Hey, he needed that head start! If it wasn't for nearly being halfway up the stairs already, he would have been left in the dust entirely! Taking the boxes from her with ease, he'd be smiling ear to ear had he the skin to show, but Mettle had learned to start communicating expressions a little better with body language. Standing up a little straighter, he laughed, "No offense, but I can't see that little tummy of his eating three large pizzas unless he can get a triceratops stomach or something." The image in his head was rather comical of Berto with some massive bulge in his torso where the stomach would take place and a very content, snoozing boy drawn in the style of Garfield. "It's good to be here. To actually see you and hear your voice, I mean, you really do realize how impersonal all that texting and computer stuff can be."
It was definitely much more real to be in her presence and to know that Berto was somewhere near too. He waited patiently for her to open the door and get them into the apartment. The place was still pretty amazing. Heck, it was bigger than his home back on the beach, but, then again, it was missing the beach and several, several, several feet above sea level entirely. It made him a little nervous being so high with little escape somewhere. But there wasn't anything to be nervous about right? That's what he thought when he and Hazmat were doing their own thing and then... Nah, he had to shake that thought from his head as he looked around, kicking his boots off instinctively before going any further into the place (momma taught him better than that!), he headed towards the kitchen so that he could put the boxes down on the counter, turnabout, and then pick up his friend in a rather tight hug. "It's so good to see you, Julie. I'm really glad you're okay!"