Man-Eat-Man World: a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Fanfic

Wet Dog

Quick note: I moved across country three times in the last 3 years, so this story was kind of on the back  burner. I'm back, though! Also I am following the theory where their parents ran off and left them with their grandparents. ALSO: I will be moving this story to AO3 since it doesn't really update correctly across all platforms. I will still use the same username and story name. 

After the "tender" moment with Nubbins in the bathroom, Sunshine was all but dragged out of the tub after she said she was finished. The fabric of the ripped towel was so rough that it practically burned her skin with how frantically Nubbins was drying her off. It was pointless to insist that she could dry herself off, when he either wanted an excuse to touch her, or an excuse to put the dress on her. It could have been both. Some of the buttons on the back had been long lost, so it hung very awkwardly on Sunshine. It hung to her mid-calf and she realized that it was probably a nightgown, but she saw no point in asking exactly what it was. A couple more buttons were lost with Nubbins being so rough with dressing her. He was still smiling, yet refusing to look Sunshine in the eyes. He grabbed her arm yet again, slightly slipping on the wet floor as he hurriedly pulled her out into the hallway.

Drayton felt like he was going to vomit. His anxiety was through the roof. He didn't like Nubbins being the one to bathe Sunshine. He weighed the options beforehand. Bubba was very delicate, but he thought that he may scare her with his face. He didn't want Chop doing it either, being the chatty bastard that he is. Heaven knows he couldn't bring himself to do it. When he saw his little brother dragging her into the hallway with such a grip on her arm, he felt his blood pressure rising, until he saw exactly what Nubbins had picked out for her. Of course he would choose their mother's dress. He turned to the direction of the kitchen and hurried away before he had to face her. 

Sunshine was sure that her arm would be bruised by tomorrow. For no reason in particular, he was hurrying to get her into the next room. She tripped on the way up the stairs, scraping her knees while he continued to pull her up. At the top, she could see Grandpa through the cracked door across the stairs, seemingly dozing off in his wheelchair. As she was tugged along, she looked into another bedroom. Disgusting wasn't the proper word for this room. It reeked of body odor, mildew, animals and old shoes. There were watermarks on the walls and mold on the ceiling. The floor looked like a jigsaw puzzle of different blankets and carpet. Random objects and trinkets were scattered across an old dresser that sat across from two mattresses on the floor. 

The mattresses had blankets haphazardly thrown on top, with stains of all colors. On the wall beside the mattresses were pictures of half naked women, ripped out from calendars and magazines. There were more decorations that were made from bone that adorned the room. It was almost comical how upon looking, you could immediately tell who slept where. Nubbins mattress had a deer skull plastered to the wall above the head, with handmade mobiles dangling from the antlers. He was a crafty one for sure. Chop's mattress had a torn American flag with old band posters, like Humble Pie and Iron Butterfly. And yet, both brothers took awful care of their sleeping quarters. 

A sudden jerk pulled her from her musing as she was all but thrown into the room she slept in the night before, just across the hall from the twins' room. Sunshine stood, regaining her balance and rubbing her pulsing, sore arm. She turned to see if Nubbins was still there. He was. He was fidgeting with the bandage again, rubbing the gauze in between his filthy fingers and shifting his weight on the creaking floors. Maybe Drayton didn't tell him what to do with her when he took her back to her room? Her eyes were moving from his hands to his face; Nubbins was too focused on the bandage to notice. 

She started, "did you-"

"Huh?"

"Oh! I was just going to ask if you, um, wan-wanted me to change it now? The bandages?"

The way his brown eyes studied her face made her uncomfortable. He was scrunching his face again, this time to think about it. He looked back down at his hand. The wrappings had been soaked in his blood at the palm, caked with dirt and now sported a few drops of barbecue sauce. Nubbins looked back up at her, the stranger in his home, his new "li'l sister" as his twin called her. He was certain that she didn't want to truly help him. This was just some stupid attempt of hers to butter him up. But the way she looked at him made him more confused. There were no grimaces, smirks, scoffs or tugs of her lips. She stood there, looking up at him with her big puppy eyes, in his mother's nightgown, in front of the window. The moon was full tonight with its light pouring into the room, and with the way she was standing, it looked like heaven itself was opening from behind where she stood. Nubbins' eyes wandered  to her curls, the moonlight making the silhouette of her hair look like a halo. His heart sped up after he realized he could also she the silhouette of her body, with the help of the light and the sheerness of the cloth. Damn her. 

Sunshine's bare feet moved on their own, slowly backing up a couple steps when she noticed his jaw clenching. Isn't that what he wanted earlier? A new bandage? It was what Nubbins thought he wanted, too. He then looked where he had gripped her arm, noticing a bruise in the shape of his hand slowly forming. He didn't want a new bandage at all. He wanted to be touched. It was too easy to put your hands on someone. To cut them. To hurt them. To kill them. It was too easy to feel the slap of your mother's hand, the fist of your brother on your jaw, the sting of a blade or the kicks of your victims. The unfamiliarity of these new touches that were void of intensity and malice confused him. He didn't know he wanted to be touched, though. He only felt uncomfortable when he was always too comfortable. Within him, his confusion was turning to anger. Anger towards her. 

A hulking shape appeared in the doorway, darkening the room momentarily. Bubba stood nervously, with some knitted blankets and quilts in his big arms. Sunshine finally took her eyes off of Nubbins and looked at Bubba. She smiled softly and the youngest Sawyer took this as his invitation to enter her room. As soon as Bubba had barely cleared the doorway, Nubbins pushed past him, storming out and startling the two that were left. Neither of them knew it, but Bubba accidentally saved her life that night.