Broken Glass In The Morning Light

Chapter 16

The next two weeks flew by as far as Poison was concerned. Things had calmed down in The Zones, a few people left a little spooked by the BL/ind encounter, but overall the atmosphere was a lot more chill than it had been in the couple of days after the situation. Poison's schedule more or less returned to its original state, going back to doing their daily jobs and the like, a sense of normality somewhat restored. The days started fading back into their regular routine....well, almost. Often when they'd finished off for the day, sitting in the main room bored out of their mind, they'd find themself wandering into Ghoul's room.

Poison couldn't explain why it was always their first thought, how every time they felt even the smallest bit of boredom start to creep over them, they would high tail it straight to Ghoul. He didn't seem to mind at all though, usually sat on his bed or by his window, often enough he was fixing up some old crap Jet had handed off to him from someone from The Zones. He'd always grin as Poison would come in, like he had been waiting for them, the majority of the time putting down whatever it was he was working on in favor of talking with them. The two would talk for hours on end, discussing everything from favorite books or movies to stories from their childhoods. It basically became a part of Poison's daily routine, and by far the part of the day they looked forward to most.

That day was no different. Ghoul was sitting on his bed, an abandoned project by his side,  turned to face Poison who had sat themself on his windowsill ledge.

"You can actually fuck off I don't want to hear it", Ghoul spat at them, tone furious but his beaming face giving him away. "You're actually fucking delusional".

Poison stared at him, gaping a little, shaking their head. "You're kidding right? For the love of all things holy tell me you're kidding".

"Is this a face of a man who's kidding?", Ghoul pointed at himself, forcing his face to drop the grin and become far more serious. He almost managed it too, but Poison could see through him with ease.

"Look", Poison put their hands out in front of them. "All I'm saying is that Misfits had a good bit more importance and influence on the punk scene than Black Flag, I'm not calling one better than the other, I am stating a fact. You can prefer whoever you want to prefer, that's entirely up to you". They gave Ghoul a challenging look. "Just know that, ultimately, you are wrong".

"I'm wrong?", Ghoul snarled, a brief look of mania washing over his face that sent Poison into a laughing fit. "You're honestly sitting there trying to tell me that Misfits were more important to the punk scene than Black Flag? Fucking Black Flag!". He shook his head in disbelief. "And here I was the fool, thinking you had some amount of brains in that pretty little head of yours".

Poison ignored how their cheeks grew warmer. "You don't seriously believe that a song like 'My War' has anything on a song like 'She' or 'Halloween', please tell me you don't actually believe that".

"Oh of course, just go for the most basic Black Flag song there is why don't you? Some fucking argument you got there, fucks sake", Poison thought they could actually see the fury build behind Ghoul's eyes as he gave out, practically foaming at the mouth at that point. Again, they let out a hearty laugh.

"Alright then", they said, placing their elbows on their knees and leaning forward towards the bed where Ghoul was sitting with his hands covering his face, shaking his head slowly. "Convince me".

Mimicking that of a man shocked back to life, Ghoul sprang off the bed and started to pace back and forth, tucking his hair aggressively behind his ear, before stopping to face them with a hand out flat in front of them.

"Okay look I love Misfits, I need that to be understood", he explained, crouching down to sit on the edge of the bed and looking down at Poison, who remained on the windowsill. "More than love Misfits, they're incredible. They're a huge part of who I am. But Black Flag... They're just something else".