Chapter Text
Doc noticed it on the ride over to Season 8. Ren was touchy. He didn’t seem to know the concept of personal space. He loved to get up in Doc's space all the time. Admittedly it was a small RV you ended up bumping shoulders and ended up pressing into each other no matter what. But Ren seemed to make it his mission to just be in Doc's way. No matter what. It was almost second nature for Doc to have Ren at his side, warm and touching him in such an open way and the bubbly man was just.... a head rush for Doc.
The others tend to see his creations as fearful Nether bent machines, with him some sort of mad monster and he would agree, it was accurate after all. He really did live up to his name. Ren on the other hand just laughed and got excited with him, praising Doc so damn much even when the man has no idea what Doc was doing. He was just happy for him. Doc was worried he was going to get an ego at this rate.
So when one morning it was unusual to see Ren so... Churlish. Snappish. Skittish. Doc already had enough of this morning with his coffee tasting particularly shitty. Doc drank it as Doc watched him squirming next to him, snapping at anything and sighing. Ren's leg was twitching, and he kept shifting so something was up.
Doc didn’t want to get into Ren’s business though. It was Ren’s business. If he wanted to talk about it, Doc would happily nod and listen but Doc was happy to ignore him until Ren approached him about it. So Doc stared at the TV, watching the same documentary DVD they been watching for the last month again muted but this time with another type of subtitles on. Doc almost knew the documentary word for word, so he thought he might be learning another language.
Ren didn’t stop or settled down, still growling under his breath as he stared at the TV screen. Doc tried to focus on the tiny TV and sipped his coffee. Ren kept muttering under his breath, sounding upset. Eventually it started to irk Doc a little. Usually, Ren would just make up funny and strange voices and stories for the footage. Sometimes it would make Doc throw his head back and laugh as Ren made up entirely new stories, usually overly dramatic novella sort of things.
Doc got half an hour in before Ren turned to him and snapped. “Dude! Stay on your own fucking side!” Ren snarled shoving at Doc’s leg. Doc could have moved but he knew it wasn’t the real reason that Ren was snapping at him. He didn't even know what the real reason why they were fighting about once Ren pressed into his space growling. That was now crossing a line.
Doc raised an eyebrow and snarled back. "Did someone piss in your kennel this morning?" He finally snapped back. He had enough of the man’s shitty attitude. Yes, they were trapped in the RV and Ren might be having a bad day, but he had no fucking right in making it Doc’s problem too.
"Fight me." Ren replied, voice low and dark, just barely words. Apparently Ren gave up trying to communicate like a human and broke into feral sounding snarls. That made Doc turn his head. Coupled with Ren showing off his fangs, Doc realised the dog hybrid was deadly serious.
Doc took the sight of Ren in, the man was bristling, hands already bunched into fists, and his ears was pinned back. He looked pissed but not his usual angry. This looked and felt more feral. To a lesser man that might have given them pause but Doc wasn’t one to back down from a challenge.
Doc looked around the cramped space, already trying to figure out how much furniture they could shove to the side to make space for activities. "Not muc..." He stopped mid-sentence as Ren grabbed at him. The pair wrestled, twisting, and snarling at each other on the sofa. Doc was no slouch in hand to hand, he had a foot in height on Ren and about 30lbs more of muscle. He soon had the hybrid pinned to the sofa, metal arm against his throat pinning him to the faded cushions. "What the fuck man?" He had to ask.
Ren looked a bit spaced out as he lay under him finally stilling. His face was almost slack instead of the pissed off snarls that Doc had been dealing with all morning. It was a little concerning how differing the change was. Doc moved his arm a little wondering if he cut off too much of his oxygen. "No... Don't. Helps." Ren moaned and tugged Doc's arm back up.
Doc spoke lowly, his mind whirring as he took Ren in. "You are getting off on this?" He asked confused. He had heard whispers of people who get off on this, liking to be pinned and hurt and used. He never thought Ren would be one of those people though. Ren seemed… normal. Well not that normal. He was a Hermit after all. They were all a little… normal adjacent as Joe would have described them.
Ren was red and calmer sounding. "No!" He managed. "Need to blow off steam!" He sounded confused and Doc didn't know what to do. Ren needed help. Doc could provide that help. It was uncomfortable to him but not painful. He wanted to help Ren. Doc counted to 600 in his head before letting go. Ren stayed there, still, and quiet. Not quite back to normal but better than the feral pissed off version.
Doc sat back and looked at his friend. "Just blowing off steam?" He asked, still conflicted over it. It wasn’t normal but they were two hybrids riding a spaceship RV to another world, not normal was their normal.
Ren finally moved and stroked his throat, feeling at the spot that Doc knew would be bruised come the morning. "Yeah. Sometimes I get worked up. Like too much energy, dude. Usually, I run it off or chop wood until everything hurts but no wood and no running in the RV." Ren mumbled.
Doc nodded. Made sense to him. Ren was always so energetic and running around so a month in a cramped RV would suck. He had similar moments where he had ideas for builds and circuitry but the things he needed to do, just didn’t exist yet and his mind burned with possibilities. Doc usually ate pasta and drank whiskey until he got over it though. He had no idea why being choked out on the sofa helped Ren, but it did apparently. "Next time just ask me." Doc told him decidedly. They were friends. If Ren needed help, he could definitely help him.
Ren gave him an odd look. Like Doc was odd for saying that more than Ren was odd for needing to be choked out to find his inner peace. Doc shrugged, feeling his face hot. "Supposed to work together." He finally told him, not sure how to even address or describe the inner mess of his head and feelings.
Ren nodded and shifted. "Gonna uh go to bed dude." He told him even though it was technically mid-morning by their inner clocks. Ren headed to the bunk-bed and climbed on the lower bunk. Doc waved him off and turned to watch the documentary, occasionally shooting the curtained off bunk confused looks as he tried to sort his head and feelings out about the new possible aspect of their friendship.