"Staring at her all day isn't going to make anything better."
"Shut up."
Fun Ghoul and Jet Star sat in silence. They were in a small room-formerly Ghoul's room-bright sunlight leaking through the thin, dusty drapes. The room was cluttered, clothes and magazines littering the floor and piled in corners. The desk in the corner was cluttered with papers and books. A small ceiling fan hung over them, but it hadn't worked in years. On the bed in front of the two lay a girl. Nineteen years old, her wild, purple hair spread around her face and on the pillow her head rested on. Diamond Dahlia's face was peaceful. It looked as though she were sleeping, rather than in a near-comatose state for a month.
Ghoul just stared. He rarely left her side, only to eat and sleep if he was that exhausted. He was just now running on three hours of sleep and was getting extremely worried as he eyed the IV drip in Diamond's arm. Thank god a few months back Pony had gotten the idea to raid a passing BLI medical care truck. They'd gotten enough supplies to take care of any injury, and had stocked up in case the worst would happen. The drip was what was keeping Diamond alive until her body could do that itself, but they were running out. There weren't any med truck passing along the highway anymore, the Zone 8 stretch of Route Guano was abandoned aside from the occasional troupe of Killjoys passing through every week or so.
Jet sighed. He felt for his friend, he really did, but Ghoul practically starving himself at the girl's bedside wasn't helping anyone.
"Ghoul, I'm only trying to-"
"To what? Help?"
"Yeah, I guess. I just don't want to see you sit here like a vegetable all day."
"Jet," Ghoul looked at his friend, sorrow and exhaustion in his eyes, "I couldn't leave her if I tried."
Jet Star nodded. It was true; Diamond, for all intents and purposes, was Ghoul's family. He, before her eyes closed, had promised her everything would be okay. That she would wake up. That she would be safe.
For the most part Ghoul had kept his promise. She was as safe as ever, in a diner full of Killjoys. But she still hadn't woken up, and Ghoul wanted to keep that part of his promise most of all.
Party Poison admired his new hair color.
"I can't believe you found dye all the way out in the desert!"
Kobra Kid smiled down at his brother, who was now running his fingers through his bright red hair, a small mirror in his hand. Party's hair had grown a bit and now hung in his eyes again. He was glad he could get rid of the black, it didn't suit him like it had so many years ago. Red was always his favorite color.
"It wasn't easy."
"I'm sure it wasn't, but that only makes it more awesome."
They were in the main room of the diner. Party was sitting in one of the booths, Kobra standing behind him. Missile Kid and Show Pony sat in the large corner booth across the room from them, playing cards.
"It looks great!" said Missile, looking up from her hand.
"Way better than black." Pony agreed.
Party beamed up at Kobra through the mirror. Kobra smiled, slightly wary. He knew this was another way from Party to pretend the events of the past month had never happened. Though, from the deep scars on Kobra's stomach, not to mention the scars on Diamond's leg, arms and side, Party knew it was going to take a lot to put the past behind them. After a good month of painful drug withdrawal and regaining most of his memory, Party's body seemed to be nearly his again. Kobra couldn't be happier about that; his brother was almost back to his old self.
