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He notices how Bunnie keeps quiet on the way back. When she briefly speaks, it is only toward Sonic and Rotor. That can’t be good, Antoine thinks as he leads his friends out of the horrible sewers. She’s usually so full of vim and vigor, even after escaping barely alive. Then again, as they get closer to safety, Rotor already starts dressing him down for going on a solo mission during the entire journey home. Maybe she’s just avoiding the redundancy? One glance at her face so their eyes meet; she quickly looks away. Oh. Mince.
“-but did something get in your fancy-schmancy coffee this morning,” Rotor exclaims in well-founded grumpiness. “Because this was reckless, especially for you Ant!”
When they reach the sewer entrance ladder, Antoine winces at Rotor’s critique as he allows them all to go up first. Sonic smashes through the manhole cover with ease, presumably to meet them up there.
Sonic peeks down and says, “Aw come on, Rote! I think it’s pretty awesome.” He holds his hand out to Rotor, helping him out of the drain. He then looks back down the sewer to finger gun at Antoine. “Welcome to the wild side, Ant!”
Merde! Antoine grits his teeth, refusing to answer that ridiculous hedgehog and the overly casual name he hates. He watches Bunnie go next. She coldly walks pass him and extends her legs up the ladder. Climbing up after her, he hesitates to sigh out of somewhat exhaustion and complete self-disappointment. Once he gets to the surface, he sees his friends – with Sonic further ahead – looking around in case any lingering badniks may have followed them. He grips his father's saber as he shivers, eyes darting around.
“Coast clear, y’all,” Bunnie says flatly after angling her ears slightly at Sonic’s whistle. With that, they silently make their way back to Knothole. Where no doubt, Antoine thinks to himself, the Princess awaits.
>>>
While relieved to see them all mostly unharmed, Sally looks straight at him in royal disappointment. Antoine quickly looks at his feet shamefully. She then pinches her brow and sighs.
“Alright, first things first,” she starts, “Everyone ok? Nothing Dr. Quack should know about?”
“Rote got hit pretty hard,” Sonic replied.
“Eh, I’ve recovered for the most part,” Rotor says. “Nothing a hot pad and some aspirin won’t cure.”
“I see, Dr. Quack it is” Sally ignores Rotor’s groans and turns toward Bunnie, “How about-”
“-Pardon me, Sal-gal,” Bunnie interrupts as politely as she can. Sally slightly nods to allow her to continue. “Antoine, are yew alright?”
Antoine’s head jolts to her as everyone else in the room also shows surprise at her cool tone. Their gazes finally meet after all of her avoidance and it is when her pretty, forest green eyes are full of worry and anger. Taken aback by her sudden questioning, he sputters.
“I-um-yes. I am,” he replies. “Are you-”
“Ah’m fine,” she lies. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Sal-gal. Ah’ll give my report later.”
With that, she stomps out of the hallway. Everyone looks back at Antoine, who seems to have lost all color to his face, somehow showing through his muzzle fur. After being frozen for a moment, he moves towards where Bunnie had left. He then stops after realizing he hasn’t explained himself to the other people in the room.
“Please believe me, I-”
Sally holds up her left hand, using it to wave him away. “Go after her first; debrief later.”
He instantly runs after Bunnie.
The three left in the room could only blink at each other, Sally breaking to rub her temples. Rotor shakes his head and Sonic whistles.
“He’s in for it,” says Sonic.
“What about our apology,” Rotor asks only a little disgruntled. “Then again, she would be more pissed considering…”
“Considering what?” Sonic replies, genuinely confused. “What’s with those two?”
Sally and Rotor both smack their heads in frustration.
>>>
He finds her easily.
Antoine knows that Bunnie calms herself down by practicing karate katas at the Lake of Rings. She had even started training him in martial arts at the same spot, to varying success. Well, he at least does not launch himself into the bushes when doing a side-kick anymore. She managed to regain her patience after the 15th time.
She easily hears him approach.
“Please come ‘round later,” she says while completing a lunge punch with her non-cybernetic arm. All he can see is her back; she won’t display her emotions so quickly. “Ah’m busy right now, Antoine.”
No friendly ‘Sug’, definitely no flirty ‘Suga-Twan’, not even a merely annoyed ‘Ant’. Just Antoine. Just...great. When had he started liking nicknames? Perhaps when they come from her, they are not so bad.
She continues. “See how easy it is to jus’ say that without rudeness?”
He tries to explain himself, taking his beret off, “I know I’ve-”
“Ah don’t get it.” She returns to a ready stance to end her exercise. “You snap at me this morning. Fine, alright I did come barging in like I was raised in a barn (tho' the door was open and I was raised there).” She only somewhat mutters the last sentence, as if daring him to make her feel ashamed of where she comes from.
“I come back in a couple hours to apologize, knockin’ first this time. You done run off: no letter, no nothin’. Ok, maybe Sally gave you a scoutin' mission; gotta keep quiet ‘bout stuff like that." He jerks out of guilt as she paces in front of him. "Come to find out you gone an' went into enemy territory alone? Wit'out tellin’ somebody? Boy, what is the matter wit yew?!”
“Bunnie-”, he grips his beret as she stalks toward him.
“All ‘em egg-digger thangs and Swatbots ‘round?!”
“Bunnie!”
“What if somethin’ happened t' yew?!” Tearing up a bit after yelling, she holds her arms and whips away from him. He begins to wish an eggrobo had actually blown him to smithereens. “Ah meant it when I said I care about you! You want to take our relationship slow, ah get that. But I don’t get putting yerself in danger all alone!”
Wiping her tears, she turns back around to towards him. She is surprised to see him kneeling in the grass, humbly and like a proper knight.
“You are a Lady and a dear friend. Lately I ‘ave not been treating you as such, asking for patience zen pushing you away...putting you in danger,” he continues, right arm on bent right leg, head downward, ears back, out of duty and shame. He would have his tail between his legs if he had not worn pants. Had I not told Tails that going alone is foolish? He tightly closes his eyes. What if something happened to her?
“I sincerely apologize for my actions. If zere is anything I do to make eet right, on my honor I will do eet.”
“...Oh, Antoine.” Not quite back to ‘Suga-Twan’ yet, she sat beside him. “Jus’ tell me what’s going on.”
Adjusting to sit normally next to her, he finally gets to explain the map, why it is important and who it came from. Families are a tricky subject in Knothole after all. Very few citizens and freedom fighters still have their families in tact. Others hold onto whoever and whatever is left. Some adults leave something to their children in case they do not return. When Antoine’s father went on his final mission, he left him a sword with a half of a map in its hilt.
“With ze Princess discovering the King and a certain murderous skunk calling my father’s very existence into question, I-” He clinched his fist a for a bit, then looked at her. He loosened it. “I’ve been on my own journey to find out my father’s legacy, which has put me on ze edge. Yet recently, I found nothing but trouble. It is no excuse for acting the way I’ve been acting, but zat is the truth.”
Bunnie glances at his profile. If she looks at those sad blue eyes any longer, she would cave. She settles for softly nudging her shoulder to his then pulling back.
Letting out a deep breath, she says gently, “Well, I get wanting to figure out yer pa’s history. It’s...hard, ‘specially when he ain’t there. Heck! Even when he is!” She gazes at the lake with a sad smile on her face that fades to something more neutral. “At least you’re brave enough to look into the past and ain’t afraid of what you might find.”
He wants to ask what she meant by that, but did he have any right at this moment? Everyone had a basic gist of her family’s past, her last name being an indicator. She had not been forthcoming about the details. Her loyalty already well tested, maybe it was because she does not know what the details were. In any case, this is a part of his apology to her; she does not have to show her vulnerabilities.
“To be fair,” he says a little embarrassed. “During my ill-fated mission, I was terrified the entire time.”
“You? Afraid?” She makes a feigned gasp.
“I know eet must be hard to believe,” he smirked in slight disgruntlement,“but oui. Not only of ze danger (of which zere was plenty), but of what my father may have hidden.”
She leans her shoulder back to his again. Since she stayed a bit longer this time, he leans on her in return. They listen to the bubbling of the lake for a while until she breaks the silence in good humor.
“Pfft, I can’t believe yew pulled a Sonic!”
Rubbing his eyes, he groans, “Oh la la, I did. And he was impressed too, bof!”
“And he and I ain’t ever gonna let you live it down!” She got up, dusting herself off and holding out her hand to him. “Come on, Ant. Yew’ve got some debriefing to do~”
‘Ant’, huh? His heart fluttering, he takes the gradual return of nicknames as well as her hand. “...D’acoord.”
Whether or not she forgot to let go of his hand while leading him back, he kept her hand in his.