king and lionheart

one

with an aggravated sigh, poison threw a rock out at the road. it had been a long day- successful, but long- and all he wanted to do was curl up in the backseat of the trans am and sleep. instead, he was sat on the side of the road with a cigarette while the others hung out inside dr. death's place, talking and laughing and enjoying each other's company. he should've been in there too, should've mustered up the energy to socialize for just a few minutes longer. but he couldn't.

he'd almost died that day. a drac had a blaster pointed directly at poison's heart that afternoon, and had kobra been a split second late with his glove, he would've died. it was something he figured he would've gotten used to by now, frequent near death experiences. but he hadn't. it shook poison to his core every time, made his head spin and his heart thud violently out of his chest to the point he felt light headed and sick. he'd almost died.

a steady crunch in the gravel behind him caught poison's attention, and immediately his head whipped around, cigarette nearly falling out of his hand. "oh. hey."

"you alright?" dr. death pressed, rolling his wheelchair over beside poison, who lifted his cigarette to his lips and took a shaky drag.

"m'fine," poison replied, blowing a stream of smoke. "long day."

"mmh, heard you boys kept busy this afternoon."

"you should'a seen the other guy."

dr. d laughed, leaning forward a little to really look at poison. "what do you think of the little girl?"

poison shrugged. "she's sweet. who is she?"

"the daughter of a friend," dr. d answered, gesturing a hand vaguely. "promised cola i'd look after her. she's a good kid."

"she's fuckin' young," poison noted.

"girly says she just turned five last month."

"jesus christ," poison whispered.

dr. d shrugged. "she'll be fine. we'll keep her safe."

"... we?"

at that, dr. d fought off a weary smile. "i have a pretty big favor to ask of you."

"oh, for fuck's sake."

"hear me out, party poison." dr. death's voice was suddenly very serious, and with a sigh, poison turned to stamp out his cigarette in the dirt, before turning his full attention to the man beside him. "show pony and i have been doing our best to look after her, but..." he sighed, gaze flicking up to look out at the road. "things have gotten rough, poison. health problems, old traces of radiation... the war's coming back to bite me in the ass, so to speak. pony's looking after me and the girl at once, and i can't..." he shook his head. "not right now."

"so you want us to take her in."

"not permanently," dr. d assured him. it wasn't very reassuring. "a few weeks, tops. give me some time to rest. i'm old, poison, old and deteriorating."

poison frowned. "don't fuckin' say that."

"you know it's true." poison didn't answer. "a few weeks. take care of her for me, she needs stability. safety."

our crew is just as safe as you are, poison wanted to shout. he didn't. "christ, dr. d, we're far from stable. jet and i are barely adults, kobra and ghoul are still practically kids. you think we can handle a fucking five year old?"

"you and kobra were kids together," dr. d supplied. "you've got more experience with little kids than pony and i do already."

"yeah, but i was a fuckin' kid when kobra was little, too!" poison groaned, flopping back onto the dirt and staring up at the sky. the sun was already dipping down below the horizon, and they'd have to be scrambling for shelter soon. with a fucking five year old girl, no less. "i can't take care of a fuckin' kid. i'm no parent."