Left for Dead

04

Once again, Mikey and Sunshine sat at a table across from each other, this time with Mikey's bare arm on a mostly-clean towel between them. It was a fairly nasty burn, and they both stared at it for a moment before Sunshine sighed, eyes flickering to her own shiny burns.

"Sorry, hope you don't mind scars." She didn't meet Mikey's gaze when he looked over, and he realized that she really was bothered. About scarring him, or her own scars, or some combination of the two, Mikey wasn't sure. As she started cleaning, he flinched, and wound up looking away, trying to focus on anything other than the stinging and burning. Somehow he found himself hypnotized by the push and pull of her scars as she carefully cleaned and bandaged him.

"Stop staring at me." Sunshine didn't look up, stubbornly finishing fixing Mikey up, but there was an edge of defensiveness to her voice that Mikey hadn't heard, even when she was trying to get out of the ambush outside his diner.

"Sorry." Mikey grimaced, feeling the gauze press into the wound, and he hissed.

"Oh hush, you'll live." Sunshine groused, then glanced up, a crooked smile starting to pull one corner of her mouth up. "Look, good as new, and soon you'll be twice as shiny as god's revolver."

Mikey had just opened his mouth to reply when the door kicked open, catching his attention.

The smile faded from Sunshine's face, laugh lines smoothing away, as she let go of Mikey's arm and sat at attention. He didn't miss the way the fingers on her left hand twitched, the narrow band around her wrist quietly becoming a wide cuff.

"Hey, when did you guys get back?" Fun Ghoul pulled off his crooked mask with an exhausted grin, face streaked with dirt.

"Not long ago. I'm actually just heading out." Sunshine stood up, reaching to pull up her mask and goggles.

Jet Star glanced over as he came in, nodded a greeting, then carried on towards the kitchen.

Party Poison was next, and his face soured considerably when he saw Mikey's favorite charity case hanging around. "Why are you here?"

"I have the biggest crush on you. Must be the hair, I just really love the color red." Sunshine deadpanned, then shifted for the door, still settling her bandana and goggles.

"Hey Sunshine," Mikey said, and she glanced hesitantly away from Poison, though she didn't let him leave her line of sight. "Thanks for patching me up, I really do owe you one, again."

"Pretty sure you owe me two." Mikey could hear the smile behind her bandana, then she turned toward the door, setting off purposefully enough that Poison just narrowed his eyes at her before locking onto Mikey.

"Did you get my brother shot?" Demanded Poison, and Sunshine actually stopped to look back and forth between the two as Poison crossed to room to start fussing over Mikey.

"I got myself shot, there were Dracs, I'll be fine."

"Huh." Sunshine remarked to herself.

"Yeah, sometimes you'd never guess they're brothers, and sometimes they really act like it." Fun Ghoul agreed from his seat in a nearby booth. "What happened to your family in all this? Are they still living in the city?"

"No. They're all dead." Sunshine sighed, then looked at Fun Ghoul, who was still watching the brothers bicker. "Yours?"

"These guys have been my family for a long time, since before everything went to shit. But my real family... they're gone, too." Fun Ghoul gave her a pained smile. Sunshine hesitated, then reached out and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. Ghoul's smile softened slightly, and he patted her hand before she let go and vanished out the door.