Ruin // Danger Days (Book 3)

14.

Sunset's eyes fluttered open, the light from the morning sun streaming through the window.

She and Val had stayed in each other's arms all night. Sleeping in the same bed with someone was completely new to both of them, but they both appreciated being close to each other. It didn't go any further than that, of course.

But right now, there was no sign of Val.

He never gets up early, Sunset thought, is he okay?

She got up, slipped on her jacket, shoes, and gun holster, stuck her gun into its holster, quickly checked her appearance in their bathroom mirror, and headed downstairs.

She went to the dining room, and found the Ultra Vs all sharing a can of Power Pup. but Val was missing. "Hey guys," she said, "Where's Val?"

"Hey Sunset!" Vaya waved her over.

"He's out right now," Vamos winked.

Sunset sat down at the table, concerned. "What do you mean?"

Volt handed her a plastic spoon. "Don't worry about it."

"It may or may not be a surprise," Volume smiled at her. "Happy birthday, by the way!"

"Happy birthday," the rest of the group, save for Vinyl, chorused. Vinyl just grunted, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Thanks guys," Sunset laughed. "Destroya, I completely forgot! It's hard to keep track of time out here."

"Val remembered!" Vamos told her with a smirk.

"Wait, so is that why he's out?" Sunset asked.

Volt smiled. "He told us not to tell you."

Sunset grinned. "Okay then... Well, I guess I'll leave you guys alone—"

"No, hang out with us!" Vaya said, gesturing to the chair she'd just stood up from.

Volume whispered, "We also may or may not have been assigned to distract you while Val plans," he smirked.

"Ah," Sunset giggled, excited. "Alrighty then!"

The six Killjoys talked for a while, joking, laughing, and telling stories for what seemed like hours and probably was.

☀️

After ages of searching, Val finally found a cupcake. He had to go all the way to the Lobby from Zone 5 to get it, but it was worth it to make Sunset happy. He also picked up two peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for them to eat for their picnic and a blanket to lay on the ground for them to sit on.

He also stopped by Tommy Chow Mein's shop to grab a new jacket, but he wasn't even there. Instead, Capricorn and Night Hunter, General Alien's old friends, were looking after the shop. They told him that Chow Mein was presiding over a debate between the two candidates for General, one of which was Sunset's brother. He made a mental note to vote for him when the time came.

The jacket he found was white, per Vaya and Vamos's suggestion, and had light-blue trim. He also found a mask to go with it that was the same color as the trim and had a large red X crossing it.

He headed back to the Nest afterwards, as the sun began to fall. When he parked, he didn't go straight in, but he went around the building to the back patio and the boy genius Red Engine' s workbench. He had asked him to fit he and Sunset's helmets with communicators so they could talk while they were driving to the coast, because it would take a while to get there and when they were on their bikes they couldn't talk to each other because of the noise.