Behind The Mask

Friends?

     Both Chase and Mayor Humdinger have finished their apples and now, both of them are sitting on an edge of the cliff, facing the ocean to where they could see Foggy Bottom in a far off distance. Neither of them wondered why, but it just happened.

"So," Chase began and Humdinger glanced at him when he began to speak, "Why were you at Porters Café?" Chase asked, wondering what made his arch-nemesis go to the restaurant. Mayor Humdinger went silent for a quick moment, but answered:

"Meh, I didn't have any food and of course, Foggy Bottom has no shops so this is the only close place I could come to." Mayor Humdinger explained.

"What about the fish that you ordered? I noticed that Captain Turbot delivered huge batches of them over to Foggy Bottom." Chase pointed and Mayor Humdinger only glared at his cage with his kittens eating fish.

"Well, when you're taking care of kittens, they tend to get hungry a lot. They don't even share!" Mayor Humdinger said angrily, making Chase smirk.

"Hah! And that's why you should take care of dogs. We are known as humans best friends." Chase said with a smug grin and Mayor Humdinger glared at him now. Both of them were huge opposites. While Mayor Humdinger had a huge dislike towards dogs, Chase kind of had a dislike towards kittens since he was allergic to them, but he didn't have a problem with all cats, just the Kitten-Catastrophe Crew.

"Oh, gimme a break! At least they don't slobber all over their toys." Mayor Humdinger argued.

"At least we don't become bored easily." Chase argued back. Now both of them were starting to get irritated.

"Please, you guys tend to be a pain in my butt all the time!" Mayor Humdinger brought up.

"Well maybe we wouldn't be if you didn't cause so much trouble. Seriously, you caused a firework monster mayhem back in Adventure City. Rocky's truck was bouncing around like a basketball!" Chase explained.

"Oh please, that was one time." Mayor Humdinger retaliated.

"Dude, you made a train track of three loops and where did that end up? Oh yeah, people were stuck on the top of the loop." Chase deadpanned.

"Okay, you have a point. But so what? You guys are still a pain." Mayor Humdinger backed down and Chase laughed.

"We're the ones who should be saying that, y'know?" Chase said, but silence fell upon them. A breeze blew over and both of them took a second to calm down.

"I was really hoping to buy some dinner for me and my Mom back at our island." Mayor Humdinger admitted and Chase's ears perked when he heard that.

"Helga is back in Foggy Bottom?" Chase asked and Mayor Humdinger nodded.

"Really? When did she come back?" Chase asked.

"Yesterday actually. I was surprised too, but I didn't oppose it." Mayor Humdinger answered and Chase smiled.

"It sounds fun...to be with your Mom." Chase said, but Mayor Humdinger didn't notice the sad tone or the deeper meaning behind that sentence, and Mayor Humdinger actually smiled at that sentence from the police pup.

"Definitely. More fun than being with my dad." Mayor Humdinger said and Chase was surprised since he never heard about Mayor Humdinger's father.

"Oh? I've noticed that your mom visits you without your dad, what's up with that?" Chase asked and saw that Mayor Humdinger's expression had turned into somewhat of a sad but also non-emotional face.

"Oh. Sorry, shouldn't have asked?" Chase asked, he didn't want to upset Humdinger.

"No, it's fine. I'll tell you." Humdinger said, surprising Chase.

"Seriously? No, it's fine. You don't have to talk about something that's personal." Chase said with a nervous chuckle.

"Nah, it's fine," Mayor Humdinger responded and Chase went silent and listened, "My Dad and I...never really got along. He's the sort of father that...expects way too much. And believe me, he expects way too much out of me." Mayor Humdinger laughed off the last part.

"Way too much, how?" Chase asked.

"Well, he wanted me to be good at everything. Math, English, science, history, sports, music, cooking, you name it. He wanted me to be a successful business man like he was back in his days." Humdinger said and continued to speak.

"Of course, me and him argued a lot, it became a daily thing. No matter what I did, it wasn't good enough for him. That's why he favored my brother more than me. He was always good at everything and exceeded my fathers expectations. He's the perfect son, as my dad likes to call him."

Chase softened his eyes. He never saw Mayor Humdinger open up to anyone before, much less to anyone in the Paw Patrol. In quite some time, Chase felt bad for Humdinger. Now he understands why Mayor Humdinger is the way he is, he's constantly trying to prove himself better than anyone else just so he could prove his father and brother wrong.

"I'm sorry...that you had to put up with that." Chase apologized

"Meh, I don't really care. My Mom was the only one nicest to me. So at least I had her." Humdinger shrugged.

"Did you...have any friends?" Chase asked, hoping he would say yes, but Humdinger's expressions already gave him an answer.

"I did, but they were mostly after my money. So I thought I'd be better off alone." Humdinger admitted.

Silence fell upon them as Chase repeated everything that Humdinger had said.

"You're not alone anymore, you know that, right?"

Mayor Humdinger tilted his head to look at Chase, his face didn't show it, but he was sure surprised. Then, a small smile formed.

"Thanks. You know, I never spoke of this to anyone before. I'm surprised I talked about it. Much less, to a dog of the Paw Patrol." Mayor Humdinger said. Chase didn't know whether to take that to offence or not, but he didn't care. Then, he saw Mayor Humdinger reach into his pocket and hand out some money.

"Here, this is for the apples." He said and Chase was tempted but...

"Nah, you keep it. I'm guessing you need it more than me. Plus, I'm glad I could help out." Chase said with a grin and Mayor Humdinger smiled.

"Well, I guess I should head back." Mayor Humdinger sighed and stood up and sat on the cage and pulled out his remote.

"Hey."

Mayor Humdinger turned to look at Chase who stuck his paw out.

"Friends...? For now, at least?" Chase suggested and Mayor Humdinger slightly gasped, but he then gave Chase a warm smile and shook his paw.

"Friends."

"And, whenever you're in trouble, just yelp for help." Chase laughed and so did Humdinger.

"Later." Humdinger said and drove off, leaving Chase behind with his cruiser.

Chase only smiled and walked back to his cruiser and drove back to the lookout and whispered something to only himself as he looked out into the ocean with an orange and yellow sky:

"At least I have someone that I can relate to."