Gold Fever (m×m) ✔

III: Babysitting

《 ELIAN PHOENIX 》

"It's like babysitting." I heard Najwa's hushed voice and saw her silhouette through my eyelids, a spot of darker red against orange. "Except everyone wants to bloody murder the babe."

"I'm right here you know." I hummed, blinking my eyes open to the room basking in daylight. The brightness made me flinch, my head throbbing like I had the hangover of the year. I rubbed my eyes and swallowed against the dryness of my throat. "And I can hear you."

"And its tantrums make the whole place go boom." Rio joined in, their tone both amused and dry like they didn't actually find the joke funny.

"Loud and clear." I muttered, covering my eyes with my forearm.

"Boom." Rain echoed.

"Each and every word.." I went on, but let Rain help me to sit up without a complaint. When I glanced down, I noticed that I was naked from the waist up and that I had a respectable bruise on my side, and turned to look at the others with a cocked up eyebrow: "If you wanted to see me naked, all you needed to do was ask."

When I only gained a few eye rolls and snickers at that, I shrugged and experimentally brushed my fingertips down my bruised side. It was tender to touch, but overall it didn't seem too serious. My head on the other hand..

"How is it?" I asked with urgency, turning my pleading eyes at my friends. "My Walkman? Does it work?"

"Oh my sweet lord in the heavens above." Najwa shook her head, staring at me like she was only just starting to realize how differently wired our brains were. For a self-declared pagan, she spoke a lot about heaven and swore in the name of God. "Someone just tried to murder you and you're worried about music?"

"So, did it not.. ouch." I mumbled, pinching the ridge of my nose. Just trying to think back to the previous night felt like daggers in my temples and between my brows. Najwa shook her head, her mouth clamped shut and the corners of it pulled down.

"Can you walk?" Rio asked, crouching down to look at me. I frowned, my gaze landing on the packed backpacks. The place where we had camped looked so lonesome without our stuff that it filled my head with a different sort of ache. I could see from Rio's eyes, which were a shade of blue so light that they were almost white, that the idea of leaving pained them too.

"But.. Rain." Was all I could get out of my mouth, as my gaze found the deserted camp again. We had decided to rest in the mall to give his leg time to heal, but so far it didn't seem to be getting any better.

"I can walk just fine, thank you." Rain sighed, yanking his backpack on his shoulder. He couldn't quite hide his limp when he brought my backpack to me, and I was afraid his pride was going to cause further damage to his leg. "We have to go. Someone already found you, so what makes you think he won't do it again?"

"But I don't want to leave." I whined. For some reason, the first thing that sprung to my mind was a brand new yellow shirt with the words against all authority except my mom printed on it, which I found in one of my explorations around the mall. It was still the only piece of clothing with color I had ever seen Najwa wearing.

"Phoenix." She said softly, taking my hand in hers and leveling a gaze at me. "We are out of food and we still have to find Birdy, so it was just a matter of time. We'll find you a new music player and some books to read."

I didn't want to say goodbye to my window on the East side of the second floor, where I could watch the sun rise from the horizon and tint the sky with gold. The only place and time I could still enjoy that specific color. To my explorations, my stupid lumpy mattress. To my music.