#mr. chips

Some people assume

this is Mr. Chips from Schoolhouse Rock

TROPES:

androgynous, angst (Hardware), distinctive voice, (possibly) glowing neon, intelligence, non-human, object head, retro, robot, short

The grave is, conveniently for them, behind Mike’s house in an area that gets shady when the sun's at its highest. It's marked by a sturdy, makeshift cross, which initially had been stuck there in the drying dirt by Mike's grandpa, back when he understood a bit more why Mike gets sad over dead animals.

Eddie always places a freshly picked dandelion stem on top of the grave, one that’s already had a wish stolen from it. And Mike, as they lean back on their elbows to watch the clouds and point out birds that they think Stan would know the names of (all of them - they point out all the birds), always softly pats the ground above Mr. Chips and tells him a quiet hello.

Eddie never got to meet Mr. Chips, but he hears that he was the best dog ever, before Bowers got to him. He believes it, too.

They talk about a future that they think they’d like, sometimes for themselves and sometimes for each other, just to dream a little. Mike knows exactly what he wants, and it smells like oranges and reads like odd stories in the news. He tells it to Eddie with the widest grin. If anything, the way he laughs and speaks and smiles is so sincere that it makes Eddie want to give it all to him, the whole life, immediately and in any way that he can.

But Eddie knows he can't. Not when, as it appears one day, there's a gleam in Mike’s eyes that accompanies his laughter, and it’s scared and filled with inexperienced regret, like he already knows something won't be right. Eddie doesn’t ask, mostly because Mike looks like he doesn’t have an answer yet. He reaches for Mike's hand anyway, and he locks their pinkies gently together. Eddie thinks this moment, right here, might be a promise he’ll break by accident.

He tries to say, I hope I don’t. I hope I don’t break it.