Bleached Out Eyes

Chapter 8 - Five Step Programme

Ghoul had spent the whole rest of the day exhausted. He'd only had about seven hours of sleep, at the most, when he needed at least eight. This was of course, only when the situation permitted it, but seeing as they were stuck inside, trapped by a sandstorm, they were fairly safe for now. Plus, with a droid who was awake twenty hours of the day, they other three had someone who could keep watch while they slept.

The only reason he hadn't decided to have a nap was what Jet had told him. Beyond admitting he'd had a sex dream about Party Poison, he hadn't really said or explained anything else. Until then, Ghoul hadn't really noticed anything about the way Party carried himself.

But then he did; he thought about the way Party had opened up to him on that first night, how Party had been okay with having Ghoul's arm around him, the way he'd wanted Ghoul to hold his hand when he'd had his wires checked, and how he'd come to Ghoul when he'd been too scared to sleep. He thought about how Party seemed to save his brightest smiles for Ghoul, how he seemed too pretty and unique to have been made in a factory, and how he'd held Ghoul's face that day as he'd helped to clear his eye of sand. It all made his heart race in a way he hadn't felt in years.

Then he started thinking about Party's hips and the way they swayed when he walked and very quickly Ghoul realised that he was probably in about as deep as Jet was.

Of course Jet had been freaking out, though; Jet was straight, or had at least thought he was. Ghoul was as gay as the day was long, so perhaps those feeling were so much more natural that he hadn't noticed the way they'd crept up on him. But now, between realising that yeah, Party was attractive, and accidentally thinking too much about what Jet and Party might be like together in bed, Ghoul was also starting to freak out.

In the afternoon, Kobra had decided that, just to be safe, he should change Party's battery before it ran out completely. Naturally, this interested Ghoul and Jet; after the previous day's experience of watching Party be voided of all human emotion to check his power level, they wanted to witness what happened when his battery was removed.

Party was sat backwards on a chair, shirtless again, as Kobra sat behind him. The well camouflaged battery compartment on Party's back was open, the palm-sized battery exposed, while Kobra held a new one in his hand.

"You know," Kobra mumbled to the other two who were stood either side of him, watching over his shoulder, "This kind of fascination is bordering on morbid curiosity. It feels kind of voyeuristic, and I'm not even the one with my shirt off."

Jet stood back and stammered for a moment, almost walking away before saying quietly, "I just want to see how it works."

"It has a name, thank you," Party said over his shoulder, his head slumping back over as he leaned on the back of the chair.

"No, no! I don't mean you, I mean the battery."

Kobra looked back at Ghoul, who'd been quiet until now, waiting to hear why he was so interested.

"Oh, uh..." his face began to heat up and he only hoped he wasn't obviously blushing, "I'm genuinely worried something might go wrong. Not in a morbid way, in a... 'I'm worried' kinda way."

Apparently satisfied with his answer, Kobra turned back to Party and reached for the still-in-use battery, holding the sides of it carefully and lifting it out. 

The battery pack was attached by a clip connector, the red and black wires feeding back inside of him and to the rest of his wiring.

Kobra gently rested the connected battery on his knee, the new one clasped tightly in his right hand.