Show and Tell
Leonard snarled as oil squirted from the mechanism and stained his nice clean shirt. Sure, it wasn't his best shirt and in truth he'd never be caught dead in public wearing it, but it irritated him nonetheless to have it ruined by something so common. Never mind that he was in a foul mood anyway, what with the reunion fast approaching, and besides he always preferred to have Z handle all the grunt work. Unfortunately the device he was working on was much too fragile for a clumsy oaf like Z to appreciate and would no doubt have been crushed were Leonard to allow him anywhere near it. No, no, he couldn't have that. Instead he lowered himself to the work so woefully beneath him.
"C'est la vie..." he mumbled to no one in particular, continuing his work with a complacent sigh. As he worked the hallways around him began to fill with the distant echoes of some far off sound. The weasel's ears twitched and he flattened them against his head, attempting to block the sound out. The echoes only grew louder, evolving into genuine sounds - a persistent, whining squeak. Leonard set the device down and pinched the bridge of his nose. He just couldn't catch a break, could he?
"Come to arrest progress again, have we Z?" he said, turning to the intruder who was riding quickly down the corridor in his painfully loud wheelchair. Z was panting heavily, as if he sprinted the whole way there despite his lack of legs. Z was prone to over exaggeration, though, and Leonard made an effort not to indulge him.
After he caught his breath, the simple mouse shook his head vigorously, babbling incoherently. He thrust his arms at Leonard, hands clasped as if her were holding something. Probably something unpleasant, Leonard wagered, considering the blood trickling from Z's hands and the blood splatter all over the front of his smock. Z opened his shaking hands to reveal a feral mouse, dead although it was likely alive when Z had found it, and given its wounds it was most likely attacked by a cat or something similar.
"It's...a mouse." Try as he might, Leonard couldn't hide the irritation in his voice. Of course, Z was too oblivious to pick up on that sort of thing.
"Uh-huh..." Z sputtered, cradling the deceased creature as if it were his child. He began sniffling and sobbing. Leonard rolled his eyes.
"Oh dear, this is going to become a thing isn't it?"
"Uh-huh..."
"...follow me..." Leonard sighed, motioning for Z to follow him deeper into the laboratory.
"I've told you before about predator and prey, have I not?"
Z nodded.
"Well, what you witnessed was that very concept in action. Yes, it was nowhere near as grand or as elegant as what you've seen from me, but these are animals. Savages. It can't be helped."
Leonard stopped by a low sink, kneeling down so he was eye-level with Z. He gently removed the dead mouse from the very much living mouse's hands, put it aside, and then guided Z to the sink to rinse off the blood.
"Some animals are meant to be eaten. Dominated. That's simply the way of things, my dear, and mice are just that sort of animal. Everything eats them. They're small, defenseless, and stupid. But they know their place and the accepting the inevitability that they will be consumed and fuel better creatures. Who are we to deny them this actualization?"
Z nodded, slowly as if he didn't fully comprehend what Leonard was saying. Not that that wasn't how it always was. But if there was one thing that Z knew, without a shadow of a doubt, it was that he could and would always trust Leonard. Still, he couldn't help but worry, with a nagging thought of doom hanging over him. To ease his mind he looked up at Leonard with sad, questioning eyes.
"How are you different? Don't be ridiculous! You have me."
That was enough for Z. He cheered, wrapping his arms around Leonard and pulling him into a crushing embrace. Leonard snarled in response, his patience wearing quite thin already. He pushed Z away and stood up, brushing himself off indignantly.
"Right, well, you're all better now, I trust? No more tears, no more moping?"
Z nodded.
"Well, good. I have work to do, I can't spend all my time catering to you. Go get changed and ready dinner, my brother and his wife should be here soon...dreadful woman, I am not looking forward to it... Well, go on now."
Z gave Leonard a big, goofy grin before riding off down the hallway to the house. Once he was gone, Leonard picked up the carcass, examining its grisly form. It was a fresh kill, still warm. Its fur was clean, too, aside from the blood and he seemed to remember the neighbor's daughter had recently got a new pet mouse. Oh, she would be heartbroken at having lost it so quickly. Then again, she was a pheasant so he couldn't care less how she felt. He was the one who was going to have to spend an evening with his ignorant brother and his boring wife where they would no doubt have a rousing conversation about how the two were trying to get pregnant and how they were remodeling their nursery -yet again- because it just wasn't right the last time. They'd prattle on and on and waste his good wine while he suffered through yet another synthetic meal.
"C'est la vie."
After a moment, he took a bite out of the mouse's belly. He never liked Z's cooking anyway.