Opalescent● MISHBIR VERSION

●Part Two●

Flopping onto the bed, Mishti lifted her arms so she could be tucked in "I like your house" she shuffled around to get comfortable, her hair splayed over both pillows.

"You haven't seen my house" he huffed, "This is your house" not that she would be able to see his house anyway, but he appreciated her manners even while she was drunk, most sober people wouldn't offer a man like him the same courtesy.

"Um, no it's not" she giggled childishly, rolling her lips, "I live upstairs".

"You what?" Abir's eyes widened, nostrils flaring, "But you said-".

"That's them" the elderly woman pointed at the duo, eyes narrowing as she placed her hand on her chest. "I came in and they were trying to use my bed for god knows what" she almost cried, jumping back in alarm.

"Oh, hey Miss Knowles" she slurred then pushed the covers away and stood up. "How's the cats?"

"Put your hands up where I can see them" Officer Ranjay walked forward, snapping cuffs on his wrists with a shake of his head, mostly every shift either started or ended with the arrest of this man and it had passed the point of tiring, now to see that he'd dragged the innocent yet strange girl into his mess made him more than disappointed. "When I said hang with him to get arrested, I was being sarcastic" he shook his head at her as a woman dragged her up and closed the silver around her wrists. "Take them to the car" he ordered, "I'll make sure there's no one else here".

"Not that I mind spending a night in a cell" he began as he sat in the car, "But-" he let out a hmph sound when she fell onto his lap.

Wiggling around, she leant back "This is an odd seat".

Closing his eyes in frustration, he steadied her by placing his hands on her hips "That's because" his teeth grit, "You're sat on my lap, not a seat".

"Ohhhh" she turned so her nose brushed against his cheek, "That's why it's bumpy" she stilled, hands resting on her knees.

"Are you going to move?" His brow raised.

"Nope".

Gripping her a little tighter so his fingers clenched around her skin, he growled: "Stop. Moving".

Mishti's hair whacked him in the face with how quickly she turned "Why?"

"Because I said so" he spoke gruffly, "And, you're making me uncomfortable" he wasn't about to go into detail at a time like this, especially since she wasn't in her senses- if she was, he was sure she wouldn't be this close to him.

Falling forward when the car came to a halt, she rubbed at her reddening forehead while being dragged inside. Pushing all her weight into her knees, she dragged her heels, head shaking from one side to another only stopping her dance when she felt jail bars. Pushing her face between two, she rolled her eyes around "Abir, where are you? I can't see you".

Abir jumped onto the mattress, hands resting on his stomach "You can never see me" he pointed out.

"Oh yeah," she cackled loudly, head banging into a bar, "Ouch" she pouted, "Abir, I hurt myself".

"Aw," he spoke dryly. Shutting his eyes, he allowed his head to lull to the side, if he didn't get some sleep soon he was sure he'd get a headache, that woman didn't half have a lot to say.

"Well, aren't you going to kiss it better?" Wrapping her fingers around the bar, she shook her elbows. "Abirrrrrrrrrr".

"What?" He snapped, "No I am not, go to sleep" turning to face the wall, he pulled the grey scratchy blanket over his head.

Sliding to the floor, she poked a hand through the slit "Only if you tell me a story".

"No".

"Aw, please? I promise I'll go to sleep after" her lashes fluttered.

"Urgh" he groaned, "Used to getting your way, aren't you?"

"Yep" Mishti swayed her head from right to left then back again, crossing her legs as if sat at school, she waited patiently.

"Once upon a time there was a young boy" he began, eyes falling over the wrinkled skin on his arms as he recalled the fateful day that took so much and gave him everything he'd never wanted all at once.

"How old was he?"

"Seven" he choked over the number, "It was his seventh birthday and he'd gone to buy the present he'd been begging for for months" tracing a scar, he exhaled loudly.

"What present was it? Was it food? I like food".

"No" he smiled, "It was a toy truck".

"Ohhh, vroom, vroom" Mishti revved her hands, "Weeee".

Shaking his head, Abir moved to lean against the wall "He was on his way home when his father told him that his mother wasn't very happy that they had bought the present because this boy's family was poor, but his dad wanted to gift him something that he'd wanted for the first time in years" rubbing his neck to try and rid the ache in his voice box, he gulped.

"You tell that little boy that I will buy him ten trucks" she held her fingers up, "And some waffles because waffles make everything better" she nodded to assure him.

"It didn't seem to matter how much his dad tried to calm the mum, she was so angry" lost in thought, he clenched his thigh at the memory. "She just kept saying how he put his son first, always his son and never her and then she grabbed his arm" if he closed his eyes tight enough he could still feel her nails digging into his skin till it bled.

As if sobering up, she slid forward "Where did she take him?"

"Bathroom" he bit out, "Said he needed a shower, the water it was ice cold then it wasn't, then it was scalding hot and" he rose to his feet, lungs trapped beneath his ribs in a hold he couldn't get out off. "Turns out" he laughed, "It wasn't water" he held his face, whispering the words that had stained him forever now: "It was acid".

Her sniffle broke him from his thoughts "No, no that's horrible, his own mum? How could she? I" Mishti dropped her head, hot tears burning her skin in some warped symbolic sense that made her want nothing more than to wrap the poor boy up and take him away.

"Wasn't his mother, that's why she was jealous" he shrugged. "Get some sleep, Mishti".

"But I can't" she cried, "Not now, not after" she swallowed harshly.

"Oh for god's sake, if the boy learnt how to sleep then so can you" he bashed his fist into the wall, red marring his vision and sucking his soul that little bit more in the only comfort he knew how to gain.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I just" she blew out a large breath, "Some things in the world are felt before they are seen, I cannot see his pain, but I, I feel it and I just want him to know that, that I'm sure he's the most beautiful piece of art this world has ever created, we are all birthed from pain, he was birthed from so much more, but that doesn't mean he isn't a gift, that he isn't worth it, he's unique and beautiful, you know? I don't need to see him to know that, because, because".

"Because you feel it" Abir completed, tears rimming his irises as he stared through the bars at her. There really wasn't anyone like her, no one had ever seen him as something worth looking at or praising, yet somehow she had, even without seeing him she had seen him, really seen him.