I woke up late that morning with a knot in my stomach. I decided instantly that I wasn't going to have breakfast.

I walked down the stairs softly, and turned to the kitchen like I had yesterday morning. Today, it was Preston and Nooch instead of Choco and Nooch.

"Hey," I said, rubbing one of my eyes with the back of my hand.

"Mornin' Petey," Nooch said. He was reading something - several pieces of paper. "Hey, can I take this one?" He shoved one of the papers towards Preston.

"No," Preston said, upon glancing at the writing on the paper. "Choco already requested it."

"Aww, shit," Nooch complained.

"Am I out of the loop on something here?" I asked, sitting beside Nooch at the table and glancing at the papers. On the papers were names, locations, and occupations - all relating to one another.

"Probably," Nooch said.

"Yeah," Preston affirmed. "We got a fresh packet of contracts this morning, as well as twenty-five thousand dollars."

"Whoa," I said, my eyes widening. "Those are contracts? You're...you're gonna kill all of those people?"

"Yep," Preston said, sighing. He grabbed the contracts from Nooch's hands and began looking them over. "The boss is gonna want this one for sure, but I can take the rest."

"What about me?" I asked.

"Choco's taking you with him," Nooch explained. "I, however, get none, despite being a fully-fledged member of Five Seasons..."

"You actually want to go out and assassinate people?"

"I have been in that basement for god knows how long. I need somethin' to do, y'know?"

I sighed. I wanted to rub my eyes in exasperation, but I couldn't move my fingers.

"Okay, anyway," I began, "I need to talk to Nooch. Upstairs. Alone."

I eyed Preston, not trusting him.

Nooch's eyes dimmed. "Okay..."

~~~

Nooch followed me upstairs and to my room. I sat on the bed while he stood awkwardly in the doorframe.

"So," I said, clapping my hands together lightly. "Ow. I shouldn't have done that."

"What's up, Petey?" Nooch asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh, yeah," I said nervously. "Listen, I was talking to Choco, and he...he told me about how the government found you, and stuff..."

"Oh, yeah, that," Nooch replied calmly. "What about it?"

"He's going to shut you down again."

Nooch paused.

"How do those two things have any correlation to each other?"

I blinked, dumbfounded. "You mean...they didn't tell you..."

"Didn't tell me what?" Nooch raised his voice.

"They never told you why you were shut down?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"No," Nooch said, as if it was obvious. "They won't even tell me about my damn socks, what makes you think they'd trust me with info as important as that?"

I sighed. "In that case, I don't know if I'm supposed to be talking to you about this."

"Why?" Nooch asked seriously, stepping towards me in one long stride. "What were you going to tell me?"

"I just...I don't think I can..."

He stepped closer, grabbing onto my shoulders. "You trust me, don't you?" He said, his eyes flashing bright blue. I shut my eyes tight. His statement felt like a stab to the gut; I wasn't actually sure I could trust him anymore.

"I..." I began, slowly opening my eyes to meet his blindingly bright ones. "I'm not sure."

His eyes dimmed, and he let his hands fall to his sides. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked. His tone was that of a child's and I suddenly felt very sorry for him.

He didn't know he'd done anything wrong. He didn't know he was sending info to the government. He was completely innocent.

"You didn't do anything wrong consciously," I began to explain, "I'm gonna sound a little crazy, but hear me out, alright? Those times you were found by the government? It was your fault."

"MY fault?!" Nooch exclaimed.

"I know you didn't do it on purpose," I said, holding up my hands in defense. "But you still sent information to the government, and you are still sending info to the government right now, so we have to shut you down."

"Why haven't they caught us yet, then?" Nooch asked. "We went running all around the city. Surely they would have found us."

"I don't know."

Nooch put his head in his hands. "Sorry. This is a lot to take in."

"Yeah, I get it," I replied. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be...don't be...It's not your fault."

And then, he did something that surprised me. He leaned down and hugged me.

I didn't return the embrace because I was surprised, and it was over almost as soon as it began, but I was grateful for it.

"Also," Nooch said, "about yesterday. I...I wasn't being too weird, was I? About wanting to kiss you and all that."

"Nah, you're good," I replied with a laugh.

"Heh, you're blushing again," Nooch remarked.

"Your face is blushing again!" I replied in a silly voice.

"I'm a robot, I don't have blood, therefore I can't blush."

"Touche."

From the general direction of the door, someone cleared their throat. Someone who was very obviously Choco.

"Ah-hem," he said, "I don't mean to interrupt anything, but I have multiple things to do that involve Petey."

"Oh, yeah," I said, looking past Nooch and towards Choco, who was leaning lazily on the doorframe. "Aren't you taking me out to assassinate someone today?"

"Yeah, I sure am," Choco said, slightly exaggerated. "Also, him." Choco pointed at Nooch. I looked sadly up at the robot.

"I guess this is goodbye?" I told him.

"You don't know that," Nooch said, making one of his eyes go dark so it looked like he was winking. "Maybe I'll see you again. Someday."

~~~

The next chapter is incredibly important. That is all.

Ciao!