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She came too like climbing up from deep water.
“Mom? Mom?”
“Easy, little one, she will be awake in a few more moments. Do not panic.”
“B-But she…”
“I know, Bdubs, I know. Hey, you wanna check out the plans I’m working on? Maybe you can give me some tips!”
“Could I?”
“For sure.”
Cleo listened to the conversations going on around them for a few seconds as she sorted out their current state.
It had really been ridiculous to trust them outright.
But Bdubs deserves more out of me than this.
To have the little boy taking care of them for all these years…knowing he was putting himself in danger for them.
It was really a wild thing, to have so fully embraced the fact that she was Bdubs’ mother. It had been years already, since they’d first met in that trash heap, and Bdubs had saved their life.
She’d sworn to protect him next time.
Yet with this awful mess of a leg, I never could.
It was pure frustration. Maybe that was why she was willing to throw caution to the wind and trust the towering creeper mutant whom Bdubs had dragged back with him today?
Slowly, the zombie mutant creaked their eyes open.
“MOM!”
She turned their head to see Bdubs shooting up from where he was sitting crisscross on the floor with Etho, who was apparently Doc’s boyfriend. They’d been introduced after they’d arrived at the couple's bunker, concealed behind several redstone traps and safety doors and filled to the brim with scavenged materials.
Cleo squinted their mismatched eyes slightly when they recognized that Bdubs hair and eyes had gone to his nighttime colors. Glowing silvery eyes fixed onto them as he scrambled toward her.
Doc easily caught him around the waist with one arm.
“Give them a moment, little one.” Doc recommended gently.
Cleo blinked again, and their vision finally cleared up.
Slowly, she sat up, and Etho hurried over, fluffy fox tail swaying behind him. He reached out to offer his paw-like hands.
“Easy there.” He said, and Cleo wasn’t sure why it was so easy to take his hand.
Yet take it she did. She squeezed against his palm, paw-pads squishy under their fingertips, as an ache spread up from the place where augments and redstone tech fused with flesh and blood.
Doc seemed to see the discomfort on their face.
“It will ache for a few hours. That is an unfortunate side effect.”
Cleo let out a short sharp breath.
“Mom! How’s-uh, how’re ya feeling?” Bdubs asked, having stopped writhing around against Doc’s arm, now dangling from where the creeper mutant still had him around the waist.
Cleo nodded stiffly. “I-I’m feeling it…which is already an upgrade, to be fair.”
Etho helped them swing their legs over the edge of the metal table. A clank rang through the caves as the shorter leg tipped it forward slightly.
Doc finally set Bdubs down again. “Do not jump on…hey!”
Completely ignoring him, Bdubs shot forward like a rocket and leapt into Cleo’s arms, flinging his arms around their neck and hugging tight.
“Mom!”
It was a strange thing.
Cleo had known Bdubs since he was seven…ish. To be fair, they weren’t sure exactly how old he was. It had been four years, and Bdubs hadn’t grown much. Yet Cleo had taken into their heart this precious little light as their own son. That? That, she meant with every fiber of their being.
So it was a strange.
Strange, beloved thing.
Instead of being knocked backward onto the table again by Bdubs weight, she pushed forward, bracing their legs and catching his weight, lifting him clean off the ground.
“Oh, stars, you’re heavy!”
He wasn’t nearly heavy enough for his age.
Forget that.
Strange thing.
Strange beloved thing.
Cleo felt tears stinging in the corners of their eyes as she wrapped her arms tighter around Bdubs middle, hugged him closely as she possibly could, his scrawny legs kicked a moment before they encircled their waist. He dug his heels in a bit against their lower back, but Cleo didn’t mind.
How could she possibly mind?
This was the first time she’d ever been able to properly hold their son, after all.
“Mom! Your leg! It’s n-not…no pain?” His voice was quaking against their ear.
Cleo clenched their stitched together fingers against his oversized shirt. One hand slid up his back to card against his messy mop of silver hair faintly glowing, tucking his head against their shoulder.
“Aches, darling. That’s all.” She whispered.
Another few moments of quiet went by.
Cleo felt the gentle whir of redstone within their augmented leg. It ached, to be certain, but it was nothing like the agony the thing had inflicted upon them on the daily before it had finally run it of redstone power.
Doc had replaced that power, and he’d also reworked the leg. It must’ve taken hours, considering Bdubs was in his night form.
Yet it had worked.
It ached, but it wasn’t crippling. She could carry Bdubs’ weight. If Doc’s were right, in a few hours, she wouldn’t even have that ache.
I can take care of him.
She let out a breath, tried to ensure it wasn’t to shaky, not wanting to worry the boy she still clasped so tightly in their arms.
Mismatched eyes looked past Bdubs shoulder into Doc’s face. Half augment, half green skin, grafting scars and yet…it was a kind face.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. I am happy to have helped, I know the feeling of being tossed away…like a malfunction.”
“Y-yeah! Thanks! Thanks for helping my Mom!” Bdubs twisted to look back at Doc, he loosened his legs wrapped around Cleo’s waist, as if expecting to be set down.
Cleo didn’t set him down.
Bdubs didn’t seem at all averse to that, just tightened his legs once more around their waist so Cleo could continue to support his weight.
“You are most welcome, little one.”
“Hey, since you’re here…why not stick around awhile?” Etho suggested from where he was leaning against the wobbly metal table.
“Can we!?” Bdubs asked, sounding elated, and Cleo frowned.
“Why would you want that?”
“We’re…working on something. And the more the merrier.”
Cleo narrowed their mismatched eyes onto them.
“Something like what?”
Doc and Etho glanced at each other guiltily, and Cleo let out a long sigh. She looked around the bunker. From the cracked screen displaying various schematics to the scattered papers, hand drawn maps and other such things, she could piece together what was going on.
These two were far too skilled to be up to anything less.
“It is something perhaps best explained…without concerning the little one,” Doc said awkwardly, and Bdubs made a horribly affronted gasp.
“Wha!? I-I’m not that little! M’big and strong! I’ve been takin’ care of me and Mom for years now!” Bdubs began shouting furiously, and Cleo brushed their fingers through his hair a few times, where they were still carded, to settle him down.
“Shh, I know, Bdubs; we know you’re very tough indeed.”
“Then I wanna know what’s up!”
“I promise I’ll explain it to you once they tell me, alright?”
“Lemme listen too!”
Cleo could tell he wasn’t budging, and so she switched gears.
“Bdubs, it might be…well y’see, I’ll bet it’s a terribly long story with lots of boring parts you might wanna skip over, so what say you if I just hear the whole thing, and I’ll make sure to tell you all the neat important bits?”
She saw his silvery eyes light up brightly. “You’d do that?”
“Of course.”
“M’kay! That seems fair!”
Cleo had to resist the urge to chuckle at how fast the little glare mutant changed his tune, as she finally stooped to reunite his feet with the ground.
“Here, Bdubs, why don’t we keep working on that plan we were doing? Doc and your Mom can chat across the way.” Etho seemed to pick up what was going on and stepped in. Bdubs seemed positively giddy at the opportunity to monopolize more of the fox hybrids' attention, and any concern he might’ve had about hearing what was going on vanished.
Cleo walked toward the other side of the bunker with Doc.
Walked.
No need for their pipe-turned-cane, no folded augment in a bedsheet dangling beneath them like a dead weight…just…walked.
And as she prepared to listen to what she was sure was going to be an absolutely ludicrous plan, it was terrifying and easy all rolled together.
Maybe they could make things better…they made me better. And Bdubs seems to like them alright…as long as I can take care of him, I’m just fine.