#it atticus

No matter how much he still wished to go home, Red Son couldn't deny that he was starting to appreciate the odd beauty that was the Train.

Some cars were embarrassing to solve the riddles of, or emotionally complex in ways he wished he could avoid, but even the stranger ones had a strange sort of allure to them. At least in Red Son's opinion they did.

He was currently taking a breather in a car that was constantly nighttime. The constellations danced above him as the stars whispered conversations so low they almost sounded like the wind if he stopped trying to pick out the words, the grassy knoll he laid atop of was that perfect temperature of a summer night; OneOne curled into one side, Atticus against the other, and he didn't even need his jacket to keep comfortable right now, so it was bundled up and used as a makeshift pillow against his head. Back home he hated the feeling of grass on his arms, it was scratchy and prickly and made him feel as though he were about to rub his skin raw, but here it was soft, and gentle. Dewy from the eternal night but without leaving him uncomfortably moist.

He'd been just about to drift off to sleep when the cold nose of his canine companion pressed up to the underside of his jaw.

Red Son yelped in surprise and as his body unconsciously squirmed away from the sensation OneOne rolled off of him and down the hill, completely undisturbed from his own rest.

“Oh, Apologies my friend. I didn't mean to startle you.” Red Son reached up and rubbed at the sudden cold spot on his neck as Atticus's quiet apology broke through the night.

“It's uh, it's alright, my neck is sensitive.” he sat up then, sleep suddenly startled right out of his system. “is there something wrong?”

“No, I suppose not.” Atticus sighed and stood up himself, before trotting a little closer and placing his forepaws on Red Son's thigh, then laying down completely and resting his head there too. “I suppose the distance from my people is starting to weigh upon me.” Ah, he was homesick. That made sense. Nowadays there weren't days that went by where he didn't long for something as simple as the smell of his workshop with several projects ready to be filled out, Or his friend's cheerful laughter over something trivial and pointless, undeterred by how stupid he thought it was.

“Did you want to head home then? If you want to double back I probably know enough about the train order at this point to be able to teleport you to your car.” Atticus chuckled and nuzzled his head into Red Son's leg further.

“No, I couldn't abandon you and Sir OneOne so close to our goal. Just recently your number reached only two digits! I would see this through till the end, I simply worry over my kingdom as the journey continues.” He sighed and his ears began to droop. “I hope they are getting along without me, yet on some level I dread they begin to flourish and perhaps they would find themselves more prosperous without me.” Oh and didn't he know THAT feeling...

Red Son reached for Atticus and gently scratched the downy fur behind his ears, careful to not disturb his crown. “I suppose the best you can do is trust that no matter where they are Objectively, that they'll still want you to be there with them when you get home.” Atticus sighed.

“I suppose you're right.”

They sat in silence a little longer before Atticus spoke up again.

“Red Son, would you mind terrible in indulging an overgrown pup's curioscity and regale me one of your stories of home?” Atticus blinked up at him a shy sort of awkward glance at the request, and Red Son actually found himself suppressing a laugh.

“Sure. Have I told you about how I, Red Son, saved my city from becoming made into horrible spider zombies and took down the Spider Queen?...With assistance from the others of course...”

OneOne's voice piped up from the bottom of the hill. “Story!” and suddenly he had a corgi leaned against one leg and a robot leaned against the other.