Dream On Sunshine

chapter 5 - they only care if you can bleed

It's safe to say I didn't sleep a wink that night. Thoughts just run over and over in my head and even when it got pitch black, I wouldn't sleep. My head was going over and over the same conversation, like it knew but was trying to deny that I'd screwed everything up here. I told myself that I was being stupid, that I was an idiot to think that I'd screwed everything up already. But some part of me knew I wasn't gonna get any better. First impressions were lasting.

Trying to sleep was useless. I sat up after trying to fall asleep lying down for a while... Something glinted in the moonlight in the corner of my eye - something crouching just below the windowsill of the old cafe. Or someone. Looking around, I tried to identify what it could be, or what was missing. Revolver was sleeping by the back wall, Party Poison was by what would have been the cashier/till. Fun Ghoul was sleeping near Party Poison, but had a book over his face. There was a slight "Psst" noise coming from over the area where the glint had been. I looked up and saw it again.

I could see what the glinting was coming from... It was some sort of shiny metal object reflecting the light given off by the moon (which wasn't actually given off by the moon at all. In actual fact, the moon itself was reflecting the sun's light... So it was like a third reflection or something, if you know what I'm getting at)... Looking closer I managed to determine that it was Kobra Kid, and the metal edge of the gun he had. He beckoned for me to go over there... I immediately wondered why. I hadn't been all that nice to him and he seemed to dislike me a little bit. Curious anyway, I crept over to where he was crouched under the windowsill.

"Hey." he whispered.
"Hey..." I whispered back.
"Are you alright??" I could feel him looking at me although it was pitch black.
"What do you think?" I snapped sarcastically. I didn't mean it to come out like that.
"What's up with you? We're being as friendly as we can..."
"I'm a horrible person in general."
"Psshhht. I can hardly believe that honey..."
"What did you just call me?" 
"Nothing."
"Hmm. Figured."
"So what's with you guys? What made you want to come here?"
I  rolled my eyes. "Some crazy dream of Revolver's. Family had connections to Fun Ghoul and she wanted to meet the guy her father talked about so much.  Something I had to trust because we all know we were both never gonna make it. Or at least I wouldn't. She would surviv through anything."
"You would have been fine."
"You're lying."
"Never accuse me of lying." he whispered, his head turning to look at me, boring into my eyes like the stare of a hawk fixed on what it wants to attack.
"Sorry." I whispered, sighing, moving to go back to where I had been before.
"Why are you going?"
"I need sleep, Kobra Kid. I'm not invincible."
"You could be. Anyone could be."
"Yeah, no. That's not possible."
"You just have to work out how to find at least one person who cares about you enough to stand by you no matter what your decisions. I'm lucky I have the others. Party Poison, Fun Ghoul and Jet Star. Then no matter what you do, they will never take you, even if they don't care."
A laugh rose from the back of my throat. "They only care if you can bleed."
Kobra chuckled a little. "Indeed. Indeed."
"Can I sleep now?"
"Sure. Get rest. Looks like you need it."
"Thanks." 

And to be frank with you, I don't really know what happened after that. I was truely and genuinely asleep, deep in a world of my thoughts with no real reason for awakening until the next morning.

 -

I woke to a clang of metal in the morning, my eyes opening groggily as I came to terms again with my surroundings. The sound of the clanging was Party Poison, sweeping stuff off of the table in the back of the room, what looked like old piles of scrap metal and various boxes containing various stuff and various substances, it appeared. When I sat up, his head snapped to the side quicker than a flash, wind quickly jostling his fire truck red hair. He narrowed his eyes slightly. "It's 4am Diamond. Why are you up so early?" 
"You made noise. It's not totally my fault."
He groaned. "I forgot you might not be as heavy a sleeper as the rest." he indicated to the sleeping bodies of the people around me, Kobra Kid being in scary proximity to me. In fact he was a metre away, being against the wall, at most. 
"Usually I am. But then again, usually I don't have people clanging metal at 4 in the morning..."
"That can be seen as a good thing, believe me. Early morning runs can come at any time, you never know."
"Eh. I've been running for practically forever. I think my legs are pretty dead."
"You look dead."
"Thank you?"
"I mean that. You haven't eaten properly in forever, have you?"
"No. Neither has Adrenaline. We can cope."
Poison's eyes narrowed. "No." he wandered over to a cabinet and unlocked the thing with a key and chucked me two lots of a can. I checked the label, anticipating the disgusting mess of Power Pup but instead recieved two tins of what seemed like decently packaged and decent tasting soup. Chicken and Leek was one, and the other was Chicken and Tomato. 
"You're kidding."
"No. Go heat 'em up over in the heater and wake Adrenaline up. You're gonna need to eat them before the others wake up."
"Fine. Thank you."

I walked over to the heater, flicking the cans of soup inside and switching the thing on for about two minutes while I scanned who was where. Poison was rumaging inside some boxes and everyone else was fast asleep, as they were before I woke again this morning. After the soup had heated, I took spoons from next to the heater and rinsed them off in the sink, and placing them into the cans of soup before shaking Adrenaline to wake her up. Before she even got the chance to say anything to me, I put the cans down in front of her, patiently waiting for her to pick. In silence, she picked up the tomato and chicken soup, and began to eat the soup, apparently feeling much better than the tired and ill looking girl before I'd given it to her. 
"Thanks." she smiled.
"Thank Party Poison." I sighed, sipping my soup with great caution not to waste it.
"Don't bother thanking me." I heard Poison chuckle from over the side. Adrenaline and I both glanced up at him in sheer confusion.
"What?" I asked.
"Don't thank me," he repeated, stopping what he was doing to look straight to us. "If it weren't for you guys I don't think we'd be moving on right now."
"What the heck?" I asked, seriously confused with the gibberish he was speaking.
"Let's face it," he laughed. "We were simply plodding on with life. You guys are a new challenge. Breath of fresh air if you will."
"I'm glad you think so."