, big guy. 'Specially not with Otto looking. You're a man." Tuddrussel squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on his lip, listening to the voice in his head; "You're a man!"
Larry didn't want to have the first word. He waited in anticipation for the man whom he hadn't seen in weeks (who oddly looked as though he'd die if he didn't find a bathroom
within the next thirty seconds) to do something. Anything.
"You're a man," that little voice kept telling him. "You're a man!" "You're a man!" "You're a man!"
"YOU'RE A MAN!" Tuddrussel blurted out at, sending his spittle all over Larry's face before covering his hands over his mouth for what he had just let out.
Larry stiffened up, and his eyes shifted down to his own two feet. Shuffling, and his knees bent towards each other, he felt his system overheating. This was awkward.
"Well, y-yes, Tuddrussel... I well… I do realize I'm a m-man. Sort of... But... WHO CA-"
Larry was interrupted by XJ93, a.k.a Freakazoid, who appeared right beside Tuddrussel, both jumping at the sight.
"WHO the HELL is this?" Larry demanded.
Tuddrussel chuckled nervously."Oh him? Uh… Heh... This is uh... Haha... He's uh...uh… A friend of mine!..."
And almost immediately after, XJ93, having heard so much about this robot 'Larry', deliberately squeezed onto Tuddrussel's hand just to see what would happen.
"Oh MY!" Larry cried flabbergasted, right before slapping XJ93's glass helmet lickety-split where his vulnerable face should technically have been. XJ93 let go of Tuddrussel's hand only to be pushed, hauled and heaved by a robot of minimal mass all the way on to the time pad.
"And don't you dare let me catch you anywhere near this place again, you hear?" A very heated Larry told off, shaking his fist in the air.
KA-POW!
XJ93 was zapped into oblivion.
"Humph!" as Larry haughtily turned around to catch Tuddrussel having followed him very step of the way.
"What?" Larry cried defensively, hands on hips.
"You... Up for another game of *Twister*, tonight, Lar?"
Larry narrowed his eyes and a devilish grin spread across his face.
Realisation.
This was what he had been missing.
He was home.