‼️Read the project text first‼️ Smack that green flag! /!\ Injury warning! “I’m here for my check!” Dr. Doofensmirtz called loudly as he walked down the main hallway of his employer’s office building. “I’m sure you didn’t mean to trap me so many times! It took a while, but I got out of them by myself!” He continued down the infinite hall, looking around for his employer’s office. He suddenly heard a faint, familiar chatter, and looked around the hall to see a door ajar nearby. He peered inside to see Perry splayed in the corner of a room, struggling to raise his head off the ground. “Perry the Platypus!” He yelped, rushing to his side, making his way through the destroyed parts of various robot guards surrounding the small creature. “H-how did you get yourself into this?!” He reached to lift him up, and Perry cringed, closing his eyes and turning his face away, his fingertips digging into the ground as he tried to escape. Doof rapidly retracted his hands, kneeling beside the injured platypus instead. “Sit still, would you? You’re making it worse for yourself!” He cried as tears began to drip from Perry’s eyes. “Who did this to you?” There was silence. Perry wouldn’t open his eyes to look at Doof, and his body was tensed as if he would make an escape attempt again. “You’re dumber than I thought if you think I’m going to strike you while you’re down. You may be my nemesis, but we’re frenemies too …with emphasis on the friend part. Let me see what happened.” Perry cracked open his eyes to meet the scientist’s. Doof’s eyes were brimming with tears, genuine fear in them. Perry slowly lifted his arm from his core to show that his fur was ripped across his chest and abdomen, deep slash wounds below. Doof reached down, his fingertips delicately spreading the layers of thick fur to get a better look. Doof’s eyes overflowed as his gaze flitted from injury to injury. Perry looked down at his own lesions and felt nausea wash over him, causing him to close his eyes again. “Who did this to you?” Doof breathed again, looking up to scan Perry’s face. “There’s no way my employer is stronger, or more skilled than you. I know it wasn’t him. Who was it?” Perry just bit his lip, taking shallow, shuddering breaths. “Forget that O.W.C.A mute policy! Perry, who hurt you?!” He demanded furiously. A soft, weak smile spread across Perry’s face, and he rolled his head so that his hat would fall off onto the floor. “You called me Perry. Not Perry the Platypus. Just Perry.” He rasped, and Doof’s eyes widened. It hit him like a tidal wave as he heard his best friend’s voice for the first time. All these years of trying to get the silent agent to break, to talk… Doof had begun to doubt if Perry even could! The rage rushed out of Doof’s mind as if his plug had been pulled, rapidly replaced by sheer panic and fear. If he’s talking to me now… How bad off is he? He was snapped out of his thoughts when Perry’s hand crept over to grab his. It was ice cold and clammy. Doof squeezed it tightly, pleading yet again, “Who hurt you?” “There were a bunch of them, his attack droids. Had me on all sides.” He heaved out weakly. “There were other agents with me. Junior agents. They escaped in the vents, but…” His eyes became wild and panicked. “Calm down. Calm down.” He tore strips off his sleeves to pack Perry’s wounds. “You need serious medical help. Who do I…?” Doof began to ask. “Already on the way.” Perry interrupted, pinning the cloth wraps to his lacerations with his free hand. “I do hope these things are sanitary.” He let out a soft laugh, looking down at the shreds of Doof’s lab coat. Doof laughed too, fighting back a sob bubbling up in his throat. Perry’s eyes fluttered closed and Doof felt his heart skip a beat. “Perry!? Hey, hey!” He yelped, pressing his hand tightly, repeatedly, frantically. “It’s just the fluid loss. I’ve bounced back from a lot worse. I’ll be fine, Heinz.” Perry lied, giving Doof’s hand a gentle squeeze back before his grip fell slack. “Please don’t let go.” Doof breathed as Perry’s arms went completely limp, the cloth bandages falling to the ground. Doof finally sat, scooping the ice cold, sweating platypus up into his lap so that he could hold the makeshift gauze to Perry’s slashes. He slouched to prop Perry’s cheek up against his chest, and his arms went around his friend tightly. Then he began to gently rock, tears running down his face. “This is technically your fault, you know. You should have kept me from selling out to this crazy guy, and you didn’t.” He continued, shaking his head as tears rolled freely, profusely, down his face. “Look, I’m sorry, Perry the Platypus. Im really sorry. I never should have sold that stupid inator.” Doof snorted harshly. “I should have just let you thwart me, stuck to our usual. It seems like you still know better than I do, old pal.” Perry’s shallow, warm breaths tickled his neck, and he let out a deep sigh, tearing new strips of cloth to pack in Perry’s wounds…
(Three days later) There was a knock at the door, and a baggy, red eyed Doof threw the door open, rage in his chest. “What?!” He snapped, then realized who was standing there. “Perry the Platypus.” His voice cracked at the platypus’s familiar, intense stare. “Come in.” Doof opened the door wide, gesturing for him to come in. He scratched at the back of his head, mumbling out, “I’m sorry, I don't have a…” “I wasn’t expecting one.” Perry’s soft voice was alien to Doof, but familiar now, all in the same. “Major Monogram didn’t send me to thwart you.” “Oh.” Doof watched as Perry reached up and took his fedora off, holding it to his chest and looking down at the ground. “I’m breaking O.W.C.A.’s most precious rule right now, and I may actually be penalized for this, but we need to talk… Actually talk, about what happened.” Perry continued, and Doof’s heart began to race, dread filling his chest. “Look, I don’t remember everything from that night. But I do remember you physically tearing the coat off your back to pack my wounds. I remember hearing you cry for me…” He trailed off, looking up to meet Doof’s eyes. “I remember a lot more than you’d probably like me to… And I know you remember a lot more than you’d like to.” Doof nodded, fighting tears back as the image of Perry sprawled out on the office floor flashed across his mind, as it had so many times over the last couple days. His hands began to shake as the bathrobe around him flashed into that horrible, tattered white lab coat. Perry watched Doof’s eyes filled with pain, and he took a slow step forward. “Doof.” Doof continued quivering. “Doof.” Perry’s heart began to race, and he nervously reached for him. “Heinz!” Perry finally grabbed the man’s hand, patting it until Doof looked down to meet his eyes. Instantly, the waterworks began. “I- I tried to visit you in the hospital! But they wouldn’t tell me where you were!” Doof sputtered out, falling down to his knees to be at Perry’s eye level. “I know. I’m sorry.” Perry mumbled, emotion filling his chest. “I thought you were gone!” Doof quickly pulled Perry into a tight embrace, and Perry let out a choked gasping sound, whole body tense. His hat fell to the floor beside him, and he looked at it through bleary, tear filled eyes. His heart raced as he flashed back to the moment before he had lost consciousness. It was the most vulnerable he’d ever been in his life, but these arms, these arms of a person he had fought against, for nearly a decade, had held him snugly and safely. He had been comforted at his darkest hour, by these very arms. He delicately put his own arms around Doof, and lightly leaned his head into the man’s shoulder, letting a single tear leak out and roll down his cheek. “I know.” He swallowed hard, feeling another tear escape. “I thought I was too.” Doof squeezed him tighter, and lights flashed across Perry’s eyes as pain rocketed through him. “Easy! Easy! I’m not even supposed to be off of bed-rest!” Perry wheezed, and Doof’s grip immediately slackened. “What?! Perry the Platypus! You need to be taking it easy then! Sit, sit!” He got to his feet and frantically gestured for Perry to take a seat on the sofa, scrubbing furiously at his eyes. “So, you’re breaking multiple orders, just to come talk to me?” “Yeah. I’m starting to wonder if it was worth it.” Perry cracked with a soft groan. “Oh, so all those sarcastic looks I’ve received over the years, there were comments to accompany them?” Doof laughed, sitting with him, leaving a comfortable distance between them. Perry laughed too, glancing down at his hat still lying on the floor. Doof followed his eyes and snatched it up, passing it over to him. “This feels weird for you, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, it does feel weird.” Doof let out a sigh, shaking his head. “There’s so much I want to ask you, but I don’t know…” Perry’s wristwatch suddenly beeped with a timer, and he nodded decidedly, and teetering to his feet. Doof quickly jumped up to help him. Perry waved Doof off, setting his hat on his head and breathing deeply, painfully. “I’ve got to go home before my family realizes I’m off bed-rest.” Perry held out his hand for Doof to shake it, continuing, “I owe you answers, Doof. Maybe we can go out for coffee sometime, when my family isn’t trying, and failing, to keep me on bedrest.” Doof bypassed Perry’s hand and pulled him into a delicate hug, Perry trying not to cry again. “Yeah. That sounds nice.” Doof released his friend, and met his eyes. “Talk to you later?” “Yeah. Talk to you later.” Perry winked before walking out. The door shut behind him, and Doof sighed, looking back at his robot butler, Norm, with his heart racing. “I told you he’d be alright, sir.” Norm said with a soft smile. “You were right, Norm. You were right.” Doof breathed as a massive weight left his chest, reaching up to pat his robot’s shoulder…
