Break Time

First Kiss

The four of them walked down the street mostly without any glances. When people did look their way, it was mostly guys looking at Jess. She shrunk back and took Iggy's hand, entwining their fingers without a second thought.

"So, how'd you pick our names anyway?" Fang asked her. She noticed he was outfitted in .

"Well, you're name came from Gerard Way. The musician from My Chemical Romance? Don't ask me how I thought of him though. You're much more sane. And Gazzy was Alfred as in Alfred Nobel. He was the inventor of dynamite." Gazzy's face brightened at the comment. "And Iggy was Louis Braille. You can probably guess what he did." She looked down uncomfortably. She squeezed his hand seeing his slightly hurt expression.

"I'm hungry," Gazzy complained. Jess sighed like a frustrated parent.

"You just had lunch not even an hour ago." The young blond widened his eyes and stared up at her. His bottom lip began to quiver.

"But, it seems like so much longer now." He batted his eyelashes, trying to hone the manipulative skills his sister had. Jess stood her ground for as long as she could before muttering something about missing lunch anyway and walking toward a small coffee shop type place. Gazzy smiled like a kid in a candy store, which he might as well have been in for all of the sugary pastries he ordered.

"I don't understand why you keep buying all of this stuff for us," Iggy told her once they found a seat near the front of the restaurant. Jess shrugged, taking a sip from her small hot chocolate. "And how did you only order one hot thing? Those muffins smelled amazing." Gazzy mumbled something throw a mouthful of scone that sounded like agreement.

"I consider you guys friends, and that's what people should do when their friends need help. The heat from the drink makes my body temperature decrease to adjust, making me cooler. And because unlike some people-," she looked at them sternly "- I understand that ordering a vente-sized drink from a store is like ordering a coffee the size of your stomach. And you got three." She took another sip.

"We burn calories fast. Remember that, smart one?" Fang asked, rapping her skull with his knuckles.

"Hey! Do you know how long Mark had me strapped to that salon chair so he could do this?" Jess asked, referring to her hair. She got an eye roll as a response. For a while, they continued their casual day. Jess went window shopping as they walked back to their pick-up destination, which she had purposely placed near the other end of the fashion district of the area.

"This was fun," Iggy said breezily, only half joking. "We should do it again sometime." There were murmurs of agreement. The drive back was an awkward sort of silence. When they got back to the house, the group quickly dispersed to do whatever had previously occupied them.

Jess was running around the house, pulling strange tools from seemingly nowhere to help Fang. The four were out until late afternoon, so by the time everything was ready, it was early evening. Jess led Fang back into the master bathroom where she had set everything up. He leaned over the marble countertops at an angle and she sat on the counter next to him so she could reach his shoulder.

"Sorry it took me so long. At least we know the shrapnel has cooled. That reminds me, Fang, why didn't you tell anyone? This could've been a lot worse than it is," Jess wondered, examining the damaged area. He shrugged. "You're going to have to talk now. It's a bad idea to shrug when I'm about to take a piece of metal out of you."

"I didn't want anyone to worry about. Like you said, it could have been worse." Jess dabbed at the infected area with a little rubbing alcohol as he talked.

"I know it's not really my place to give advice to someone like you-I haven't been dealing with this my whole life, I mean-but don't you know it's okay to let people in sometimes?" He didn't respond and Jess knew it wasn't smart to push him. "This might hurt." She grabbed a pair of large tweezers (she revealed she had gotten them when she was younger and more into science) and carefully pulled at the shrapnel.