Ying woke himself up quite early that morning. The sun was just peeking out from behind the horizon, and the sky was full of rain. He stayed in bed for a little while thinking. What were his next steps? First of all, he should fix Adrian. That was step number one. Second, he needed to make a permanent source of food, perhaps a garden of some sort. He also needed to find some hobbies. The apocalypse was kind of a drag. After about 10 minutes of pondering his options, he finally dragged himself out of bed and prepared the lab for surgery.
Adrian was having a lovely dream about being a famous actor until he was jolted awake by a whisper in his ear.
"Adrian." The voice said.
"JESUS FUCK!" Adrian cried, jumping out of bed.
"Oh, sorry!" Francis said. "I was-"
"You have no fuckin clue how to wake someone up!" Adrian said angrily. "What?"
Francis sighed. "Ying sent for you. He says "meet him in the robotics room"."
Adrian put his hands over his face and sighed. "Thank god. 'Bout time he fixed me. After he does, we ditch. Got it? We steal some shit and get the fuck outta dodge."
Francis glared, staring deep into Adrian's eyes. Adrian looked puzzled and stared back. Then he figured out what he was doing.
"Nooooo, don't you do that shit. Put that look away, it ain't gonna work." Adrian said as the staring contest continued.
After a few more seconds, Adrian began stuttering. "I'm not- that wont- you listen to me, we need to get out before- CAN YOU QUIT IT WITH THAT!?"
Francis narrowed his eyes even further and Adrian gave a defeated sigh.
"Fine. We'll owe one favor to him before we split."
Francis pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Thank you!"
Francis hugged Adrian, who gave him an awkward pat on the head. Adrian slipped out of the hug after a few seconds.
"I'll be back after the tune up. Don't wait up." He said as he walked out.
As Adrian walked into the robotics center he noticed that Ying was standing by one of the many tables. Lots of medical equipment had been set up, and there was a pile of spare metal parts on a nearby table.
"Good, you're here. Just in time." Ying said as he finished putting on a latex glove.
Adrian looked at all the supplies in confusion. "This is a lot more stuff than when we were kids. Why all the new shit?"
Ying brought Adrian over to the table and laid him down. "Because. We were stupid as kids, and now we're not. This is the proper amount of equipment."
Adrian was just about to comment when he felt a needle go into his arm. "Ow! Fuck! Why don't you ever warn me with shit!?"
Ying smirked a bit and began to put Adrian to sleep.
"You fuckin… you… wow… that's some strong shit… damn…" Adrian's eyelids turned to lead and his body felt like jelly, and then he was out.
Adrian woke up some time later, still groggy.
"Mmmmm gmerning…" he mumbled.
His eyes tried their best to focus, and his ears began to pick up sounds again. After refocusing for a bit, he saw 2 faces hovering above him.
"Morning sleepy head." Francis said with a smile.
"Heyyyyyy youuuuu… funny man… why are you so skinny…"
Ying chuckled a bit and began recording with a large camera. "I am gonna rub your face in this later."
"Ohhhh heyyyy!…" Adrian said turning to Ying. "whys your hair a oreo?…"
Francis began laughing hysterically. "This is amazing! Can we do this all the time!?"
Adrian gave a pouty face. "Hey is!… is not funny! Don' laugh! If his heads a oreo how will he… wait, can I eat you?…"
Francis began to giggle to himself a little, hiding his laughter from Adrian the best he could.
"This is amazing!" He whispered to Ying. "I wish we could do this all the time."
Ying nodded in reluctant agreement. This was indeed quite entertaining. "The best part is? I didn't even do anything to fix him. I just put him under so he'd think I did."
Francis kept laughing for a moment. "That's pretty funny, heheh." Until he began to become slightly confused. "…Wait what?"
Ying put a hand on Francis's shoulder. He couldn't risk Francis telling Adrian that he was bluffing before, and the only reason Adrian wasn't able to produce any flames is because his fire tubes had gotten gunked up.
"Don't think too much about it, its nothing." Ying said nonchalantly.
Francis seemed to be wondering whether or not he should ask more questions. "Oh, uh…" Eventually, he decided to trust Ying. Why wouldn't he? His cheerful attitude quickly returned. "If you say so!"
After a good hour of Adrian being completely out of it, he finally began to come back to reality. Ying wasted no time in showing Adrian the video, and Adrian immediately went red with embarrassment.
"This is bullshit." He said, crossing his arms as Francis and Adrian laughed at the video. "Oh yeah make fun of me at my weakest moment, sure. That's fine."
Francis stopped laughing and got really quiet. Ying groaned.
"Ughhhh can you not emotionally manipulate us for like 2 minutes? This is funny shit and I am not going to be made to feel bad about it. It may work with him, but I'm smarter than that."
Adrian gave Ying an annoyed look. "Fine. Whatever. Laugh it up. One of you get me a drink, something bubbly."
Francis immediately got up to go fetch the drink, but Ying grabbed his arm.
"Ah ah ah, what's the magic word?" Ying said firmly.
Adrian growled. "I ain't askin' you, hobbit." He looked at Francis smugly.
Francis once again turned around to get the drink, but Ying held him firm.
"One more chance." Ying said in an authoritative tone.
Adrian took this opportunity to lick his hand and lightly slap Ying. Ying looked taken aback for a moment, and Adrian began to laugh.
"There's your magic word, dumbas! Ahahahaha!-"
Ying grabbed a hold of Adrian's shoulder and teleported him back to his bed.
Ying sat on Adrian's bedside and sighed. "Here's the deal. We're gonna leave you here, aaaaand you can wait a couple hours while we consider whether or not to help you. Got it?"
Adrian's smug look turned to confusion and worry. "Woah woah waoh- hold on you cant just leave me here, you said I could reopen my wound if-"
"I did say that, didn't I? Best not to move." Ying said with a smile.
Francis was standing in the corner avoiding Adrian's gaze.
"You little fuckin traitor…" Adrian mumbled.
With that, Ying left the room and took Francis with him. Ying led Francis to the director's room and sat down at the desk. He motioned for Francis to sit across from him, and Francis quickly obliged.
"Alright, listen." Ying said, crossing his arms. "We're a team for now. We gotta work smart if we're gonna survive, and that means playing to our strengths. Me, I'm the brains. I got the knowhow to keep us all alive. Adrian is the crazy brawns. He deals with big obstacles. We both bring something to the table, so what are you good at?"
Francis sat there in silence for a good 10 seconds.
"Well?" Ying said, impatiently.
Francis looked defeated. "I'm not sure…" His voice got softer and less certain the more he spoke. "I was a fast food worker before the apocalypse and I didnt have many hobbies, I don't really have anything I'm good at…"
Ying sighed. "Well, think. What are some problems you're good at solving? What situations are better with you in them?"
Francis thought hard for a moment… Then suddenly his face lit up.
"I'm good at calming people down! You saw me de-escalate those fights with you and Adrian, I'm good at making people be friends!"
Ying nodded approvingly. "You did manage to break us up, I'll admit that was quite impressive. Alright, you'll be our primary diplomat from here on. We don't really have any social issues right now besides me and Adrian's squabbling, so for now I'll assign you to look after Sunflower and her chicks, as well as cleaning and maintaining the base. Does that sound good to you?"
Francis nodded his head excitedly. "I was always a pretty neat person, I think I can handle that!"
Ying raised an eyebrow. "You're an excitable little man, aren't you?"
Francis kept nodding and smiling. Ying found it strange, but he let it go. Francis quickly hurried off to begin his new chores. Ying spent the rest of the day planning and scheduling different events.
"Ok… 8 AM, wake up. Give at least 15 minutes to fully wake up. 8:15, morning routine. Brush teeth, use the restroom, wash hands and face, get dressed. 8:30, make breakfast. 9:00 - 11, free time. 11:00 - 12:00, exercise. 12:00 - 3:00, scavenge in the city for useful materials/items. 3:30, cook lunch/dinner. 4:30 - 6:30, throw together useful technology/gadgets. 6:30 - 10:00, free time. 10:00, go to sleep."
He kept mumbling himself until he remembered something.
"Oh my god, we left Adrian unattended! No doubt hes fucked something up by now… shit!" Ying said as he hastily teleported downstairs.
When he got there he was relieved at first. The building seemed to be intact. But when his eyes fell on Adrian's bed, he was far less relieved. Adrian was under the covers up to his neck, breathing heavily and sweating buckets. Ying felt a deep wave of concern wash over him for a moment… before it changed and turned into cold distaste. He walked over to Adrian's bedside.
He began by ripping the covers off of Adrian, expecting a stern reaction and perhaps a punch of some kind. Instead, he simply laid there with his eyes tight shut, gasping. Now Ying knew something was wrong.
"Adrian, I need you to tell me what's wrong." Ying said calmly.
Adrian groaned. "Everything hurrrrrts…"
"What specifically? Your stomach? Your head?" Ying continued to list possible locations for pain.
"Everything!…" Adrian insisted. "My head, my chest, my lungs, my throat, my stomach, everything!"
Ying thought hard to himself. This all lined up pretty well with the surgery.
"Unfortunately you're just going to have to bear with it for a while. These are all related to the surgery and will clear up soon enough. I had to replace some things and get a bit invasive, your body probably isn't happy with me."
"Waterrrrr…" Adrian croaked.
Ying sighed and teleported to the "kitchen". They had repurposed the chemistry room to function as a kitchen due to the electric stoves mounted in each desk. Ying got some water from one of the taps, and brought it back to Adrian. Adrian sat up with effort and chugged the entire cup.
"Gaaah that's so much better." He breathed as he laid back down.
It was quite late in the day now, around 9 at night.
"I'm gonna have Francis come take care of you for the night, okay?" Ying said as he threw the covers over Adrian. Adrian gave a muffled "uh huh" and rolled over. Ying left and found Francis, and sent him off to take care of Adrian.
Francis seemed horrified when Ying told him. "I had no idea he was that bad! I'll go help him right away!" And off he went.
Ying went up to his room and got ready for bed. The day had surely been strange and he needed some rest. He hopped in the covers and began to fall asleep. His mind drifted back to Kadie and he wondered if she might still be out there. These simpletons wouldn't do for long term companions, he needed someone on his level. He hoped he'd find her somewhere, alive and well… waiting for him to find her. He swore to himself that he'd do everything in his power to rescue her if she was out there. And with that, he fell asleep.