Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Chris dragged himself into the main living area of the Tortuga the morning after the party, he was struck by the familiarity of the sight of the rest of the team.

Aviva was already hard at work on one of her inventions, a cup of coffee beside her.

Jimmy was in the adjoining kitchen, wearing headphones as he cooked what smelled like pancakes.

Koki stood near the centre of the room, leaning against their platform as she watched Martin playing with what looked like a long-tailed weasel.

It was like nothing had changed from the previous morning, when they’d gotten up to prepare to sneak into Zach’s complex.

Except Chris couldn’t feel more different from the previous day.

Martin grinned when he saw him. “Hey bro! Come meet Elastic!”

Chris crossed the room to him, hoping his brother wouldn’t notice that he was wearing his green and black sweatshirt with the neck zipped all the way up.

“Why’d you name her Elastic?”

“‘Cause she stretches. Look!”

The weasel, who had been padding about on Martin’s chest, dropped her hips back and indeed, gave a big stretch.

“Awwww!” Koki and Chris said, simultaneously.

The older Kratt picked up Elastic under her front paws and handed her to Chris, saying: “You two get to know each other, I’m going to get her some treats!”

“Mi amor, she already ate some of our grapes-” Aviva tried, but Martin was on a mission.

“But just look at her! How can you say no to that face?”

The inventor rolled her eyes affectionately as Martin disappeared into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Elastic had crawled out of Chris’s arms and onto his shoulder, sniffing his face. “Wow, you’re friendly! Where’d she come from, anyways?”

“Sounds like she’s been in here since last night.” Koki told him, scratching Elastic between her little ears.

“Mmhm, I found her sniffing around your outfit just before you put it on, Chris.” Aviva added, not looking up from her work.

“What?” Chris said in tandem with Martin, who had re-entered carrying apple slices. “How could you not tell us?”

Aviva giggled at the brothers’ pouts. “Because I know you two. You would have been distracted all night. And she’s still here isn’t she? Now you have lots of time to study her creature powers.”

“That is true.” Martin conceded, holding out a bit of apple for Elastic. “What were you doing in Chris’s clothes, anyways?”

“Speaking of which, white probably wasn’t the best call on colour for last night, bro.” Chris told his brother.

“What are you talking about? You looked good.” Martin frowned in confusion.

“Yeah, but I was the only one not in red or black. That’s why Zach singled me out, actually.”

Martin made an ‘oops’ face. “Sorry, Chris. I figured black was too close to your normal colours, and red would have made you look like Toodles.” He shuddered at the thought.

“Nah, I mean, it kind of worked since Zach didn’t recognize me.” Chris put his hand on his brother’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Speaking of that, are you going to tell us what happened between you two now?” Jimmy asked, entering with their breakfast.

“Oo, yes, I want to know too!” Aviva abandoned her work and turned around in her chair.

“I thought you were busy…” Chris muttered in mock annoyance, taking a pancake.

“I have time for this! It has been driving me crazy all night, now tell us, how did you trick him into thinking you were someone else?” she demanded.

“Well, I-” Chris stuffed a bite of pancake into his mouth, hoping it would dissuade them. “I lied to him.”

Jimmy mock gasped. “What? Chris Kratt, telling a lie? What is this world coming to?”

The crew all laughed, but Aviva insisted: “How did you lie, though?”

The brunette Kratt swallowed his food. “When he first started talking to me, he mentioned that there was only one villain who didn’t come, so I told Zach I was that guy’s henchmen and I snuck in so I could come to a villain party.”

“Which villain?” Koki wondered.

“Uhh, I think his name was Geog Jeoffson or something similar.” Chris said with a shrug.

“Never heard of him.” Martin commented, to which the others agreed.

For a moment, no one spoke further, all of them focused on Jimmy’s extremely good blueberry pancakes. A minor hope began to flare in Chris that the crew was satisfied with his answers.

Zach hadn’t been wrong: he wasn’t a very good liar, and there was a good chance Martin would catch on if he tried.

All hopes were dashed when Koki spoke up: “How’d you guys get onto that balcony, anyways? If he thought you were a gatecrasher, why didn’t he lock you in a cell?”

Chris paused. “I don’t know…he WAS going to. But after I told him the whole henchmen thing, he said he would let me go if I had a drink with him.”

“So you did?” Martin looked cranky.

“He didn’t give me much of a choice!” Chris laughed. The whole thing was just so WEIRD. “I asked him why me; he said he was bored.”

“Ay dios.” Aviva groaned. “I have been saying it for years; the man is lonely. If he stopped scheming and gave people a chance, he would be so much happier.”

Chris glanced over at his friend. Her face had fallen a little, and she poked at her food with her like it was a failed invention.

He knew that she and Zach had once been friends, but not much more than that. He’d never wanted to ask what had happened between them.

To distract her, he continued: “To get to that balcony we walked through one of his labs. As in plural. Apparently he has a few.”

That got Aviva’s attention. “Did you see anything?”

“Just a broken washing machine.” Chris smiled in spite of himself at the memory. “Oh, and a duplicating machine.”

“A what?” Koki looked worried. “That sounds bad.”

“But did it work?” Jimmy questioned. “If it did, wouldn’t the whole world be like, overrun with Zachbots by now?”

Again, the crew laughed, but all eyes did go to Chris for answers.

“I don’t know.” He said, apolegetically. “I checked it out, and it wasn’t plugged into a powersource, so he could still be working on it.”

“We might have to do something about this.” Martin said, firmly. “If he gets it work, all he has to do is build one machine and he can have as many duplicates as he wants.”

As the mood around the table turned grim, Chris remembered something else Zach had told him.

“Guys…there’s something else. Zach said that since we always stop him from using animals in his inventions, he’s been more secretive in his advertising and selling them. Apparently there’s been a few times he’s gotten away with it without us knowing.”

“What?” His normally joyful brother looked outraged, holding Elastic protectively.

“Oh no…” Koki and Jimmy shared a look.

“I don’t know anymore than that.” The younger Kratt said apologetically. “It might not be true, I mean, he could have been lying to impress me, right? Everybody knows we usually beat him, it can’t be good for his reputation.”

“Screw his reputation.” Aviva abandoned her breakfast and slid over to a computer, typing rapidly. “He can’t just SELL animals into slavery because he can’t program robots with the same functions as animals!”

“That’s what I said!” Chris told her.

“You said THAT to ZACH?” Martin looked torn between amusement and disbelief.

“Not EXACTLY like Aviva, but yeah…I asked him why he always uses animals in his inventions if he hates being around them so much, and that if he could just program his robots to do the same things, then he wouldn’t have to worry about, you know, keeping the animals alive…”

“And what did he say to THAT?” Koki wanted to know.

“He actually…seemed to consider it. It was like no one had ever asked him that before. He started making notes on his tablet, to the point he actually forgot that I was there for a minute. No idea what he wrote though.”

There was a pause as the team processed this new information.

“Wow.” Jimmy finally said. “That’s wild.”

“No saying he’ll actually do it.” Chris said, quickly.

“No…” Aviva pondered. “But if he does, that would be a huge weight off us. Good job, Chris.”

“Weird that he agreed so quickly, though.” Martin commented, snatching up Elastic as she went for Aviva’s pancake. “We’ve been trying for years to change his mind, why’d he listen to who he thought was a stranger after less than an hour?”

Before Chris could wonder how the heck he was going to tell his brother that maybe it had something to do with the fact that Zach had ended up making out with said stranger (him), Jimmy said:

“Maybe you should ask him?”

“What?” Chris, Martin, Aviva, and Koki said, at once.

The redhead looked nervous as he pointed at their largest screen. “He’s calling us.”

“Wait, what?” Chris’s heart plunged into his throat.

Why was Zach calling? Had he finally caught on to what Chris had done?

If he had, the brunette knew Zach was most likely calling to explode at all of them, which would definitely involve him telling the crew exactly what he and Chris had gotten up to.

He couldn’t let Martin hear about that from ZACH.

So he tried: “Martin, I need to tell you something-“

“Can it wait until we deal with him?” Martin asked, distractedly.

“Uhh, not really?”

“Okay, okay, tell me quick.” Martin still wasn’t looking at him, until he realized Chris wasn’t talking.

But what was Chris supposed to say?

“Spit it out dude, we really should see what Zach wants.”

“Uh, guys?”

Chris followed Jimmy’s finger to see that the call with Zach was connecting.

“Jimmy!”

The redhead covered his face with his hands. “I panicked!”

A moment later, Zach’s pointed face appeared on their screen. Chris subtly tried to edge behind Martin, which his brother allowed.

“Hello, Wild Rats.”

Aviva glared at the screen. “Zach. What do you want?”

“Wow. I never call you, and this is the greeting I get? How rude.”

When they all eyed him with suspicion, Zach rolled his eyes.

“Fine. I’m calling you because, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I want you to tell me about an animal.”

An image of a long-tailed weasel appeared on the screen. Martin began to slowly lower Elastic off the table, out of sight.

“This…thing.” Zach continued. “Where does it live? What kind of person would like one of these?”

“Why do you want to know?” Martin asked, face serious.

“None of your business!” Zach snapped, until he noticed the disbelieving looks on their faces. “I’m not going to hurt or capture them, okay?”

“Uh huh…” Aviva narrowed her eyes. “But why do you want to find them, then?”

“Oh come on!” Zach exclaimed. “Usually I can’t get you guys to shut up about animals! You seriously won’t tell me?”

“Not unless you tell us why you want to know.” Koki insisted.

Zach crossed his arms and glared at her.

“Okaayy then. Bye, Zach!” Jimmy went to cut the call.

Chris took a step out from behind Martin, believing Zach was about to disappear, until…

“Wait, wait, wait!” Zach threw his hand out, nearly blocking his own camera. “Alright, fine, I’ll tell you, but only because I don’t want to waste hours looking.”

“We’re listening.” Martin looked a little less serious now, probably because Elastic was currently chewing on his bootlace.

Zach sighed heavily. “I met a guy last night, but I didn’t get his name. Now I have been looking for 8 hours, and I can’t find him anywhere! But… he did lose a glove at my home, and that glove had weasel hair on it. Now will you tell me where they live so I don’t have to search the entire planet for him?”

Chris chanced a glance at Koki, and he could tell they were both thinking the same thing: a Zachbot had pulled a glove off of Chris the previous night.

Martin, however, had no such knowledge. “Sorry Zach, I’m not buying it. Can you prove it?”

Zach narrowed his eyes. “I don’t really care what YOU think, blue boy. I would know his name if you hadn’t shown up and scared him away!”

“Hey, this isn’t my fault!” Martin insisted. “I didn’t see anybody with you when you came out to yell at me!”

“We were somewhere else.” Zach informed him. “And as for proof, this is the glove he left!”

Any remaining colour drained from Chris’s face. Zach was holding in his hands Chris’s elbow-length white glove from the night before.

“He must have dropped this last night after you broke in.” Zach continued, half to himself. He wasn’t even looking at Martin anymore. “I have been searching every inch of the 10 miles surrounding my property all night, and I am too damn tired to keep going without some sort of clue!”

He stopped staring at the glove and looked back up. “So are you going to help me or not? I don’t want any stupid weasels…I just want to see him again.”

Suddenly feeling horribly exposed, Chris tried to inch his way back behind his brother.

There was no way the crew wouldn’t recognize the glove Zach was holding. Even if Martin, Aviva, and Jimmy didn’t, Koki still knew what had happened to it.

Suddenly, Aviva said: “Zach…do you have a crush on this guy?”

“No!” The CEO countered immediately. “I’m an adult, I don’t get CRUSHES.”

“Mmhmm, sure. Now tell us more about this guy.” She pulled up her chair closer to the desk and rested her hands on her chin, looking genuinely curious.

“No!” Zach repeated. “Mind your own business.”

“Please?” Aviva asked, making her eyes a little bigger. It wasn’t as good as the Kratt brothers’ puppy dog eyes, but it was close.

Chris had a sudden mental image of a young Aviva making a similar face at a young Zach. It had probably worked.

Even adult Zach looked like he was starting to waver.

Aviva added, “If you tell me three more things about him, I will make you a detailed digital map of where he might have touched a long tailed weasel. Deal?”

A pause. A heavy sigh from Zach. “Fine…but if you tell anyone about this, I’m denying it!”

The Wild Kratts inventor shrugged as if to say ‘fair enough.’

“Okay, well, he was wearing all white, including a mask. That’s another thing that’s going to make it hard for me to find him. He was really interested in machines. I’ve never seen anyone, well almost anyone, get that excited just from looking at one of my inventions. And…I don’t know, he was just special. Nice, but I could tell he really meant it, and wasn’t just being nice because he wanted something.”

He paused, seeming to realize he was letting himself smile in front of the Wild Kratts. Zach quickly schooled his features. “And that’s three. Happy?”

“Yes.” Aviva gave a thoughtful smile. “I’m happy for you, Zach.”

With that, she cracked her fingers and straightened up in her chair. “Alright bros, give me a run down of where Long-tailed weasels live.”

It was at that moment, when the blood stopped rushing in Chris’s ears, that he realized how uncharacteristically quiet it was. Or rather, how uncharacteristically quiet MARTIN was.

He glanced over at his brother to check if Martin had been stunned into silence by anger. Though his big brother wasn’t prone to losing his temper, he was as protective of Chris as he was of helpless animals, and Chris knew if he got angry at Zach, his cover would be blown.

But when he got a look at Martin’s face, he saw that it was even worse.

Martin’s cheeks were blown out like a pufferfish, and he was turning red.

This meant he was trying desperately not to laugh…and was about to burst.

Zach noticed, too. “What’s wrong with blue boy?”

In a slight state of panic, the green Kratt did the first thing he could think of.

He shouted: “He’s having a stroke!” and tackled his brother to the ground, out of Zach’s view.

When they hit the floor, the younger Kratt hissed: “Stop it! He’s going to get suspicious!”

Loudly, for Zach’s benefit, he shouted: “Look me in the eyes, stay awake, bro!”

“I’m sorry, bro!” Martin covered his mouth with his hands. “He-he’s talking about you! And he has no idea!”

The blue Kratt pressed his hands tighter to his mouth as a few giggles escaped.

“What’s going on? Is he dead?” Zach sounded…almost concerned.

“No!” Chris called out. Then, he addressed Aviva: “Could you take him, please?”

He couldn’t read the inventor’s expression. There was no chance she hadn’t figured out what was going on. But she wouldn’t have pressed Zach for more information about his ‘crush’ if she was angry…would she?

‘Please.’ He pleaded to her with his eyes. ‘Don’t let Martin give me away. I don’t want to be exposed like this.’

The look she gave back said ‘You’re lucky I like you’, but she obliged.

“Come here, that’s right Martin, it’s okay…” she kneeled on the floor next to the brothers and took over holding her hand over Martin’s mouth. Martin continued to tremble with mirth.

With his brother and Aviva on the floor, Chris knew he was going to have to be the one to face Zach.

Standing up quickly, he turned his back to the screen so that the CEO couldn’t see him. To keep up appearances, he began typing on the computer, despite already knowing the information Zach was looking for by heart.

“Okay, long-tailed weasels live in…Southwest Canada, most of the United States, and even Central and South America. They can live in tropical, temperate, and cold climates.”

“Are you kidding me?” Zach looked ready to pull his hair out. “That’s like, several continents he could have come from!”

“That’s what it says.” Chris told him, trying to keep the relief out of his voice. With such a wide search area, Zach would never zero in on him if he couldn’t even recognize Chris’s face!

“Koki, can you make a map with that data and send it to him?”

“On it.” The dark skinned woman took his place at the computer.

“Anything else?” Chris asked, keeping his back firmly turned away.

“No…” Zach muttered, sulkily. The crew cringed as his voice suddenly increased in volume as he shouted: “Zachbot! Bring me a coffee! Actually, bring me the whole pot, I’m going to need it !”

“Zach, wait.”

Chris froze when he realized the words that had come out of his own mouth. ‘What is wrong with me?’

Zach seemed to be thinking something similar. “What?”

Slowly, as though not to spook a wild animal, Chris turned around, though he avoided Zach’s eyes. He didn’t feel comfortable asking his question while turned away. “What are you going to do if you find this…guy you’re looking for?”

On the floor, Martin let out a strangled laughing sound from behind both his and Aviva’s hands. Jimmy had joined in trying to keep the tallest crew member from flailing about the floor in hysterics.

Meanwhile, Chris wasn’t sure exactly why he was expecting Zach to answer.

Maybe the fact that Aviva had been able to coax some information out of their enemy had made him hopeful. Maybe, he guiltily considered, he had gotten used to Zach opening up to him after the previous night. Or maybe, most likely, he just had to know what Zach wanted with him, or rather, with who he had been the night before.

Regardless of the reason, he ended up disappointed, as Zach snapped: “None of your business, green guy! Thanks for nothing, Wild Rats!”

Then the connection went dead.

Releasing the tension that had built up in his chest with a deep exhale, Chris looked down at Martin, Aviva, and Jimmy. “You should probably let him go before he explodes.”

Jimmy and Aviva hastily did so, lifting their hands away from Martin as he burst out laughing.

“Hahahahah! CHRIS-what-ha-what did you DO?” he demanded before dissolving into laughter again.

His younger brother crossed his arms. “It isn’t that funny.”

“Hahaha-no,no,no-this IS funny!” Martin insisted. “Zach LIKES you! ZACH! Hahahahah!”

“Yeah, CK, how’d you manage to get ZACH crushing on you?” Koki snickered a little, but tried to hide it.

“Guys, come on, he doesn’t like ME!” Chris argued. “He likes the guy he met last night.”

“Who was YOU!”Aviva added. “Loves inventions and technology, genuinely kind and caring of others…that sounds like you, Chris!”

Chris was beginning to feel ganged up on. “Yeah, but-we talked for what, an hour? He’ll forget about me soon.”

“After he quote: ‘searches the entire world for you’, you mean?” Jimmy asked. This time, he and Martin dissolved into laughter.

“So what, you guys are just going to make fun of me now?” The brunette Kratt asked, sulkily.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Martin responded. When he saw the look on Chris’s face, he added: “We’re laughing at him more than you, bro. I mean, you were just standing right in front of him, and he didn’t recognize you!”

“Could have saved himself a lot of time right there.” Koki mused.

Chris’s head swivelled to stare at her. “Do NOT speak that into existence, I don’t know what I’ll do if he figures out it was me.”

“It’ll be fine.” Martin reassured his brother. “If he didn’t recognize you last night, he’s never going to. He’ll forget what the mystery guy looked like, anyways. It’s not like he’s ever going to see him again.”

“Oh yes, he is.”

Both Kratt brothers turned to Aviva, mouths open wide. “What?”

Aviva crossed her arms with finality. “I have never seen Zach this intensely focused on…anything, really. He’s so obsessed with finding Chris that I doubt he’ll be harming any animals.”

“So you want Chris to what, date him to keep him from stealing creatures?” Martin frowned at his girlfriend.

“Of course not! But we need to find out what happened to those animals that he told Chris about, the one’s we didn’t find out about? Who better to distract him while we snoop but the man he is obsessed with finding?”

Chris sulked. “He is not OBSESSED with finding-“

“Zachbots have been deployed to… Southwest Canada, America, and some have been sighted in Central America as well.” Koki reported from the computer. She grinned at Chris. “You were saying?”

The brunette covered his face with his hands.

Aviva rolled over to another keyboard, bringing up Zach’s location on their large screen. “It shouldn’t be too hard to intercept him…all we have to do is make sure he spots Chris before he sees any of us.”

“Wherever he does ‘find’ Chris should be far enough away from the Tortuga that he doesn’t get suspicious.” Koki added.

“It could work…” Martin looked pensive.

“Whose side are you on?” Chris protested, giving him a little push.

“Hey bro, I don’t like the idea of you flirting with him either, but think of the animals!”

“Right…” Thinking about Zach forcing frightened animals into machines didn’t make Chris feel any better about seeing him again.

Yes, he had seemed willing to listen to Chris about building machines that didn’t use animals the night before, but history was not on the CEO’s side. There was no proof he wouldn’t keep on going the way he always had, mind-blowing kiss or not.

Oh god, if Zach saw him, would he try to kiss him again? The zoologist couldn’t deny the smallest thrill that ran through him at the thought.

“If we’re doing this, I need to turn us around.” Jimmy pulled out his controller. “Are you in, Chris?”

The brunette took a deep breath. He saw Aviva pull out his white mask, already tuning up the hologram.

Giving Martin a confident smile that couldn’t have matched his insides less, Chris nodded. “I’m in.”
——————————————————
Zach Varmitech had always assumed he would one day go mad. After all, many geniuses had before him:

Pythagoras was convinced beans were evil. Lord Byron kept a bear as a pet in university. Michelangelo was so entrenched in his work he practically never bathed.

Zach had accepted he would one day join them in insanity, but he had never assumed that the object of his obsession would be a glove.

He glanced down at his desk, where said glove was sitting.

Ever since the Zachbot had given it to him two nights earlier, it had never left his sight. How could it? It was his only proof that he hadn’t imagined the whole thing, that the most perfect man he had ever met was real flesh and blood.

He had already memorized the fresh, piney scent that the glove carried from its owner, and knew from its size how ‘Angel’s’ hand would fit in his.

Honestly, it was a miracle he hadn’t begun to sleep with the thing on the pillow next to his in his (admittedly) oversized bed. He hadn’t descended that far into depravity. Not yet.

But it was a concrete fact that he had spent the last two days doing little other than thinking of the man that had captured his attention like no one else had.

When he wasn’t glued to his screens watching his Zachbots scan everywhere the long weasel things could be found, he would be trapped in lucid dreams where visions of the angel smiled at him.

More than once he had woken up, convinced that the man had just been beside him, only to be hit with reality. Every disappointment pushed him to work his robots even harder, and himself to stay awake longer.

It was a wonder he had lasted as long as he did without sleep.

But after finally collapsing over 40 hours post meeting ‘angel’, Zach had woken up 12 hours later with new found mental strength.

This was one man he was searching for! He couldn’t possibly hide from him for long, not when Zach had been able to find even the rarest of animals across the globe, sometimes before the Wild Rats did.

However, all of his confidence didn’t mean he wasn’t startled when a familiar voice cut through the late afternoon air.

“Hey! Hey, easy with the arms, I’m going, okay? What did I even do?”

Zach was out of his chair and into the next room before his brain had even registered he was moving.

He had been on the upper floor of his ship, so he had a perfect vantage point of the lower cargo bay and of his Zachbots, as they dragged in a man by his upper arms.

A man who looked achingly familiar. A man with dark hair and a white mask covering his upper face.

If he had known the man’s name, Zach was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to keep from shouting it.

However, the brunette beat him to it. “Zach? What is this?”

Despite his urge to practically run down the stairs, Zach fought it off, descending slowly. “Angel. It’s been a long time.”

Again with that nickname. Stuck once again in the Zachbots pinchers, Chris went over his mental list of objectives:

1. DO get Zach out of the ship or contained in an area without computers
2. DO keep your real identity a secret
3. DO deny any affiliation with the Wild Kratts
4. DON’T develop feelings for Zach

None of these were going to be particularly easy, but the last one was already looking more daunting when Zach was calling him affectionate nicknames.

Out loud, he said: “It’s been two days, Zach. Can you, uh, let me go?”

He tried to move one of his arms, only for the Zachbot to make a scolding ‘beep’ and hold him fast.

Zach raised an eyebrow. “That depends. Are you going to kiss and run again?”

Chris blushed. Then mentally smacked himself. He needed to remember the story he and the team had come up with to excuse his quick exit.

“I’m sorry about that. I heard all the screaming and thought maybe a fight had broken out. It was safer for me to get out of there, since I don’t carry a weapon and all that. Anndd since I wasn’t supposed to be there anyways.”

“Hm.” Zachbot waved a hand at the bots, who released Chris and floated away.

“Thank-“ Chris started to say, but he was cut off.

“How dare you disappear without giving me any clue of how to find you? You could have at least left your name.” Zach snapped, residual frustration shining through.

“I was scared, okay?” That wasn’t a complete lie. “How was I supposed to know you’d search for me?”

Zach’s green eyes narrowed sharply. “How’d you know I was looking for you?”

Crap. “I-uh-I mean…your Zachbots were programmed to grab me, right?”

Chris cringed internally. How was he screwing up already?

Zach, however, seemed to buy the assumption. “Yes. They weren’t supposed to hurt you though. Are you alright?”

Before Chris could react, he stepped forwards and grabbed both of the younger Kratt’s wrists, inspecting them for welts or bruises.

Secretly, the inventor was also searching for any identifying marks, but found nothing of note: no birthmarks, scars, or tattoos.

However, something else quickly caught his eye, as it had when he first saw ‘Angel’.

“Why are you still wearing THAT?” Unlike the first time they had met, the other man was wearing deep grey pants, and a very light, dove grey sweatshirt. His black hair was wilder, too, with looser curls.

One thing remained the same, however. His white mask remained in place.

Chris shook off Zach’s hands the second they began to reach for his mask.

“Don’t!”

“Why? What are you hiding?”

“Well I-I’m ugly!”

Zach rolled his eyes. “I severely doubt that.”

Thankfully, the crew had discussed an excuse for Chris to keep the mask on, which he gave. “I have scarring near my eyes. I hate it.”

“I don’t care.” Zach stated, firmly. “Take off your mask so I can see those gorgeous chocolate eyes.”

“I don’t want to.” Chris answered, just as firmly. He internally congratulated himself on keeping his voice even despite the rare compliment of his eyes. “And if you or one of your robots takes it off, I’ll-I’ll never talk to you again!”

It was a lame threat, but he saw a split second of worry flash across Zach’s pale face. Then, the pale inventor gave a slightly evil grin. “An ultimatum already? Alright, keep your secrets…however, the terms don’t count if I convince YOU to take it off.”

“Yeah, sure. But you won’t.” Chris informed him.

“Oh really? I think you’ll find I can be pretty persuasive…”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say…”

He instantly regretted his word choice when Zach smirked. “You might be saying that later…”

Oh god. It was so cheesy, like Zach had been writing down lines from dark romance movies. So why was it working on Chris?

“Oh, so the truth comes out!” He teased. Deflection via humour, always works, right? “You only went searching for me so that we could have sex!”

“Wha-no!” Zach argued, several shades of embarrassed red now. “I’m not like THAT, it’s not all I think about…but since you brought it up, would you want to, you know, with me?”

Chris genuinely laughed. “Smooth.”

He began walking towards the open mouth, hearing an angry shout from behind him. “Where are YOU going?”

Without turning around, Chris said lightly: “Outside! You coming?”

He heard Zach’s footsteps trailing after him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! How do I know you’re not going to run off again?

The brunette sighed, heavily. The inventor was more paranoid than he had expected.

He walked deliberately back to Zach, who was watching him, intensely. “Here’s how.”

With that, he grabbed Zach’s right hand with his left.

“Now come on!” And he dragged Zach out into the summer afternoon.
———————————————————
“No way! One gummy bear did NOT cost that much!”

Zach grinned at Chris. “Oh, it did! My accountant was horrified.”

“Why would you buy a $300 gummy bear?”

“Uh, because I love them, obviously.”

At this comment, Chris sat up a little straighter against the red maple tree the pair had been sitting under for the past hour. “Oh! That gives me an idea of a game we can play!”

“A game?” Zach gave him an incredulous, ‘do you think I’m five years old’ look.

“It’ll be fun!” Chris encouraged. “You get candy AND you get to learn more about me.”

Zach looked pensive. “I do like both of those things…this isn’t a running game, is it?”

“No, we can stay here.”

“Alright, fine.”

“Great!” Chris rubbed his hands together, which felt a little strange when he was used to wearing gloves. “So, are gummy bears your favourite candy, or is there something you like even better?”

“I think the fact I spent $300 on a giant bear made of smaller ones should answer that.”

Chris laughed again. He seemed to do that a lot when Zach was around. “Fair enough. Could your robots get us some?”

“Of course. Why?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute. Can they get those little Snickers bars too?”

Zach waved a Zachbot towards his ship. “Yes, anything you want, now will you tell me why?”

“Alright, alright, so: basically how the game works is we take turns asking each other questions. If you answer the other person’s question, you to get eat your favourite candy-wow, that was fast!”

The Zachbot had returned, and deposited the candy in front of the two.

“Thanks.” Chris told the robot, snatching up the gummy bears before Zach could touch them.

“Hey!”

“You don’t get to hold your own!” The brunette Kratt laughed. “It’s to keep you honest: the other person gives you a candy when you answer the question. You can’t withhold candy if you don’t like the answer they give though.”

“What can I ask you?” Zach asked, picking up the bag of mini-Snickers bars.

“Basically anything…nothing gross, though. And like, obviously don’t ask about super personal stuff, like trauma.”

Zach snorted. “Boring.” Chris could tell he meant that statement as a joke. “Well, I still want to know: what’s your name?”

The youngest Kratt had anticipated this, so he gave his second middle name. “Fine, I guess you can know that…it’s James.”

Even if Zach somehow knew it was his middle name, James was common enough that he hopefully wouldn’t make the connection.

He looked at Zach expectantly. “Where’s my candy?”

“You got a last name?” Zach asked instead.

“Hey! That’s another question! Pay me for the first one and then I’ll tell you!”

While Zach handed over a Snickers, Chris frantically racked his brain for a fake surname. He and his friends hadn’t thought QUITE that far ahead.

“Nolan. My last name is Nolan.” Hopefully that too, was common enough that even if Zach tried to search for him, he would find enough James Nolan’s to keep him occupied.

He could tell the inventor was gearing up to ask him another question, so he quickly countered with:

“What do you like to do when you’re not working or inventing?”

Zach frowned. “I’m hardly ever NOT working or inventing. When I’m not doing either of those I just want to relax. Sometimes I play video games, but I also have a very nice hot tub on board my ship, and an even larger one at my complex…”

Chris shoved a gummy bear at him, pretending he didn’t hear the underlying implication in Zach’s tone.

“Okay, NOW you can ask me something.”

Zach looked pensive as he chewed. “Have you ever dated a man before?”

Chris paused to consider his words. “Technically, no. Work makes it really hard to date, so I haven’t really dated since high school. I have hooked up with a guy in a bar before though.”

“Huh.” Was all Zach said as he handed over another candy bar.

His face was so blank, Chris had to ask: “That doesn’t…bother you, does it?”

“No, I’m not a virgin, why should it matter if you aren’t? I’m just…surprised.”

“Why?”

“You seem like someone who would want to be in a relationship.”

Chris sighed, turning his head to look at the grassy field they were at the edge of. “I am,er, I mean I do. I just travel a lot for work and it’s hard to date someone who doesn’t.”

“I’d follow you anywhere.” Zach muttered, so quietly Chris couldn’t quite make out the words.

“What?”

“I said, give me a gummy bear. I answered your question.”

“What question?” Chris looked at him strangely.

“You asked ‘why’ and I answered. Now give.”

The younger Kratt rolled his eyes. “Fine, but I want to ask another question, that one barely counts.”

“Go ahead then.”

“Okay, um….who’s the family member you’re closest to?”

Now it was Zach who looked away. For a minute, he said nothing, to the point Chris began to worry.

“Are you okay?”

Zach laughed, a short, bitter sound. “You said no questions about trauma. Well, my mom died when I was little, I have no siblings, and my dad’s an abusive asshole.”

“Oh…” The brunette Kratt thought back to grade school, and realized he couldn’t remember ever seeing Zach with either of his parents. “I didn’t know…I’m sorry.”

“I’m guessing your family was loving and healthy, since you asked me that question?”

“Yeah.” Was all Chris could say.

His mind remained in the past, running through all of his childhood interactions with Zach. He had always seemed angry, and withdrawn, but was it possible that all that time, he had been hurting?

Was that lack of guidance and emotional support the reason why he had started to use animals in his inventions, and then never stopped?

Granted, even if adults hadn’t told him it was wrong, Chris and Martin had, but they hadn’t exactly done it kindly. In fact, he could recall they had told other children about what Zach was doing, and had caused the resulting ostracization that had followed.

No wonder Zach held so much resentment for himself and his brother. Their influence had probably made his life even harder than it already was.

Overwhelmed with shame and guilt, the brunette leaned over and wrapped his arms around Zach, hugging him tightly.

“I’m so sorry…” Chris muttered, his face nearly pressed into Zach’s hair.

“What are you sorry for?” The CEO sounded genuinely confused.

Instantly embarrassed, Chris pulled away. “I’m sorry you grew up like that. It sounds…I can’t even imagine.”

Zach snorted. “It’s so cliche: I had a bad upbringing with no love so I became a villain.”

“But you don’t have to live like that, Zach! Just because you didn’t receive love as a child doesn’t mean you’ll never find people that will love you!”

Chris hadn’t even realized how loudly he was speaking until a few birds abruptly left the tree in fright.

Zach looked a little stunned. Then confused.

Then, almost skeptically, he said: “Are you one of those people?”

Chris froze. He felt awful for the way he had misjudged Zach in the past. How could he reject him after hearing about what he had suffered?

But it didn’t necessarily excuse all of Zach’s actions. Many had been almost mischievous in nature, inconveniences at worst, but some had been downright harmful. Both to animals and to himself and his brother.

And of course, the all important fact that, whatever romantic feelings Zach felt, there were for a version of Chris that didn’t really exist.

Even if the only thing Chris had lied about that day was his name.

He decided to continue to be honest. “I don’t know…I feel like I don’t know you well enough to be sure.” He saw Zach’s face fall slightly, and he added: “But I like you.”

“I like you too, James.”

All at once, Chris knew Zach was going to kiss him. He didn’t pull away, in fact, he did the opposite, meeting the paler man in the middle.

The kiss wasn’t as desperate as their last, lacking the tangy buzz of alcohol and instead replacing it with sugary sweetness. But there was a weight to it too, the forming of an emotional bond that Chris wasn’t sure he had the heart to break.

They both lost count of how long they kissed. They ended up with Chris’s back braced against the maple tree, Zach leaning against him, and both of their arms around each other.

Chris wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, either, but even when Martin gave him the all clear through his earpiece, the younger Kratt didn’t leave.

It was Zach who finally broke the spell as the shadows began to grow long, saying he had work that needed to be done before some meetings the next day.

“What kind of work?” Chris asked, curiously as they stood up.

“Well, SOMEONE-” he poked Chris’s nose “-told me that I should try building inventions that mimic animal traits without outright using them. And frankly, I’m tired of sneaking around the Wild Rats to hunt down animals. So I’m going to give it a try.”

If they hadn’t already been kissing-ALOT-Chris would have done so again. “Really? Will you show me? You know, when you’re done?”

“I would, but for that, I will need some way to contact you…”

Despite the screaming in his head that this was NOT what keeping his real identity a secret looked like, Chris offered: “I can give you my phone number.”

His Creature Pod and his phone were completely separate, so as long as he turned his phone off when he was around Zach as…himself, things would be, right?

Zach immediately agreed, handing over his phone, where Chris punched in his number under ‘James’ with only a small pang of guilt.

Though that pit of guilt inside of him grew bigger when Zach kissed him a final time, and Chris felt himself melt into it.

When Zach reluctantly let go of his hands, Chris waited until the inventor was practically back inside his ship before he turned around and walked off into the forest.

The fifteen minute walk to the tree where he’d stashed his Creature Power Suit did nothing to clear his swirling thoughts. Nor did the flight back to the Tortuga as a blue jay.

Not even the sight of his brother, standing alone in the main control room shook him from his turmoil.

That is, until Martin stepped towards him, face very serious.

“Chris, I need to talk to you.”