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Brick was always careful around new people. Since moving in with their friend Gustavo, they’ve had to be on their toes now more than ever. They had agreed to help Gustavo out with him and his friend Peppino’s pizza joint, which on its own probably would have been fine. The rat quite enjoyed cleaning after them in the kitchen and occasionally in the actual restaurant, as long as there were no customers around. They were quite skittish, being a prey animal and all. It was helpful to avoid confrontations at times.
But this prey instinct was not helpful around a predator like Bruno, which Brick was beginning to realize.
They had no clue why Peppino and Gustavo decided to call that thing Bruno, or why they allowed it to live with them all. All it really seemed to do most days was breathe down Peppino’s neck and repeat whatever it was told in a strange, garbled manner. But if provoked enough, it would go into excited hysterics, usually gecko-climbing itself onto the walls and yelling while chasing around either a scared Brick or an absolutely petrified Peppino. It was like a crow in that way. Way too excitable around scared things, unsettlingly talented at mimicry, and endlessly curious about pizza.
That night Brick laid there at the edge of Gustavo's bed and thought some about Bruno. It seemed to be some sort of horrifically failed clone that had just enough of an advanced brain to not be considered an animal. Brick didn’t like how similar they were to each other in that regard.
The rat’s ears twitched. A squelching sound was heard from somewhere in the house, then a quiet gurgle. Bruno wasn’t usually up that late, was it? Maybe it hadn’t gotten enough of that seemingly endless nuclear energy out of its system yet.
But before Brick could disregard it and nuzzle into themself to sleep again, they had a thought. This time about Peppino.
Poor Peppino. Brick didn’t know what he was like before meeting him in the Pizzahead’s tower, but he would surely have been dead by now if he was always this neurotic. He acted like they were still in the tower, very touch-and-go and jumpy. Brick had managed to avoid startling him in any way until now, but they had seen what usually happened to those that did. He had quite the temper, even if he didn’t usually act completely out of anger.
Peppino was the least enthusiastic about letting Bruno live with them all, which was quite understandable. Who would ever want a weird clone of themselves creeping around in their restaurant thinking they were you? Bruno seemed to know that Peppino was uncomfortable, which is why Brick thought it harassed the pizzaman the most. It’d be a miracle to get through the day without hearing Peppino get his soul scared out of him by it. Then Gustavo would have to come in to get it out of the kitchen where it would be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Brick tried to assist Peppino with a Bruno incident once, but almost got caught up in the crossfire. The pizzaman had his clone down by its skull, where it viciously writhed around the tile floor to get out of Peppino’s grip, splattering bits of its weird goopy flesh around the kitchen. Brick did not want to risk that being them and had promptly skittered to get Gustavo to break them up. He had almost a magic touch with Peppino, he could calm him down from anything just by being there. Which was more than fortunate for a man as stressed out as Peppino.
But that was just the standard reaction to anything for Peppino it seemed, and Brick honestly couldn’t blame him. He felt quite bad for the pizzaman, even if he only cared because he was Gustavo’s friend.
The rat was once again broken out of their thoughts at the sounds of more wet footsteps, louder this time and coming from what seemed to be the direction of Peppino’s room. What was Bruno doing there?
Usually, Brick would hear Peppino pacing around for most of the night. He had pretty bad insomnia, it seemed, and more often than not he would wake up yelping from any short amount of sleep he got. But there were no anxious footsteps, just heavy gloppy ones.
Brick sat up from their sleeping rug, looking over the bed to see Gustavo sleeping soundly. He was quite a deep sleeper, thankfully. They silently slipped out of the room and into the short hallway lit by a soft night light from the bathroom. The door to Peppinos room was ajar, and Brick could sense movement from inside. They would be lying if they said they weren’t nervous to confront Bruno, but the warm yellow light from Peppino’s bedside lamp helped them feel better. For some reason he never slept without a light on.
Brick shakily peered inside the door, sticking close to the wall beside them. Their ears airplaned back, seeing a large, glistening shadow of an arm winding up towards where Peppino lay sleeping. Bruno seemed to be half melted into the carpeted floor, making an excited bubble sound with its mouth.
Brick had to be brave now. The rat thumped their naked tail against the floor in front of them, hoping to alert the clone without startling either it or Peppino.
No response. So Brick chirped once, quiet, but then louder and more frantic, while tentatively moving towards the wax-like figure. Bruno suddenly whipped its head back, staring into the rat’s anxious eyes.
It knew that they were scared. Its lopsided eyes unfocused as it drew itself up taller in defense, keeping its hand firmly on Peppino’s shoulder. The sleeping figure shifted slightly, shoulder twitching.
Brick frantically squeaked, trying to tell the clone to go away or just focus on them. But it started making noises instead.
“Pi…-no…”
Bruno repeated its garbled speech as Brick slowly stepped closer towards it, squeaking quieter now.
“Just leave him alone. He doesn’t want to see you, Bruno.”
Bruno couldn’t understand Brick, and Brick knew this. Their eyes darted over to where the clone’s hand was, now squeezing much harder. Peppino stirred. Oh no.
His head jerked upwards to meet Bruno’s melted gaze. He stayed completely still as Brick scurried over to stand on Peppino’s other side, still squeaking protectively to the clone. Peppino softly whimpered as Bruno’s hand tightened further, voice cracking slightly. Brick’s fur stood on end.
“EEAUOUOYAAOUUUUUGH!”
In an instant, Peppino screeched, clawing at the hand on his shoulder. This caused Brick to jump out of their skin and Bruno to yell back, latching its other hand onto Peppino’s face to pin him down onto his pillow.
On pure instinct, Brick lunged at Bruno full-force, sinking their long rodent teeth into its slimy arm. It yelled again, this time in pain, and retracted its arms back to itself. It knocked over the bedside lamp as it threw itself into the back corner, quickly melting into a dilapidated puddle of flesh on the floor.
Peppino screamed again, and in the now almost pitch black room Brick could see him fall backwards out of his bed.
The rat jumped off the bed, landing next to Peppino as he pushed himself back against the wall, hyperventilating and yelling with every breath. Brick, heart pounding, stared anxiously at him. He’s scared, what should they do? He would probably try and hurt Bruno or Brick themself if they didn’t do something.
Instincts took over, and Brick stuck their large head into Peppino’s lap. His whole body trembled violently, and as Brick looked up, their heart stopped when meeting his completely vacant stare. It was surprisingly distant and empty, contrary to the usual panicked, wild look they took on.
Bruno started to make a quiet growlish-screech from where he was on the other side of the room, causing Brick to shoot up with surprise from their place on the pizzaman’s lap. Peppino heard it too, screeching so loud it caused Brick to swing their head back around and lower their ears. He suddenly started repeatedly slamming the sides of his head, yelping something along the lines of ‘hands’ and ‘no’.
Brick squeaked at him in fear. “Stop it, stop it!” What was he doing? This wasn’t a usual Peppino reaction, they had no idea how to get him to stop hitting himself. They pushed their head into his lap again in vain. Brick wished Gustavo wasn’t such a heavy sleeper, and that they were better at helping Peppino out.
The rat continued chirping in distress as finally someone could be heard running down the hall. A wide-eyed Gustavo burst into the room to find Brick desperately burying themself into his friend. Brick continued to chirp and squeak as they moved to let Gustavo grab Peppino’s hands, who barely reacted at all to his friend’s presence.
“Peppino! PEPPINO!!”
Gustavo rarely ever made a sound at all, much less yell. But he called out Peppinos name over the terrified pizzaman’s cries, louder than Brick ever thought he could.
Finally, Peppino seemed to break out of his trance, lifting his wild eyes up to Gustavo.
“...The-the a-a-light. The light,” he managed to croak out before suddenly letting out a sharp sob, falling onto a shocked Gustavo. He was crying, suddenly and very hard.
Brick leapt over the bed to where Bruno’s flaccid, melted form sat shaking next to the knocked over lamp. Paws trembling, they quickly lifted the cloth covered lamp onto the night table and plugged it back into its outlet. Warm soft light filled the room again, causing Peppino to slightly quiet down.
Brick tentatively climbed back over the bed as Gustavo calmly wrapped himself around Peppino, careful to keep his large hands in the other’s. Gustavo, pointed ears bent down, looked anxiously at his rat friend as if to ask, “What happened here?!”
Brick explained as best they could in a few shaky chirps. Gustavo sighed and turned his attention back towards Peppino, who was now only whimpering slightly while still crying and trembling like a leaf. His friend murmured something to him, causing Peppino to bury himself further into Gustavo.
Brick was concerned and confused more than anything. Peppino had never cried before, even after every awful experience in that damn tower. It was simultaneously much calmer than usual and even more distressing than anything else they’ve seen before.
They laid flat on the carpet beside the shaking Peppino and Gustavo, who was gently rocking them both back and forth. It was almost like he was consoling a child. Gustavo mumbled what sounded like a question into Peppino’s ear again, causing him to suddenly yelp and sob harder.
“On-on the field… while… we were sleeping. I-a-ah…” Peppino tried to choke out an answer before being overtaken by a hiccup.
“I was too tired, an-and-a… auCH!” He sobbed again.
Gustavo gently rubbed his back, cooing to him to tell more. Tears streaming down his tired face, Peppino tried to speak again, but got cut off by a sudden twitch through his whole body.
He sobbed hard into Gustavo’s shoulder. “A-A- IT’S TOO MUCH!,” he yelled before shoving himself closer into his friend.
Jesus Christ. Brick drew further into themself, nose twitching, as Gustavo quickly tried to calm him down again. During a regular Peppino meltdown, he’d punch anything in front of him out of pure adrenaline and fear. Brick was well aware of why he reacted that way, as the pizzaman had tried explaining to them when they were all in the tower still. Vague words about his experiences at the military school he was sent to and his short time in army training, but he didn’t elaborate past just that.
But then Brick remembered something strange that they originally didn’t pay mind to, but it did seem to align with what was going on in front of them.
The last room in the whole tower was hellish, to say the least. Brick and Gustavo were stuck chasing after a hysteric Peppino through what seemed to be an active warzone, dodging bombs and bullets and land mines. They were the first to make it out with Gustavo as usual, followed by the janitor Gerome with the rescued Toppins. But Peppino didn’t immediately follow. Gerome called out for the pizzaman, yelling that the Toppins were all out. Peppino just stared out at the charred landscape wildly swinging his head around to look for something. Gerome had to be the one to run back in and drag Peppino out as he babbled about a left behind Toppin. Brick had nudged the little toppings forward to Peppino to show him that they were all accounted for, but he simply stared at the scared little beasts, breathing heavily.
It took Peppino longer than usual to recover from the stress of that room, which Brick understood in a way. What happened to him while in the army must have done numbers to the poor pizzaman to leave him in such a panicked state at the mere memories of it. It was long overdue for him to have a cry like this.
Brick didn’t want to keep staring at the sad sight in front of them, so they silently hopped back over the bed to see where Bruno was. It was still in its melted, bunched up position against the wall, and it jumped with a quiet “aucH!” when meeting Brick’s eyes.
They softly squeaked at it, trying to maybe make it feel less agitated after they attacked it like that. Brick felt pretty bad about doing that, they admitted. As much as they disliked this weirdo, it seemed like it hadn't meant to harm Peppino like that. It was basically an excitable toddler, if a toddler was a melted wax figure standing at about 6 feet tall.
Brick, against their better judgment, softly nudged at Bruno’s melted form with their nose. It quickly straightened out into its usual vaguely Peppino-shaped form in surprise. There was something wetter on their cheeks, almost like tears.
It lowered its head to meet with Brick’s, careful to keep eye contact. Brick noticed it flinch every time it heard a choked sob from Peppino on the other side of the bedroom. It really did feel bad, didn’t it… they really felt guilty for hurting it now.
So the rat nuzzled themself into Bruno’s hand lying limp next to itself, urging the clone to pet them. It was surprisingly warm, if not a little bit sticky, sort of like dough? Bruno, surprised, quietly garbled something in that weird half-English way of it. It began to softly stroke their fur with both of its hands and arms, gaze softening at Brick’s blissful half-closed eyes. Brick had to admit that they absolutely loved getting pet by soft hands, and Bruno was surprisingly very good at this.
Bruno continued to half-pet-half-hug the large rodent as Peppino’s sobs slowly came to mere sniffles and mumbles between him and Gustavo. Brick felt something else warm and heavy on their body suddenly. They opened their eyes and looked back to see Bruno, sweetly sleeping on Brick’s furry back with its arms wrapped around their midsection. Nose twitching, Brick curled around the clone’s doughy body to fall asleep too. Maybe Bruno wasn’t so bad after all.