Just In Time

He was late.

He'd been sitting like this for a
long time, he'd lost track of how long. It had to have been several hours,
since he'd arrived in the early afternoon, and it was now getting close
to sunset.

He was way past being late.

His eyes briefly left off their staring
to track the movement of a plane in the distance, then returned to their
former position. All without moving the rest of his body.

He'd give him one more hour before
he decided he wasn't coming.

He sighed softly, a slight movement
that went unnoticed by the animals going about their daily lives nearby.
Every week, at the same time, found him at this cliff, sitting silently
and motionlessly until another arrived to interrupt the peace.

Forty-five minutes.

Every week the two would meet, either
to spar, or just sit and talk. They'd started out doing the former almost
every time. But more recently, they'd been doing the latter more often.
And he was starting to look forward to those meetings.

Thirty minutes.

He fidgeted slightly and finally
looked around, his face expressionless. He wasn't worried. Not at all.
He was merely impatient to get back to his normal routine, which had been
severely set back by the other's tardi. He. He wasn't worried one bit.

Twenty minutes. Where was he?

He thought back to their last meeting,
only the week before. Things had started out just fine. They'd sat and
talked. But somewhere things had gone wrong and they'd started arguing,
which ended with him hitting the other and leaving in a rage.

Fifteen minutes. Still no sign
of him.

He'd regretted it immediately after
calming down. He'd alienated the one person who gave a damn about him
and not what he could do. But pride had kept him from returning,
from apologizing. That was simply not his way.

Ten minutes. Still hope.

He'd been hesitant to even come today,
but he'd forced himself to come. He was no coward, and he faced everything
with the same determination. He would face the other and apologize when
(if?) he came.

Five minutes. He wasn't coming,
we?

He looked down at the ground below
the cliff. He'd been a complete ass. The other wasn't going to come. The
other wasn't going to ever come. He'd messed up big time. No one else cared
about him. He'd had a great friendship, and he'd thrown it away because
of something pointless.

Four minutes.

Three minutes.

Two minutes.

.....

He wasn't coming.

He sighed heavily and hung his head,
closing his eyes. He sat like that for a moment, then stood up slowly and
opened his eyes again, looking down over the edge of the cliff. Not noticing
the sudden silence of animal activity, or the sound of something approaching
quickly.

Would it matter to anyone if he just
walked straight ahead and didn't stop? Would anyone care? Would he ca-

"Forte!"

Startled, the Wily bot spun around
at the sound of his name and was nearly bowled over by a smaller bot tackling
him, almost sending both of them over the cliff's edge.

"I was afraid I'd miss you," came
the smaller bot's muffled voice from where he had his face buried against
Forte's chest. His arms were wrapped tightly ar For Forte's waist as if
afraid to let go. "Sorry I'm late."

Forte blinked, then smiled slightly
and put his arms around the smaller bot. "You're just in time, Blues..."