Thanks to his days being full of excitement, Wile E. Coyote was able to fall asleep very quickly most nights. These last few nights had not been those kind of nights, however.
Wile laid in his bed; he was tired, but still wide awake. It was quiet, and that led a super genius's thoughts to roam. In this, one of the deepest parts of the desert, it was very lonely, and very quiet. While he was out during the day, he would occasionally catch a glimpse of a car or truck passing through along the desert highway, but those were rare occurrences. Wile was used to being alone. He had to be, after all, but it didn't mean he had to enjoy it. Besides, there was really only one other "person" in the near vicinity Wile knew of. The only time Wile ever sought to find Roadrunner was when he was particularly hungry (which, admittedly, was most days). Chasing the roadrunner took up most of his day, but even the tenacious coyote had his limits.
It was fairly often that Roadrunner and Wile ran into each other at the watering hole - a small pond located in a canyon near Wile's cave, surrounded by high cliffs that shielded it from the sun. The two had a sort of unspoken truce in the evenings, even going as far back as to their first meeting there. Roadrunner was clearly on edge at the sight of the coyote. To his surprise, though, he found the coyote made absolutely no attempt to catch him. Wile clearly saw him there, of course, but after spending an entire day unsuccessfully trying to capture him, Wile was quite finished. The next few meetings had Roadrunner acting similarly warily. He was only ever used to the coyote trying to catch him, so why would he suddenly show no interest? Was it another of his traps he was setting up? It became apparent to the roadrunner after several more times that the coyote was letting him be. As time passed, Roadrunner grew more and more at ease - recently, he was even comfortable enough with the coyote's presence that he actually tried striking up a conversation the last few times they ran into each other. Wile, however, was uninterested. Any time Roadrunner tried to start a conversation, Wile simply ignored him and left. He was irritated enough with the roadrunner over the course of the day, and the last thing he wanted to do was be mocked by Roadrunner's false friendliness. More importantly, Wile reminded himself, it was dangerous to allow himself to think of prey as anything more than that - prey. So that was Wile's current situation. Besides, he reasoned, the roadrunner was probably not actually interested in being friends with the one trying to eat him. And if he were to be successful in his pursuit one day, he would simply have to get used to being alone again anyway. And if he were to have made and eaten a friend? That would just make being alone that much harder on him.
Wile's mind was simply too active for him to fall asleep, and his mind raced more than it normally did. Wile sighed and sat up, looking around. The cave was filled with a few meager furnishings, some from the ACME Corporation, and some constructed of the rocks and boulders that he found throughout his desert home. A large stone slab dining table and some rock chairs, an ACME wooden desk and matching wooden desk chair, and finally his ACME bed with a small ACME wooden table next to it. He opened a small drawer in his bedside table, pulling out a small bottle of ACME Extra-Strength Sleeping Pills. He shook one out into his hand, then set the bottle back on the table. Normally, the coyote would not have depended on sleeping pills, but this was night number four of insomnia, and Wile was starting to get desperate for more than a quick nap. He got up and went over to a bucket sitting on his dining table, which contained some water. Wile swallowed the pill, finished off the water, then laid back down.
Hours later, Wile was still wide awake. He had hoped the pill would kick in quickly, but all it had seemed to do was make him even more physically tired without slowing his mind down at all. He groaned and got up, standing up to get some more water. He felt lightheaded for a moment - probably another side-effect of the pills. After a moment, the wooziness passed, and Wile went over, finding an empty water bucket. He had forgotten that he finished off the water earlier. It was particularly late, and normally Wile would have waited until the morning, but he decided that the walk and fresh air might do him some good. He grabbed the bucket, and headed out. Normally, it took Wile only a matter of minutes to walk down to the watering hole from his cave. It was not very far away, and he had taken the same way there and back for years. He could have probably walked the route in his sleep, but thanks to a combination of exhaustion and fuzzy-headedness from the sleeping pills, it took all of his concentration to make it there over the course of half an hour. As the small pond came into view, Wile was panting for breath, glad to have finally arrived. He made his way to the edge of the pond, sitting on the dry ground nearby to catch his breath. He was completely exhausted by the trip. His legs ached, and it felt like he had been running non-stop for days. He dipped his bucket into the pond, filling it up, and bringing it up to his mouth to drink. After drinking his fill of water, he filled the bucket up again, setting it next to him as he tried to even his breathing. As he did, his ears suddenly took notice of noise nearby. He looked up to find Roadrunner had come while he was preoccupied, and was currently bent over, drinking from the pond. Wile sat silent and still, staring at Roadrunner. Could he not sleep, either?
Once Roadrunner had finished his drink, he stood back up straight, and looked over at Wile. Roadrunner smiled, but the smile quickly vanished as he took a look at the coyote. Normally when he saw the coyote, his eyes were bright and alert. At the moment, Wile's eyes were bloodshot and glazed over. Instead of looking at Roadrunner, he instead seemed to be vacantly staring through him.
"Hey, um... you don't look so good," Roadrunner said quietly. "Are you feeling all right?" Roadrunner didn't really expect an answer. After all, the coyote had never answered him before, even when he was feeling okay. Wile, however, continued to stare in Roadrunner's direction. He had heard the question, but the words seemed to be bouncing around in his head, getting interrupted by other thoughts as he tried to put them together to understand the question. Wile rubbed his eyes in an attempt to bring his mind back under his control, then looked back up at Roadrunner, who was still wearing the same concerned expression. He felt well enough, he thought to himself, but he had some questions of his own to which he finally wanted answers.
"Roadrunner," Wile said, quietly and curtly. The bird smiled slightly - this was the first time the coyote had ever spoken to him, after all! "I would ask you a question, but understand that it changes nothing between us. When I catch you, you shall be my dinner." Roadrunner had hoped the coyote would be a bit friendlier, but put the thought aside for the moment.
"Of course," he offered. "And please, my friends call me Roadie!" he added, trying to lighten the coyote's mood a bit.
"I see," Wile replied, blankly. Wile's nose crinkled at that, first at the thought of being Roadie's "friend," but then at the thought the bird actually had other friends. He got distracted, lost in his thoughts again. He had never seen anyone else, roadrunner or otherwise, in the desert in all the time he had lived here. Given his proclivity to speed, Wile figured that physical distance wouldn't be as much of a limitation to Roadie as it would be to himself. But he saw the roadrunner on an almost daily basis. Surely he couldn't be leaving to visit anyone? Wile caught himself getting distracted, and shook his head to try to clear his thoughts again.
"Roadrunner," he said, specifically and intentionally avoiding using the nickname Roadie had given him, "what is your angle?" he finally asked. Roadie tilted his head slightly at the question as he thought about it, confused by what the coyote meant.
"My... angle?" he repeated.
"Yes. Every single day you've naught to say to me short of that aggravating 'beep beep' nonsense. Yet any time you see me here, you are suddenly interested in chatting. Why is that? Are you taunting me?" Wile asked, accusatorily. Roadie fidgeted a bit, looking down at his feet as he shifted his weight from one to the other.
"No, no, it's not that!" he blurted out. "It's just that..." Roadie paused for a moment, trying to think of what he wanted to say. "It's just that normally you don't seem all that interested in conversation during the day. And I figured the first time you saw me here at night a while back, I was just going to have to keep running at night, too." Roadie looked back up at Wile, smiling slightly again. "But you've always been nice to me at night! So I just wanted to try to return the favor and be nice to you, too. That's all!" he said, holding a wing up in the air as if to say "I promise." Wile stared at Roadie, who grew uncomfortable once again under the coyote's scrutiny. Wile's face said everything that was on his mind - it was clear to Roadie that he didn't seem very convinced. After a few more silent moments, though, Wile looked down at the pond (to Roadie's relief).
"Hmph. Don't confuse my desires to wind down from a long day and relax with being nice, Roadrunner." Roadie smiled at this, though - if the coyote really wasn't trying to be nice, he thought to himself, he wouldn't be talking to him right now. On top of that, he also wouldn't be indirectly reassuring him that he had nothing to worry about at night! "I shall be taking my leave now," Wile said, interrupting Roadie's thoughts. He looked up, glaring at the roadrunner who was still wearing the silly smile on his face. "Beware, for tomorrow will be the day I seize my victory!" Roadie said nothing more, but nodded and waved amicably at Wile. He turned around to trot off, not even running.
Wile watched as the roadrunner turned to leave, then took the handle of his bucket, standing up. By this point, however, the sleeping pills were starting to kick in at full force, and they made him extremely dizzy as he rose. Caught off-balance, Wile toppled forward into the watering hole with a yelp and a loud splash. Roadie stopped and turned back around to see what the noise was, looking back just in time to see Wile drag himself back out of the pond onto dry ground, next to the bucket. Wile lay on the ground, panting, and Roadie took a few tentative, cautious steps forward. He wasn't certain whether this was some kind of trap or not to throw him off his guard.
"Hey, coyote, are you okay?" Roadie asked, worried.
"I'm perfectly fine!" Wile snarled, scrambling to sit back up. "Begone! I need no one's assistance! I don't need your assistance!" he shouted, trying to catch his breath again from the shock of falling over into the water. He closed his eyes, rubbing them with closed fists. He didn't need Roadie's help, and he especially didn't need Roadie's pity, he thought to himself, annoyed. As if to prove his point, Wile stood up again, but his balance was still completely shot, and he fell forward onto the ground, face first. Roadie was sure of one of two things - either the coyote was the best actor he had ever seen, or something was really wrong with him.
"Perfectly fine, huh?" Roadie echoed softly. He thought for a moment, and decided to do something stupid. He took a chance, and walked over to Wile and his bucket, leaning his head down to thread his head through the handle of the bucket, lifting it up so that it hung around his neck. Some water sloshed onto him, but it was still mostly full. Wile had rolled back over, staring up at the roadrunner. "Let me take this for you at least," Roadie offered. "Come on, can you stand up?" Wile nodded, and he got to his feet once more, but once again staggered. This time, Roadie dashed to break his fall. "Hey, lean on me for support if you have to," he ordered. Wile felt as though his head was on fire. He was exhausted, he was soaking wet, his head was spinning. He felt terrible enough as it was, and now he was being totally embarrassed by having to use Roadie as support. He stood upright, putting a wet hand on Roadie's back to stabilize himself, and Roadie looked at him, smiling encouragingly. "There you go, buddy. Easy does it, okay? Come on, let's get you back home."
Wile was completely silent as the pair walked, specifically looking away from Roadie or down at the ground as they started the walk back towards Wile's cave. Roadie was not used to moving so slowly, and especially not around the coyote. He was at least pleased with himself that he had made the right choice. The coyote really was in trouble. Roadie could tell from Wile's hand on his back, which he could feel shaking and leaning heavily on him for support. The silence was getting awkward, so Roadie decided to take another chance and make some conversation. Besides breaking the silence, he thought, maybe he could even understand the coyote a little bit more.
"So, what do your friends call you?" Roadie asked.
"Had I any nearby to speak of, they would call me by my name," Wile answered, curtly.
"And what is that name?" Roadie prompted. Wile didn't answer immediately, though. He silently wrestled with himself, wondering whether he really wanted to be on a first name basis with the bird. While he debated, Roadie caught himself thinking about the first part of Wile's answer. Roadie knew what it was like to be lonely, after all. Most of his friends were tired of living so deep in the desert, and quite a while back there was an exodus of roadrunners as they moved away to find more hospitable habitats. Roadie enjoyed his home, though, so he alone had stayed behind while all his friends moved on, one by one.
Roadie was so lost in his own thoughts, he hadn't even noticed the lack of an answer to his question. He frowned a bit, when suddenly the coyote came to a decision, and he got an answer.
"Wile. Wile E. Coyote," he said, introducing himself. Roadie's eyes widened in surprise, and his face lit up!
"Wile E. Coyote, huh?" Roadie asked, amused. "Would you mind if I called you Wily?" he asked, teasingly.
"Call me whatever you like," Wile answered, still looking down at the ground. He was growing more and more irritated by the second. Whatever these awful sleeping pills had done to him, he was now being forced to get closer to his dinner-to-be (without a knife and fork in hand, anyway) than he would have liked. Besides Roadie's physical proximity to him, Roadie was also starting to grow closer personally to Wile. He supposed it didn't matter in the long run. After all, it wasn't as though Roadie was the one hunting him. But he was at Roadie's mercy right now. Without his help, Wile would still be stuck on the ground back at the watering hole, and who knows who or what else may have come along? While he was grateful for Roadie's help, he rationalized that at the end, none of it mattered. He had clearly set expectations up front, after all. Nothing was to change between them... right?
Roadie did not try to press any further conversation, and the rest of the trip was spent in silence. They were, thankfully, very close to Wile's cave, and arrived in a matter of minutes. Between the physical exhaustion and the mental stress over everything that had happened that evening, Wile's head was barely able to put together a coherent thought anymore. His mind leapt from subject to subject, but without any sort of rhyme or reason, and at a much slower pace than it had been. He was thankful for that, at least - maybe he would finally be able to get some rest tonight. As they approached, Roadie noticed the cave had no door, so he led Wile straight inside. Roadie stopped for a moment, and set the bucket of water on the dining table, pulling his head back out from the handle. With one piece of his cargo taken care of, he led the other to his bed. As soon as they were in range, Wile (who was mostly dry by this point) flopped down into his bed, groaning.
"There you go," Roadie said quietly. "How are you feeling, Wily?"
"Mrrh. Bed sleep," Wile mumbled, followed by some unintelligible noises - presumably failed attempts at words. Roadie giggled.
"I'm going to hope that means okay," he said, grinning. "You get some sleep, and I hope you feel better! I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" he asked. Wile said nothing in reply, but instead rolled over onto his side to face away from the bird, making more unintelligible noises. Roadie turned around and started to leave the cave, but heard one last thing from Wile before he left. A few more muffled words, but at the end one caught his ear and was clear as day.
"Roadie."
Wile awoke the next morning to the sun shining into his cave... and a pounding headache that could floor an elephant. Wile groaned and sat up, looking around. He knew he slept, but he was still tired. His head was fuzzy, but he felt much better than he did last night. "Wait," Wile thought to himself, "last night? What happened yesterday?" He racked his brain, but to his horror, he realized he couldn't remember anything that happened yesterday! He looked around his room, and saw the bottle of sleeping pills on his bedside table. He knew he took some yesterday evening, he remembered that much. He continued looking around until he noticed the bucket of water sitting on his dining table. That was enough to jog Wile's memory. He remembered it all; feeling terrible, going to the watering hole, his chat with Roadie, his quickly deteriorating state, and - worst of all - the fact that Roadie had to help him get back home. Wile growled to himself, and if it was possible to blush through a face full of fur, he was. How could he have let himself compromise his hunt like that? How could he show weakness to his prey? And, most importantly, how could he embarrass himself like that? None of it mattered, Wile thought to himself, taking a seat at his desk. It didn't matter at all. He opened a drawer and pulled out a large, thick book - the latest ACME catalog - letting it slam down with a thud on the desktop. Wile's head continued pounding, and he flipped idly through the book, but found he was quite unable to focus on putting any of the items he saw to use in his mind.
Between his inability to focus, his terrible headache, and his lingering shame over the previous night, Wile was in a particularly foul mood. He was completely distracted until he heard a noise over near the entrance of his cave. He looked over, and his eyes narrowed at the sight. Roadie stood outside, peeking in apprehensively. The sight of the roadrunner only served to exacerbate Wile's already poor mood and his insecurities over the previous night.
"Roadrunner," Wile said, half growling. Roadie, however, stepped in, smiling warmly.
"Wily, good morning! I'm glad to see you're up, you look like you're feeling a lot better today!" Wile couldn't have disagreed more, not based on the current throbbing in his head.
"What are you doing here?" Wile asked curtly. The smile melted off of Roadie's face, and was quickly replaced by a look of concern.
"I... I just wanted to check on you," Roadie said, quietly. "I wanted to see if you were doing any better. You were in really bad shape last night, you know?"
"I am aware of my previous state, yes," Wile snapped. "Your concern is neither warranted nor welcomed. Leave," Wile ordered, not in the mood for any further discussion. Roadie's concern shifted once more, this time becoming blatant sadness.
"But I-"
"I said leave!" Wile shouted. Roadie's beak snapped shut, and he turned around without another word, running off.
Wile sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. Shouting didn't do anything but make his headache worse. After taking a moment to cool down, he also realized his headache had spread to become a knot in his stomach. Probably a product of disappointment in himself, he thought. After all, he may have intended to catch and eat the bird, but that was no reason to be uncivilized towards someone who did help him - no matter how humiliated he may have felt at the time.
"Hey, Roadrunner, come back," Wile said, hoping he had remained within earshot. There was no sign of the bird, though, so Wile got up, going over to the doorway of his cave. "Roadrunner! Are you there?" he said, slightly louder this time. Wile waited, listening carefully, but heard no noises nearby. He sighed, and mentally prepared himself to yell again. "Roadrunner! Come back!" he shouted, his head pounding as he did. As Wile waited, he found he was practically holding his breath. He chided himself for acting so stupid about this - but if he thought he was being stupid about it, why was the knot in his stomach getting worse? Frustrated, Wile went back to his desk chair, flopping down upon it.
"Great," Wile thought to himself. "Now I've fallen into the accursed bird's trap. His civility must have been a dastardly ploy, meant to make me feel bad, to play on my emotions. I daresay it would have been better if I had turned down his help from the beginning and took my chances sleeping down at the watering hole," he thought, putting the ACME catalog back into the drawer. "Although," he thought, looking over towards the bucket of water that Roadie had so graciously carried back for him last night, "perhaps I was a bit hasty in dismissing him this morning. And a bit callous towards his feelings, too." Wait, why was he sympathizing with the roadrunner now? Wile growled, and slammed his fist down on his desk. His head throbbed, but he didn't even care at this point.
"Precisely why should I care about my dinner's feelings in the first place, anyway?!" Wile shouted to no one in particular. "The stupid bird is a meal on legs, nothing more!"
Wile may have shouted the words out loud, but even he could hear the hollowness of his words. He wanted to be indignant; he wanted to be the righteous victim who was taken advantage of by the evil roadrunner; he wanted desperately to be in the right. But deep inside, he knew how wrong that was. Even after the innumerable times that he tried to catch the roadrunner, even knowing what the coyote had in store for him, even though he knew doing so made him vulnerable and risked losing everything to the coyote - Roadie genuinely cared enough to risk himself to help Wile. Wile groaned, and let his head flop down onto the desk. The impact drove the pressure in his head to feel like it was in a vice grip about to pop, but at the same time he also felt like he deserved it. Roadie helped him, showed concern, and here he was being a complete jerk, driving him away. Wile may have been a super genius, but when it came to dealing with others, he was a simpleton. He knew one thing, at least - he had made a mistake, and he resolved to fix it.
His mind was made up, but now Wile had a new problem - how was he going to find Roadie? He could try hunting him down during the day, but not only was that going to be difficult (not aided at all by his headache), Roadie would probably assume that Wile was simply hunting him to catch and eat as usual. Roadie knew where he lived, but he was pretty sure Roadie wouldn't be coming back again. He had no idea where Roadie lived, so that left one option - Wile figured his best option was to wait for nighttime. He would go down to the watering hole, and wait for Roadie there. He spent the rest of the day laying in bed, resting, and trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to say to Roadie. Once the sun started to set, Wile headed down to the watering hole, sitting in his usual spot at the edge of the pond. He waited there throughout the night, forcing himself to stay awake. There was no sign of anyone that evening, though, and Wile only gave up as he noticed the sun starting to rise. Yawning, Wile stood up and stretched, heading back home to go to sleep. Wile was a bit disappointed, but it was not unusual to not see Roadie there. He normally saw the roadrunner there once every other day or two, so it was just a matter trying again the next day.
Unfortunately for Wile, it didn't end up being quite as straightforward as he hoped. As Wile sat by the pond under the faint light of a crescent moon, he started to get worried. This was day five, and there was still no sign of Roadie. Over the course of the week, Wile found himself unable to concentrate when he was awake, and almost looked forward to coming to wait at the pond. Every day that passed ended up causing his conscience to grow heavier and heavier - at first, Wile was worried over trying to find the best way to say what he wanted to say. Now, Wile was growing more and more concerned that he may not get the opportunity at all. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Roadie approaching from the opposite end of the pond to drink. Roadie bent his head down to the water, taking a drink, and Wile excitedly hopped up to his feet. The motion startled Roadie, who jumped back to stand upright. He was about to bolt, when he noticed exactly who it was that startled him.
"Oh. It's you," Roadie said, emotionlessly.
"Yeah," Wile said quietly. Wile felt so stupid at the moment. He had had the better part of a week to prepare himself, to get what he wanted to say ready, and the best he could come up with was "yeah?"
"I'll be leaving now," Roadie said, turning away as he started to walk off, surprising Wile.
"Wait!" Wile called out, causing Roadie to stop. He looked over his shoulder at the coyote, but said nothing further. "I just... can we talk for a moment?" Wile asked, desperately.
"About what? I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome," Roadie said. He was trying to keep his voice even, but Wile picked up on something. Roadie was obviously still upset over the other day, but he couldn't figure out in what manner he was upset. Was he angry? Sad? Wile realized he had no idea. He knew next to nothing about Roadie, and couldn't even begin to guess.
"I have some things I want to ask you," Wile explained. "But I have something important I wanted to tell you first." Roadie sighed and turned around to face Wile. Wile waited for a moment, but it was quickly apparent that Roadie was not going to come any closer. Wile couldn't really blame Roadie for being cautious, but he wasn't in the mood to be subtle about things. Wile just wanted to get what he had to say off his chest. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.
"Would you at least come over here?" Wile asked. "I don't want to shout it for the whole desert to hear!" Roadie, anticipating a repeat of the other day, took a step back and turned around, preparing to leave once again.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather skip it, then," Roadie said as he began to walk off. "I'll see you around."
Wile thought desperately - he had to get the roadrunner to stop, to listen to what he had to say. He didn't want to chase him in fear of scaring him off, but how could he stop him?
"Roadie, wait!" Wile cried. Roadie stopped suddenly, and turned to look back at Wile. It was the first time Wile had (consciously, anyway) used his nickname. Roadie was still upset, but it gave him some small hope that whatever Wile had to say would be good. He slowly approached Wile, but still stopped a fair distance away. As if to appease him and show him that he meant no harm, Wile sat down on the ground. Roadie continued to approach, finally stopping a yard or two away. He looked down at Wile.
"All right, I'm here. What is it?" Roadie asked cautiously. Wile took and released a deep breath, preparing himself and mentally gathering the strength to say what he needed to say.
"Listen, I've got a few things to say. This is really hard for me, so please, let me get through them before you say anything, okay?" Roadie nodded, and Wile continued. "First of all, I want to apologize for how I acted the other day. I've never been comfortable around others, but it was still inexcusable of me to treat you so rudely." Roadie's eyes widened in surprise - was Wile saying what he thought he was saying? "In all honesty, I appreciated your concern over my well-being. I still do, actually. So please, can you forgive my crassness?"
"Of course I do, Wily!" Roadie said brightly, his face and voice returning to their usual cheerful demeanor. Wile just sighed in relief, feeling as though a great weight was just lifted off of his shoulders.
"Oh, thank you! I have felt simply awful over what I said and how I treated you," Wile admitted. "Especially after how helpful you were. Which, actually, brings me to another thing I wanted to say. I do not remember if I properly thanked you for accompanying me back home that evening. So if I did not before, I want to give you my gratitude now. Thank you again for being there for me." Roadie was positively glowing at this - he hadn't expected Wile to be so gracious, especially with how he acted during their last meeting.
"You're welcome!" Roadie said, beaming. "I mean, you really looked in a bad way that night. I'm just glad I was able to help you. That's why I was a little sad that next morning when you snapped at me the way you did. To be honest, I've been kind of down since then. I thought you were just mean and cranky," Roadie admitted with a small giggle. Wile couldn't help but chuckle at this.
"Well, one does have a tendency to be 'mean and cranky' when one suffers from a headache and several days of insomnia," Wile said, trying to justify his foul mood at the time. Roadie, however, suddenly got the concerned look back on his face at that. Wile hesitated once again - he realized he hated to see Roadie worrying.
"Listen, Roadie, I've got one last thing to ask you," Wile said, trying to change the subject. It wasn't a topic he particularly wanted to breach, but he knew he had to. "Perhaps this is selfish of me, but it would relieve me to be able to at least get this into the open between us." Roadie looked even more worried about this. "In fact, you don't have to answer or even respond, if you don't want to." Roadie fidgeted nervously, but nodded.
"Okay. Go ahead," he said. Wile was about to speak, when he hesitated once again. He could feel his embarrassment creeping back up inside of him, his shame, his pride. They started to make him second-guess himself, started to make him wonder if he was doing the right thing. This time, however, Wile continued on, staring at the ground.
"Roadie, you're so unquestioningly nice. Even to me. Especially to me," Wile added. "I... I want to know why you don't hate me." Roadie's eyes widened in surprise at the question. What did Wile mean? Wile, however, continued. "My sole purpose has been to catch you and eat you. All day long, day after day, for a very long time now. At first, it frustrated me. I mean, how difficult could it be to catch a bird?" he asked with a wry chuckle. "But then it grew into irritation," he continued, his voice getting a little softer. "No, maybe irritation isn't even the right word. Maybe it was even hate. I hated you for constantly avoiding me, humiliating me, and all you would say to me was 'beep beep,' as if to mock me!"
"I-" Roadie started, but Wile held up a finger.
"Please, let me finish!" Wile pleaded, and Roadie's beak snapped shut. He didn't want to lose his train of thought, not when he had come so far already. Roadie remained silent, and Wile continued. "That's how I felt, anyway. I think the zenith was when we first met here. It was finally too much for me to bear. Not only did you mock me all day long, but now you show up to mock me even at home? It was like another slap in the face," Wile confessed. He paused, and Roadie remained silent. Wile looked up at him, and it was clear by Roadie's face that he felt bad by what Wile was saying. Unquestioningly nice, Wile thought again. Even now, even over something that's not even his fault. Wile finally continued speaking again. "After a while, though, I finally realized that wasn't the case. It was a coincidence that you and I shared that watering hole, nothing more. It was not another taunt, not malice. Just thirst. And when I realized that, I realized... well, maybe it went beyond that. It's obvious in hindsight now, but of course you avoided me. I tried to catch and eat you, after all. And you never humiliated me. I did an excellent job of doing that to myself," Wile admitted. "I finally started to realize all of this as you started to become more and more comfortable around me at night when we saw each other here. If you had meant any of it maliciously, you wouldn't have settled with hanging around here casually. I knew this all, but I fought myself. I forced myself to disbelieve it. I was embarrassed. My pride kept me from realizing any of it until now. Some super genius I am. Ha!" Wile concluded with a sarcastic, self-demeaning laugh.
Roadie had been silent this whole time. He waited for Wile to continue, but realized that Wile was finally spoken his piece. Wile had just laid out his feelings, and fully expected Roadie to hate him now. But neither Wile nor Roadie himself quite expected what happened next - Roadie finally approached to stand next to Wile, and sat down on the ground next to him, hugging him!
Wile looked over in surprise at Roadie, who was smiling warmly.
"I've never hated you, Wily!" Roadie said, sounding almost surprised he had to say it. "It's like you said, I just didn't want to be anyone's dinner. That's the reason I ran. But I knew you didn't chase me because you hated me. You were just hungry, right? If we're being honest, well, I suppose it may have been silly of me, but it wasn't until we first met here and you didn't try to eat me that it dawned on me. It was really the first time I thought of you as anything more than... well, than as a mindless predator," Roadie said, blushing slightly. He didn't mean to make Wile feel worse, and he continued quickly. "I mean, if you were, you would have tried to chase me then, too. But ever since then, every night, you've always let me be. I never intended to mock you or humiliate you, Wily. And I always knew that things would be the same every morning. But I guess I hoped that - at night, at least - we could be friends." Friends, Wile thought. Once, he wanted to keep the roadrunner distant. That ship had sailed now.
"I suppose we've moved past all that now," Wile said with a sigh, looking at Roadie with a weak, defeated smile. Roadie looked slightly alarmed - what did he mean by that? "You don't honestly think that now that we've had a talk like this that I'm just going to wait until the morning to chase you down and eat you?" Roadie's whole body tensed up at this. Was this all a trap after all? After how honest he just was with the coyote, was Wile going to eat him right then and there? But Wile continued, oblivious to the alternate meaning his words held. "I mean, after all... friends don't eat each other by day or by night, do they?" Roadie froze for a moment until he processed what Wile said, and finally sighed, relieved. Wile just laughed. "What, after all that, you didn't actually think I was going to eat you, did you?"
"No, no, of course not!" Roadie said, forcing a laugh. He was clearly embarrassed, and did a particularly poor job of masking the true answer to Wile's question.
"Listen, I know it probably seems sudden, but you've nothing to fear from me anymore," Wile said earnestly. "I understand that trusting me straightaway is probably going to be tough, so..."
"I trust you," Roadie said quickly, interrupting the coyote. Wile looked surprised, and Roadie smiled again. "I don't think anything you've said is untrue. I hope you think the same of me, too. I'm just glad that you finally feel like you can talk to me and we can be honest with each other. That's why I trust you, Wily. I really do."
"Thanks, Roadie," Wile said, grinning back. If Roadie was continuing to be completely honest, the coyote's sharp teeth were still a bit unnerving at close range, but he put that thought out of his mind quickly.
With their talk finally over (and both feeling much better about things than when they had started), Wile yawned, stretching.
"Well, I'm beat," Wile said, standing up. Roadie subconsciously jumped at the movement, scrambling to his feet as well. Wile looked at him, and Roadie smiled, obviously embarrassed once again.
"Uh, sorry. Force of habit," he said, meekly. Wile smiled back, but this time Roadie was almost sure he picked up on a bit of sadness in Wile's eyes.
"It's okay, Roadie, it's okay. Like I said, you don't have to force yourself to trust me all at once. But I really am glad we had the chance to talk. I'm going to head back and go to sleep. I'll see you around, okay?" Roadie nodded.
"Good night, Wily!" With that, Wile headed off towards his cave. Roadie, however, sat back down on the ground, thinking. "I want to prove to Wily that I trust him. I know he was telling the truth. How can I prove it to him, though?" Roadie remained there for quite a while through the night, silently thinking, until he got an idea. He stood up and dashed off in the direction of Wile's cave.
The next morning, Wile woke up, yawning and stretching. It was early in the day, so he couldn't have slept very long. Despite this, Wile still felt like he had slept better than he had in a very, very long time... months, maybe? He got out of bed, but quickly noticed something odd as he stood up - Roadie was laying on the floor inside his cave, over by the doorway. Wile quietly approached him to see what he was doing, but found that Roadie was sound asleep. Wile noticed the roadrunner had a note laying on the floor next to him, and Wile quietly bent down to pick it up and read it. It was written in pen on a piece of paper Wile recognized as being from his desk, and in neat, unfamiliar handwriting which he could only assume was Roadie's. The note was only four words long:
"I trust you, Wily."
The coyote smiled, and went over to his bed, picking up his blanket and shaking it out slightly. He laid it over the sleeping roadrunner, very gently so as not to disturb or wake him. He stepped carefully over Roadie, and headed outside. He may have lost dinner, he thought to himself, but he could take solace that he gained something much better in return - a true friend.