For Reasons Wretched and Divine

Couldn't Save Me if you Tried

The phone call later that night had been a surprise.

Sunshine had asked him if Venus had texted him any pictures, and he said that she had. He listened for a few seconds as she got MIGHTILY flustered on the other line, huffing and apologizing and saying that she didn't think Venus was serious when she said that she would send them.

Happy had reassured her that it was fine and admitted that he liked the picture.

Her end got quiet before she quietly whispered a 'yeah?'

The affirmation was quick and easy as it rolled off his tongue, the truest thing he had said all week.

He couldn't see the smile, knew it was delusional to think that he could, but he could hear the click of her full lips sliding over her perfectly straight white teeth as she grinned, and he could all but feel the warmth of it through the receiver.

He was then treated to a quick story about how Venus insisted on paying for the clothes that she was going to get, even when it was an outrageous sum.

Happy liked this, even more than he was willing to let on. He hung off her every word as she made her way through her house from what he could hear. He could see her in his mind; phone pressed between her ear and shoulder as she loaded the dishwasher, and he listened to the dishes clanking together, then as she made her way to the living room and the excited grunts of Peaches as she settled on the couch with Sunshine. She had admitted that she was scared to ask what Venus did for a living if it allowed her to pay for half a new wardrobe for a week old friendship.

Venus wasn't ashamed of her occupation, and Happy wasn't embarrassed by proxy, so he told her straight out what she did but added that she had severely limited her 'services' since she had started seeing Tig.

"Oh my god," Sunshine had whispered in horror. "Is that why she said I'd look better holding a leash than wearing a collar?"

Happy laughed a loud unintentional noise that echoed in the clubhouse.

Bobby turned his head and stared at him.

The phone call wasn't audaciously long, deep enough to feel personal but not intimate, a big enough streak of domesticity that it made Happy's heart ache in a way that it hadn't in a long time.

Bobby threw him questioning looks for the rest of the night but never asked for the origin of his newfound serenity.

---

Halloween was on the horizon, something that Happy had always correlated with cooling temperatures and falling leaves.

California offered no such things.

Eighty degrees and perfectly sunny, too sunny actually, Happy didn't have hair (by choice), and his central American lineage only offered so much in the sunburn protection category.

And wearing hats made him look even more like a criminal.

He was greeted with the usual "Sunshine, your biker is here," from Melody, as he sat at the counter.

It wasn't crowded today, just a smattering of people filling the booths, quietly soaking in the timeless ambiance of the place, to which Happy approved greatly.

Sunshine gave him a smile and a wave from her spot tucked up in the corner of the counter, no less than three oversized binders overflowing with papers sat around her, a pen between her teeth and one in her hand.

Jim wasn't there, and from what Happy had recently seen, he was less and less. And that meant that Sunshine was having to step up more and more, managing, waitressing, and baking. Happy wasn't sure how her hair wasn't falling out.

The pie Melody served wasn't as good as when Sunshine handed it to him, but he figured that was more in his head than the actual taste.

When she wasn't being flagged down by a customer, Melody sat behind the counter and fidgeted with something in her hands, frowning mightily down at her lap.

Happy minded his own business and ate his pie.

"ERG, " she wailed, throwing a piece of paper on the counter and raising her hands in the air in mock surrender.

It was mostly a crumpled ball, but Happy instantly recognized the creases and figured that it could maybe be a crane if he squinted his eyes and tilted his head.

After wiping his hands on the napkin, he reached for the globbed mess. Melody grunted at him but didn't try to stop him, just frowned as he smoothed the paper out on the counter.

He hadn't folded anything in a while, probably longer ago than he thought, but the crane came into existence with three dimensions all the same.

He slid it back across the counter to a very intrigued looking Melody.

Her 'older than her years' eyes deduced him seconds, and she must have liked what she figured out because she reached under the counter and hauled up a black backpack and slammed it on the counter, rattling the cutlery and earning a reproachful growl from Sunshine.

Melody flapped a placating hand at her and dug through the bag, which sounded suspiciously simultaneously crunchy and wet, and produced a packet of origami paper like she had pulled the sword from the stone.

It thwapped nicely on the counter as she slapped in front of Happy.

"Make me another."

"Please?" Sunshine suggested, not looking up from her paperwork.

"Please?" Melody added, facing him with the full force of her big blue eyes.

It's not like he had anything better to do.

Another crane, a frog, a mantis, and three stars were constructed under the captivated eye of Melody, who was leaning so far over on the counter, Happy wondered if her feet were actually touching the ground.

The next paper he took, he set it in front of her and carefully explained where to fold and how to do it, how to get a sharper crease, and when to know if the paper was getting too worn.

Melody absorbed the information like a sponge, nodding along with his description and following his instruction perfectly.

And there sat a tiny crane, a little messy and crooked but unmistakably a crane.

Melody looked up and grinned at Happy, a sharp-toothed thing that he related to all too well, and he couldn't help but smile back.

He wasn't sure how long he sat at the counter and helped her learn to fold, even venturing out into dollar bills, but it was worth every second.

---

As inconspicuously as she could, Sunshine lifted her phone and took a quick picture of the scene folding out in front of her. Happy and Melody we're both leaning down over the counter, so lost in concentration that their heads were a scant inch from touching.

It made her unreasonably pleased to see the two bonding like this, knowing how hard it was for them to make friends or even get along with another person.

Any hope she had of squashing the growing feeling in her chest when it came to Happy was blown away when she caught him praising the girl for her folding technique. It was a simple, normal thing to do, but Melody thrived off praise like it was her lifeblood, a residual after-effect of her life before the system.

Heart practically bursting from her chest, Sunshine could only give a smile when they both turned to her, beaming ear to ear, holding up matching turtles because tears were threatening to leak from her eyes.

Notes:

Typed this all on my phone because I'm stranded at my sister's house because of a blizzard and battling a migraine. Sorry for lack of quality and grammar.