The next morning Mangle woke up to bat wings tickling their face. “Come on, Doc! Wake up!”
Mangle groaned and sat up. “What time is it?” they mumbled.
It shrugged. “I dunno. I can’t read yet.”
Mangle looked at their phone. 7:15. “You wake up from my alarm, sweetheart?”
It nodded. “It was loud, but not loud enough to wake you up. So I turned it off ‘cause it hurt my ears and decided to wake you up myself.”
“Thoughtful of you,” Mangle said. “I have to change into my day clothes. Can you wait for me in my office?”
“Why?”
“Because I have to change and I don’t want you in here.”
“Why?”
Mangle blushed. “Because changing is something I typically do in private.”
“You change me,” It shrugged.
“If I don’t change you your head winds up going through your arm hole. And you can’t work a zipper.”
“But you change me, and we’re not in private.”
“Oh. That’s what you meant. Your room is private, to an extent. If the door is closed and I’m in there the only reason someone would come in is to talk to me or to bring lunch, and I’ve started bringing you your lunch as well as getting mine. Privacy is when not everyone walking down the hall can see what you’re doing.”
“Oh, is that why there’s a door on the bathroom?”
Mangle laughed. “Yes, It, that’s why there’s a door on the bathroom.”
It grinned. “That makes so much sense now! I’ll wait for you outside.”
Mangle changed, chuckling to themself the entire time. It’s energy was very infectious. They walked out to see It sitting at their desk, looking at all the paperwork. “What’s this say?” It asked.
“Oh, it’s just boring paperwork about how your wings work and things like that. You wouldn’t want to read it.”
“I want to read,” It said.
Mangle nodded. “Okay. We can work on that.”
“You mean it?” It gasped.
“I’m not one to get in the way of an education,” Mangle shrugged. “I can get you a few books on my tablet, and we can read through them.”
It grinned. “You’re the best, Doc. Hands down.”
Mangle laughed. “I’m not sure about the best, but I try to be supportive when I can. Now what say you to going to Dr. James’ office and alerting her to what Milbridge has been doing?”
It nodded. “Okay. Will I have to say what happened?”
Mangle shrugged. “Probably not. A security camera most likely caught it. You’ll at most have to say when it happened.”
“Good. I don’t want to do that again. Oh, and Doc?”
Mangle nodded to show they were listening as they gathered up their papers and tablet.
“It’s okay if you don’t think I’m human. Really, it is.”
Mangle shook their head. “It’s...complicated, It. This is something that isn’t just black and white. I’m not sure what you are.”
It looked at Mangle curiously. “Maybe that’s an adult thing. The way I see it, you’re either a human or you’re not. There’s no ‘maybe’ to it. But, I’m only 3. 3 and a half is still 3. Maybe I’ll know when I grow up. Grown-ups seem to always know reasons for things that I don’t think are useful, like war, or crime, or arguing over whether or not someone is human.”
Mangle swallowed and blinked back tears. “It, stop. You’re gonna make me cry.”
It looked down at its feet. “I just want to understand.”
“You don’t sweetheart, you really don’t. Trust me, it just makes everything more confusing. Let’s just go to Dr. James, okay?”
It nodded. “Maybe if I learn to read I can find the answer in a book.”
Mangle said nothing, guiding it to Dr. James’ office. They had looked. This was just as confusing after reading up on it as before. It was a seemingly new path they were on, one that It was eager to understand, dragging Mangle along for the ride, wondering what was really okay to let It see and what they should censor. Too much and It could turn away from Mangle, too little and It could revolt and find another way to get the information. Mangle wouldn’t put it above the janitor to help it. That was a humorous thought: empowered by a janitor.
Focus, Mangle! You have to talk to your boss about an uncooperative and murderous co-worker! Not just any co-worker, a co-worker with slightly more responsibility and power than you! You’ll have to have solid evidence to convince Dr. James.
Speaking of, she was approaching them. “Mangle, I just looked over where the subject has been over the last few hours, and it was in your living quarters! Why?”
“I was trying to protect It, Dr. James. You see, last night Dr. Milbridge attacked It, with what I assume was intent to kill when It was heading to the bathroom.”
Dr. James’ eyes flashed in anger. “Where was this?”
“In the hall, Doctor. You should be able to see it on the security feeds.”
“When did this happen?” Dr. James growled.
“It was about 9:45, ma’am,” It said quietly. “That’s when Mangle says my need to go before bed happens most often.”
Dr. James looked to Dr. Mangle for confirmation. “It fits the time frame,” they said.
All three of them went to the security office and rewound the tapes. At 9:50 It left its room and headed towards the bathroom. You could see Dr. Milbridge making his way down the hallway, oblivious to It. It dropped its bathroom pass and went to pick it up. Dr. Milbridge looked up at the noise and his pace quickened. He got to It and started yelling, It cowering at whatever was being said. Milbridge pushed It against the wall, and the look in his eyes was murderous. It squirmed and flailed, successfully hitting Milbridge in the jewels. While he crumpled, It made a mad sprint back towards its room, all thoughts of using the bathroom seemingly gone. Dr. James turned to It. “What did he tell you?”
It fiddled with its shirt and looked up at Mangle. Mangle nodded. “H-he said I was an a-bom-in-a-tion and a threat to everyone here. Then he said it would be better for everyone if I was dead, and he slammed me against the wall. I th-think he wanted to make things ‘better’.”
Dr. James took all this in and nodded. “Well, rest assured, Dr. Milbridge won’t be bothering you again. Ever.”
It smiled at Dr. James. “Thank you, ma’am.”
Dr. James nodded. “You two can go to the gym now, I hear that your flying is getting quite good.”
It flushed. “I’ve practiced a lot, ma’am.”
“As you should,” Dr. James said. “But don’t get any thoughts of flying away from us, we’d miss you far too much.”
It laughed and Dr. James returned it with a dry smile. Mangle led It out into the hallway. It pushed its wings down a few times and forced itself to fly forward a few feet, before landing again, and jumping into the air and pushing down. “Jumping is easier,” It decided. “Jumping is an easier way to start.”
“Good to hear,” Mangle said absentmindedly. “Maybe I can tell that to the other scientists.”
It looked back at Mangle. “Doc? You okay?”
Mangle shook their head. “Yeah, sweetheart, just thinking.”
“What about?”
“Milbridge.”
“Oh.” It got quiet. “Do you...agree with him?”
“What?! It, no! No, of course not! I was trying to find a reason he would just go off on you like that. I can’t find a good one. As far as I can tell, he’s just scared of you.”
“Scared?” It asked.
“Probably. Have you ever heard of fight-or-flight instincts?”
It shook its head. “No.”
“Well, basically, it says that all animals, including humans, have two basic instincts in the face of danger: fight or flight. It’s not completely true of course; there’s also freeze, but that’s not relevant right now. What happens is you get a rush of adrenaline in your system, which is what makes you really hyper when you get scared. That adrenaline is getting your body ready to run away as fast as it can, or to fight against whatever is threatening you. Milbridge feels threatened by you, so he lashed out; he fought. It’s no excuse for what he did, but it’s the only reason I can find behind his actions.”
It nodded. “That’s kinda cool. I mean, not that he fought, but that we’ve been designed to have that to rely on.”
“Mm. Makes me glad to be religious, rather than try to muddle through why we’re the way we’re are by sheer dumb luck. Something had to be out there to make us, I think.”
It glanced at Mangle, confused. “What?”
“Oh, man, you want me to explain religion to you?” Mangle laughed. “That would take ages.”
“Well, I’ve got the rest of my life,” It shrugged.
“Okay, we’re not going to the gym today. We are sitting your butt behind a computer so I can talk to you about this and everything else you’ve been wanting to learn about.”
“Cool!” It grinned.
“Time-consuming,” Mangle corrected.
"Still cool," It shrugged.
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