Guns & Roses

Chapter 25

                                 [Sanford]

Again, Deimos was sizing him up for fun. He knew they were just bored, hell, he was bored too, but they were almost back and he wanted to rest up. His legs were killing him with how much they'd been up and about.

They were playfully punching his arm, staying light on their feet and moving pretty quick despite how much 2B worked them into the ground for a single USB. He was honestly jealous they still had so much energy to spare.

"What're you, scared?" They taunted, with a smug, yet dumb-looking smile. Sanford scoffed, deciding he'd at least go along with it for some entertainment for the both of them.

"You wish." He grinned, despite their best efforts, it was still obvious they lit up when Sanford played along with whatever they were doing. And after all this time, Sanford still found it endearing. While figuring out what he could do that wouldn't require much energy, he noticed they had another pack of cigarettes poking out of their pocket, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone. He quickly snatched the pack, holding it above his head and out of their reach. Deimos stood there confused for a second, before taking in with just happened and catching back up with Sanford.

"Asshole!" They shouted, though Sanford could still hear a hint of amusement in their voice.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Sanford mocked, mimicking the same tone they used when they originally taunted him.

"I'll kick your ass is what I'll do!" Deimos declared, rolling up their sleeves. Sanford would think he crossed a line if Deimos wasn't so bad at hiding his smile. Deimos began by tackling him, which did nothing, though they kept it up and started punching him again, though they were clearly holding back.

"Fight back!" They demanded, once again trying to tackle him to no avail.

"Okay." Sanford shrugged, pulling them in with his free arm and getting them into a headlock, though he was careful to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt them. They desperately hit Sanford where they could, shouting about how that "wasn't fair", but Sanford thought it was pretty fair. To rub it in, he decided to mess up their hair, accidentally knocking off the headphones he forgot were there. It didn't really matter though, since it was connected to the radio set on their back, so it idly hung by its cord.

Deimos managed to slip out of their grip, they'd apparently decided to take a new approach, by grabbing Sanford's arm.

"Can't get me in a lock with only one arm, tough guy!" Deimos claimed, the smugness back in their expression. Sanford simply wrestled his arm out of their hold, he then managed to get behind them enough to grab them and pin their arms to their sides.

"Can't do anything without arms, can you, 'tough guy'?" Sanford once again mocked. He heard Deimos trying to hold back laughter, and he found himself cracking up a little, too.

"Will you two stop that?!" 2B snapped, now a lot further ahead than Sanford remembered. He hadn't even realised they'd started falling behind. A little disappointed, he let Deimos go and kept walking.

"Fuckin' buzzkill." Deimos muttered, fixing his hair. They walked together in silence for a while, until Sanford swore he could see one of the other two in the distance.

"So... can I get those back?" Deimos asked, gesturing to the pack he took off them. Sanford honestly forgot about it for a second, but now that he remembered he took a second to throw it as far as he could, if Deimos was going to look for them, he wasn't going to make it easy.

"Hey!" Deimos shouted, visibly upset.

"You knew from the start I wasn't giving them back." Sanford told them, giving himself a more serious tone. He hated having to be tough with them, but this was for their own good.