golden wings melt like blue slushies // JJ Maybank

-Do you really think that anybody would think I didn't ask for it?-

Icarus rubbed her eyes as they adjusted to the darkness of the hospital room. There was a lamp in the corner, an orange glow lighting up some dead flowers from a previous patient, but the blinds were pulled down over the night sky.

Her arm was asleep, tingly and numb at the same time after being slept on for...Icarus glanced at the little digital clock on the bedside table... only about two hours. It was one am in the morning, no wonder the nurses had turned the lights off. She reached for the glass of water meant for John B and took a sip, her mouth dry from weird fancy foods and fear.

"My dad's almost here."

"What the f-" Icarus choked on her water and nearly spat it out all over her sleeping brother. She whipped around to Pope, wiping her face and sighed. "You scared the shit out of me, mate."

"I will never get used to you saying that," Pope muttered, sitting down on one of the folding plastic chairs propped next to the bed. "My dad's gonna be here in five, I'm assuming you don't want a lift home?"

"Nah, besides, leaving JJ unsupervised is a bad idea. Could you feed Captain for me though?"

"Obviously, but John B's here anyway."

The pair turned to where JJ was squished up parallel to John B, his feet under the injured boys pillow and his head nearly falling off the end of the bed. The plastic like blankets and sheets were underneath both of them, and the air conditioner was on full blast in the dim little room.

"He doesn't count as supervision," Icarus said drily, taking another sip of her water and putting it down quietly on the coaster advertising McDonalds Sundays.                                                                                            She tried to be quiet, John B had been unconscious before he even got in the hospital, but he deserved the rest, and well, on the rare occasion JJ slept it was a win for everyone.

She heard Pope open his mouth as if he was about to say something, but then he closed it again. She fiddled with the cuff of her white shirt, now covered in dirt and rain and tears. "I wasn't lying. To get in here, I mean."

"I figured," Pope said quietly, like he was afraid speaking to loudly might scare her off the topic.

Icarus only chewed her lip, she'd have to tell them all at some point, and besides, Pope was a good listener. "Apparently... my mother was pregnant before she moved away, down to Victoria, and... apparently she partied a lot, and apparently so did Big John... and... here I am."

"I can't imagine him dancing."

It was so absurd, so untimely and irrelevant to the fact John B was in a hospital bed next to them and a killer might be out there after them all and Icarus was in a thirty-thousand-dollar debt and she'd just met her grandmother that she couldn't help the laugh that burst out. She covered her mouth with her hand immediately, eyes wide.

Pope froze, "I mean... congratulations? That must be hard for you? Uhm, I don't really know what to say, actually."

"Neither do I," Icarus replied with a small smile. "It's okay."

"So... he's actually your half-brother..."

Icarus nodded, her smile growing a bit. She pulled her knees up to her chin and rested it on them, taking in a shaky breath.

She wasn't used to feeling like this, so... attached might be the wrong word, but it was all she could think of. She had strings to this place now. She was attached. She had a brother and a job, she had a boat that really needed a paint job, but it was her boat, it was her home and it had a dog and her flag and her dungarees and sometimes a boy.