Still Dangerous

Two

After the show, the girl called Asia walked over to the group. She had changed into a black sweater and a pair of jeans, along with a pair of boots. Morgue was standing behind her frigidly. "Hey guys! I talked Morgue into coming." She said, giving Cara a hug. Dove smiled and waved at Morgue, who smiled and nodded politely. "I really liked the show guys." Chayne said, bringing the attention to him and Alexan. "Oh, you must be Chayne and Alexan! Hi, I'm Asia. This is Morgue," she gestured to the man in black. Alexan shook his hand, as did Chayne.

Morgue had a strong, firm handshake, his hands absolutely freezing. He had his umbrella with him, opening it up as they walked outside. "So, you know that cool Italian place in Hollywood?" Nikki asked, holding onto his boyfriend's hand to keep him from running off. Jackie nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet as they walked. He was wearing massive Osiris skateboarding shoes, and it was a miracle that his feet would bend in them. "Let's go there!" Morgue, true to Dove's word, was very quiet and seemed weary to be outside and around people. Asia was very warm and kind.

"So, how long have you been in California?" Asia asked. "Uh, we moved...about a week ago. We started attending the nearby college today." Chayne said with a nod. "I noticed that Amanda didn't look like either of you." Nikki said nonchalantly, placing a lit cigarette in between his lips. "Well, it's one of the women that Mom used to work with. When she and Dad needed to leave, she stepped in. She's been raising us since we were around 13." Alexan said, snaking a smoke from Nikki's carton.

"So, can we go shopping afterwards?!" Jackie interjected, walking backwards to look at the group as they moved down the street. Morgue smiled and laughed. "Nyahaha. Sure." He said, hiding under his hood, cloaked in the shadow of his black umbrella. The restaurant they ended up in front of was nice. "Hi. Table for 8 outside please?" Cara asked, smiling at the lady taking seating requests. "Alright. We'll get the table set up for you real quick." The lady smiled and walked over to one of the other servers.

Getting the table ready meant pulling two together. "Right this way." The lady said, leading them to the makeshift wider table. Dove sat next to Cara, across from Nikki and Jackie. Alexan sat on one side of Asia, Morgue on the other, leaving Chayne to sit next to Morgue. A smartly dressed young man with long black hair walked up to the table. "Hello, my name is Dustin and I'll be your server today. Do you know what you'd like to drink?" He asked, looking at the table expectantly.

"I'll have a pitcher of red wine." Morgue said before looking back at the menu. Nikki ended up with Johnnie Walker red, double, neat. Jackie had his shake, though he did order milk. Alexan got some weird cocktail, and Cara and Dove got lemonade. Chayne settled on some cheap white wine. When the drinks arrived, Morgue immediately poured a generous glass for himself.

"You okay?" Asia asked him. "Yeah, water regurgitation isn't too fun. Are your feet okay?" He asked, resting his head on the palm of his hand as he turned his head to face Asia. She nodded. "Yeah, they're just a little sore." She said, taking a sip of the wine Morgue had shared with her.

Alexan turned to Morgue. "So, why did you get into this stuff?" She asked. Morgue gulped down a fair amount of wine. "I didn't have much to do as a kid. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and my mother was a very devout religious person. I was sheltered, so when I moved out, I ended up here." His grip had tightened around the stem of the wine glass. Asia cleared her throat.

"So, I know Dove has a high pain tolerance and Jackie does electric acts. Do any of you do anything?" She asked in a clear attempt to change the subject. "Well, Nikki does fire acts and I do contortion." Cara said nonchalantly, stealing a sip from Nikki's drink. She demonstrated by pushing on her hand until the back of her hand was placed on her forearm.

Alexan's eyes lit up. "I do knife throwing! Chayne used to juggle knives but he stopped after dad left." She shrugged. What was probably considered dinner was very good.  Nikki insisted on paying, and it seemed like they had a system for who payed when.

As they were walking down the street, Morgue spoke up. "We passed a hardware store and I need some new chains and a buzz saw. Can we look?" He asked, directing the question to Asia as he smiled crookedly. "Sure, let's go." Nikki said, draping his arm across Jackie's shoulders. As the group moved through the crowd on the sidewalk, Chayne noticed Morgue was hanging behind.

He slowed his steps so he could walk near the older man. "You don't seen comfortable here. Why'd you come?" Chayne asked, crossing his arms. Morgue looked at him, shielding himself from the late afternoon sun with his umbrella. Black ringed his steely, grey-blue eyes. On his left, the makeup extended in two small lines that tapered to a fine point, one reaching towards his nasolabial fold and the other onto his forehead, over where his blonde eyebrow should have been.

"Well, Asia was excited to meet you and your sister, and she likes seeing Dove and Jackie. She asked me to come, and she gave me her puppy dog eyes, and well, here I am." He said, shrugging slightly. The hardware store Morgue had mentioned was now in front of them. He closed the umbrella and walked in, the rest of them trailing behind.

Asia ended up looking at mousetraps, and Morgue at the buzz saws and chains. Jackie was looking disinterestedly at different lightbulbs, and Nikki at different fuels. "What're you looking at buzz saws for?" Alexan asked, inspecting the buzz saw Morgue was holding. "Someone stole my chains and my buzz saw burned out." He said, taking the saw away from the girl. "Don't get that one. Get this one. It has more power. These chains are also a bit too thick, so these would be better." Alexan rattled off, grabbing another buzz saw and a set of thin but strong chains.

He looked at her suspiciously and examining the items she had placed on the shelf. He seemed impressed that she knew these things. Nikki had some fuel and a metal skewer, Jackie grumbling about the fact that they had very low voltage lightbulbs that he could light in his sleep.

So, after Morgue bought his stuff and Nikki got some fuel, they went back to the Freakshow. Morgue was in a rush to leave and get home, and Asia took the time to say goodbye. Jackie was going to drop off the twins, but he had to drop off the girls first. So, they all piled into his car and they were off.

Cara and Dove lived around 10 minutes away from the boardwalk, so of course it took them like 30 minutes to get there. A few minutes down the road though, in front of an apartment complex, the car stopped. "God damn it. Chayne, can you help me look at the engine?" Jackie asked, looking at the boy pleadingly. Nikki was holding in laughter at something on his phone. "Sure. I know a thing or two about cars." He said, making his way to the bonnet with the green haired kid. Jackie gave him a sly look as they lowered the hood, not finding anything wrong. Jackie entered the car first, and as Chayne tugged on the handle, he locked the door. And then drove off with a shit eating grin.

Chayne groaned. He pulled out his phone and called his sister. "Hand the phone to Jackie." He ordered as soon as Alexan picked up. With a snicker, the phone was passed. "Yes?" Jackie drew out the word. "What the fuck man?!" Chayne half shouted, glaring at the street as it started pouring. "What's the big deal?" Jackie asked, cracking up with laughter. "Well, I have no fucking clue how to get back and it's like a torrential downpour. Of fucking course." Of fucking course it started raining now, when it rarely rains in California at all.

"Whelp, traffic's bad. We can't get to you. I think Morgue lives in that apartment building. Apartment 15C, I think." Jackie's voice was full of bemusement and mischief. "You motherfucker." Chayne said as Jackie hung up. He stuffed his phone down into his pocket. He looked at the buzzers. Sure enough, 15C had the name Morgue scrawled next to it. He pressed the button for 15B though, and told the lady who answered that he locked his keys inside and needed to be buzzed up. God bless her soul, she did.

Chayne was ecstatic when he got out of the rain and into the dry lobby. He made his way to Morgue's apartment and knocked. "Who's there?" Morgue shouted, his voice muffled by the door. Chayne huffed. "Jackie was an asshole and left me here in the rain and told me you lived here. It's Chayne." There was silence. And then muffled footsteps. And then Morgue was in front of him, shirtless and a weed pipe in his hand, staring down at him with those blue eyes and holy shit he was so lost before he even knew it.