Knock, knock, knock!
"Chade, it's me, Robin. Are you okay? If you're in there, open the door!"
Richard was preparing lunch when urgent shouts came from outside.
Sitting at the dining table, little Eleven immediately hid in the room upon hearing the commotion.
Richard went to open the door to find a flustered Robin. Fine sweat dampened her hair, which was as soft as spider silk. Beneath her white shirt, the scent of hot sweat steamed up with the rise and fall of her clothes. Her green eyes were focused as she scrutinized the bewildered Richard. Stepping forward, she reached out her warm, slender hand and pressed both her palm and the back of her hand against Richard's forehead.
"Hey, I'm not sick." Richard steadied the somewhat over-the-top Robin. He felt that the scent coming from her and the intimate contact gave him a tingling sensation that made him want to smile. He chuckled and explained.
Hearing this, Robin breathed a sigh of relief. She turned back to close the door before her expression shifted to anger. She gripped his neck fiercely—though not with much force—and scolded him with a slightly distorted expression, "You lunatic! Why did you suddenly take a leave of absence for no reason? Don't you know that doing this makes me think you ended up like Tommy?"
"Sorry, I didn't think it through." Richard understood why Robin was angry and apologized very sincerely.
Seeing Richard's "don't hit back, don't talk back" attitude of admitting guilt, Robin felt like she couldn't vent her anger. Somewhat discouraged, she kicked Richard's shin. Richard frowned slightly in pain, and only then did Robin smile in relief.
Tossing her backpack onto the sofa and plopping down, Robin finally asked why Richard had taken leave. "So, why exactly did you take time off?"
Richard rubbed his cheek with his finger. "I was planning to tell everyone this afternoon, but now that I think about it, I should probably tell you first."
"Eleven." Richard softly spoke a number familiar to Robin.
Robin followed Richard's gaze to the half-closed bedroom door, which slowly creaked open. A reserved, shaved-headed girl with her head bowed walked out, her fists clenched tightly at her sides.
Seeing Eleven, Robin's breath hitched for a moment. Then she hissed and looked at Richard in shock, "Where did you kidnap her from?"
Ignoring Robin's joke, Richard explained directly, "This is a child who escaped from The Lab. They were using her superpowers for supernatural experiments. While forcibly developing her powers, they had her open a spatial portal to The Upside Down."
"What?" Robin's eyes widened.
"Come on, Eleven, show everyone a trick!" Richard clapped his hands.
Eleven glanced at Richard and cooperated. She lightly flicked her hand toward Robin's backpack on the sofa, and the bag flew directly into her hands as if pulled by a steel cable.
Robin was stunned. "Is this... The Force from Star Wars?"
"Something like that. Psychokinesis is just one of her abilities. She can do much more, like Telepathy, creating interdimensional gates, Mind Reading, Extrasensory Perception, and so on," Richard said.
"Cool." Robin couldn't help but marvel. She then hurried over to Eleven and said in a slow, gentle tone, "Hi, I'm Robin. I'm this guy's friend."
Eleven nodded, then looked at the two of them in confusion and asked tentatively, "Friend?"
"It's a relationship where you can trust each other and proactively stand up for one another without any selfish motives when the other person needs help," Richard explained.
Eleven nodded thoughtfully, but Robin looked at Richard in surprise. She hadn't expected the meaning of 'friend' to be so profound in Richard's heart.
After all, Richard was very "extroverted" and seemed able to chat with anyone; he was the type of person who was socially fearless. In her view, it seemed like the entire faculty and student body of the school, including other staff, were all Richard's friends. For example, even if a security guard saw Richard leaving early through the back door, they would turn a blind eye and let him go, showing him a lot of respect.
Robin sometimes found herself thinking that since Richard had so many "friends," perhaps his internal definition of a friend was a bit more superficial.
However, now it seemed that she was the superficial one.
"We are friends, too." Richard smiled at little Eleven and rubbed her head again.
Little Eleven's eyes instantly sparkled, and a happy smile appeared on her face.
"Uh, although we just met, I think I can also become the kind of friend he mentioned." Robin reached out her hand to little Eleven.
Little Eleven looked at it, a bit puzzled.
"Shaking hands means you're willing," Richard explained from the side again.
Realizing what was happening, little Eleven also reached out and shook her hand.
Once the three of them had officially established a friendly and harmonious relationship, the atmosphere in the room instantly became warm. Richard stretched and suddenly grabbed the back of Robin's collar. "Alright, that's enough for the friendship ceremony for now. Now, come and help me work."
"I was so worried about you that I rode my bike all this way, didn't even have a drop of water, and I'm exhausted. You're not even letting me rest and are pulling me to work?" Robin said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, my good assistant Robin, your Batman needs your help right now." Richard poured her a glass of water and placed it in front of her.
Robin gave him a resentful look, downed the water in one gulp, and then said fiercely, "What do you want me to do?"
"It's simple. Wash and prep the vegetables. You can rest after you're done." Richard put two heads of baby cabbage into a washing basket and handed them to Robin. Hearing that it was such a simple task, Robin immediately lost her temper and went to the sink to fill it with water and wash the vegetables.
Just then, Richard, who was about to cut some meat, felt a tug on his shirt. It was Eleven, looking at him with her bright, clear eyes.
"If you want to help too, then help me peel the garlic. That means taking the skin off this thing and leaving only the white cloves inside." Richard took out a head of garlic and a small plate, letting Eleven go to the table to peel them. He told her to throw away the skins and bring him the cloves when she was done.
Eleven nodded happily and indeed began peeling the garlic meticulously.
With the help of the two girls, Richard's cooking speed seemed to increase. Although he was already fast at cooking, that was how it felt to Robin. She comforted herself that being forced into labor was just so she could eat the delicious food sooner, which made her feel much better.
Since it was Chinese food for lunch today, Richard naturally didn't follow the Western style of serving individual portions. Everyone had a bowl of white rice, and several dishes were served on different plates for everyone to share.
Robin was quite used to it since she stayed at Richard's house often, but Eleven found it a bit difficult. She wasn't very good with utensils to begin with, and now, holding a fork, she couldn't spear a piece of meat for the life of her. She was so anxious she almost wanted to use her Psychokinesis to move the food into her bowl.
However, Richard had already anticipated her predicament. He had prepared an extra pair of serving chopsticks and filled the bowl of the anxious child with food—meat and vegetables, he gave her everything.
Little Eleven beamed with joy. After taking a few bites of rice and experiencing the ultimate deliciousness of the meal, the way she looked at Richard was as if he were a supreme being.
Robin... she had long since stopped caring about her image in front of Richard, eating like a maniac without any pretense. If she weren't afraid Richard would scold her, she would have pulled all the dishes in front of her and finished them all herself.
But Richard wouldn't give her the chance. He was even faster at picking up food and eating. Robin's skill with chopsticks wasn't as good as Richard's, and she could only glare after being beaten to the meat multiple times. What was even more annoying was that sometimes after Richard grabbed a piece of meat, he didn't eat it himself but gave it to Eleven, who couldn't reach it.
Fine, this shameless guy only takes care of the little girl and isn't considerate of his 'brother' at all, right?
But complaining was useless. Instead of wasting time complaining, it was better to quickly grab a few more pieces. Richard was really a dog... "Burp." Robin lay on the sofa in a lazy posture and asked Richard, who was washing dishes with his back to her, "Are you still going to school this afternoon?"
"I took a whole day off. If I go back in the afternoon, won't I be found out?" Richard replied, shaking his head.
Eleven cast an inquiring look at Robin. "School?"
"It's a place for learning."
"The dark room?"
"Uh, not like the one you had. It's a place where you can make friends, where many people learn and improve together, and where you learn a lot of happy knowledge." Robin had already learned about Eleven's past experiences and was naturally full of sympathy for the little girl. She explained in a gentle voice.
Eleven could hardly believe it. In The Lab, every time Papa made her learn something, she would only feel boredom and pain, and she would be submerged in a large water tank, which was very uncomfortable.
"You'll definitely have a chance to experience what school is like in the future. Overall, it's a bit boring, but because you can gain a lot of useful things, you'll feel that the effort is worth it." Robin put her arm around Eleven's small shoulders and smiled, "Though I don't have many friends at school either."
"Only Chade, you, happy?" Eleven asked innocently.
Hearing this question, Robin didn't know how to answer and scratched her face awkwardly.
Richard pretended not to hear, but his ears were perked up sharply—his super hearing was always active... In the afternoon, after both the middle and high schools had let out, a carefully disguised Eleven arrived at Steve's "well-ventilated" mansion with Richard and Robin.
Steve's house hadn't been repaired yet; the broken parts had just been cleaned up so it didn't look so pathetic, but the traces left by the previous battle were still clearly visible.
Not long after Richard arrived at Steve's house, Jonathan also arrived, driving his younger brother and his mother.
Joyce, the single mother of Jonathan and Will, arrived at Steve's house for the first time. Looking at the people gathered there, she found that most of them were familiar faces—Jonathan's classmates and friends, as well as Will's friends, were all there.
Furthermore, she was surprised to find that inside the seemingly grand mansion, there were traces of fighting everywhere, like scratches from some creature's claws all over the living room walls.
Joyce keenly sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere, but before she could ask her son why he had suddenly dragged her here—even insisting that she give up her work this afternoon—a familiar voice came from behind her.
"Joyce, what are you doing here?" Hopper, who had come in his police uniform, walked into Steve's house. He took off his hat and looked at the beautiful, petite woman in front of him in disbelief.
Hopper and Joyce were elementary school classmates. They were the kind of friends who had been rebellious teenagers together since childhood, secretly smoking in hallways and acting all moody.
"Why did you want me to call my mom over?" Jonathan leaned over to the group and asked Richard in a low voice. He was very confused about this because he actually didn't want his mother to get involved in this mess.
The others were equally confused. However, Richard gave a convincing answer: "Hopper is a very paternalistic man, and he's a rather tough cop. His status and presence are much higher than us kids. If he's the only adult here, don't you think he'll turn the meeting into a dictatorship? So, that's one reason for calling Joyce. Given that they're old classmates, Hopper might restrain himself a bit.
Secondly, you and Will are already forced to be involved in this. Considering Joyce's mindset of cherishing both of you like treasures, if something were to happen to one of you and she was kept in the dark, don't you think she'd go looking for the reason? The people from The Lab are very dangerous, and Joyce is just an ordinary civilian mother. If she investigates without a clue, she could easily bring trouble upon herself. So, it's better to just lay all the cards on the table now."
"Secondly, you and Will are already forced to be involved in this. Considering Joyce's mindset of cherishing both of you like treasures, if something were to happen to one of you and she was kept in the dark, don't you think she'd go looking for the reason? The people from The Lab are very dangerous, and Joyce is just an ordinary civilian mother. If she investigates without a clue, she could easily bring trouble upon herself. So, it's better to just lay all the cards on the table now."