Another Way | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Three)

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Harley dragged her feet on her way to the skatepark until she realized it might scuff her new shoes, so she picked them up and kept going. Her memory and sense of direction worked together efficiently and within a few minutes she found herself outside the gates of the skatepark, not remembering any of the steps she took to get there. The park was pretty busy, so she weaved her way between kids, narrowly missing one flying by on a scooter. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the four familiar faces in the corner of the park and the Monster cans dripping with condensation on the table in front of each of them.

"Hey, she came back!" Andy yelled, being the first to notice her, pointing a finger in her direction. He dug his hands through his bag until he found another energy drink and tossed it her way.

She caught the can, sending the group a sheepish smile she hoped was enough of an apology for going radio silent after promising she'd come back.

"Harley!" Pond cheered. "Where've you been?"

She raised her splinted wrist. "Oh, you know, falling out of trees."

The group tried to hide their snickering from behind their hands, Andy from behind their white Monster can. Remi, though, asked sweetly, "Are you okay? We sorta thought we'd hit it off, so we were kind of worried when you didn't show up."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Harley said. Finn scooted over so she could sit next to him. "This is minor compared to other injuries I've sustained. I'm kind of known to be accident prone."

"That makes two of us," Andy said.

"Oh my God, don't even get started!" Finn said, leaning across the table to playfully shove Andy's shoulder.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Andy asked, hand over heart, faking offence.

"It means we'll be here forever if you start listing all your injuries," Finn explained.

"I wasn't going to list all of them, just maybe give a few examples. Like, for example, I've broken my hand twice."

"No way!" Harley exclaimed. "So have I! Which hand was it for you?"

"The left one," Andy said, holding it up and making a visibly loose fist. "And this hand is still pretty useless. I just hope I never get in a fight."

"Aren't you right handed, though?" Finn asked as he reached across the table with both hands to take Andy's right hand. He began rubbing one of his thumbs over the back of it softly. "So you don't even have to worry about that."

"Well, no, you see, my game plan if I ever get in a fight is to sacrifice my left hand since it's already a piece of shit anyway, salvaging my right hand for future use, assuming this 'getting into fights' thing is gonna become a regular thing for me," Andy explained with a completely straight face, seemingly not even noticing Finn's actions. The light dusting of pink of his cheeks was barely visible.

"Is that the future you're imagining for yourself?" Harley asked, raising her hands up to spin her hat around in habit. That was when she realized she'd left it at home, so she simply ran her fingers through her tangles, swallowing the sudden feeling of self consciousness growing in her chest.

"Yeah, don't get me wrong, Andy, I'll support you through any choice you make, but leading a life of violence seems kind of unlike you," Pond said matter-of-factly. "But then again, I guess it's always good to plan ahead."

"It's good to plan ahead if the plan you come up with makes any fucking sense," Finn chimed in, earning a laugh from everyone.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter, anyway. The most likely thing to happen if I ever get in a fight would be that I play dead after the other person gets the first punch in. Am I the only person who yells at the TV when the bad guy is, like, trying to kill the hero? Like, if the hero just pretended they were dead already they'd get left the fuck alone a lot sooner. Like, villain person dunks your head in a bucket of water and tries to drown you? Just fucking quit struggling and play pretend for a second and the fight will be over." Andy ended their tangent by taking a sip of their energy drink, but Finn took it from him.