For Reasons Wretched and Divine

Blue Skies and Quick to Rise

If the ear-bleeding crash hadn't caught Happy's attention, it was the scared half scream after that did it.

For once, he had forgone the peach pie in favor of the new addition to the dessert menu, something called 'Slice of Heaven,' and it was properly named. When he had asked Sunshine about it, she told him that she had pitched the idea of calling them 'Better than Sex' to Jim, but he had turned her down.

It was easily the funniest thing Happy had heard all week.

But the scream from the kitchen had wiped all traces of humor from his mind, and he was on his feet in an instant, sliding over the counter divider instead of lifting it like a normal person, Jim hot on his heels.

Five, thankfully empty, giant metal mixing bowls were scattered across the kitchen floor, some of them still spinning. Sunshine stood in the middle, a hand clapped over her mouth but looking sheepish.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Jim asked, looking around for the problem.

"Someone left the back door open, and a pigeon flew in," Sunshine said, voice quiet.

"A pigeon?" Jim asked incredulously.

She pointed to the counter, where, sure as shit, a pigeon was standing, watching them with his beady little eyes.

Hilarity surged through Happy, and he couldn't help the laughter that poured from his mouth. It was louder than he remembered, his laughter, still as harsh and grating as the rest of him, and he couldn't quite pinpoint the last time he had laughed at something funny and not mean.

"Don't laugh at me; he flew right in my face," Sunshine admonished, but she was starting to laugh too.

"You two are absolutely insufferable," spinning on his heel, Jim left the kitchen.

Inconsistent bubbles of laughter burst from his mouth as Sunshine reached out her hands and, honest to fucking god, just picked up the winged rat and held him away from her body.

"He's kinda cute." The bird swiveled its empty head around to look at her and cooed gently; another barking laugh left Happy's mouth.

"Yeah, until he shits on the floor,"

"Don't listen to him," Sunshine crooned to the bird, stroking its neck with her thumb. "He doesn't appreciate delicate things,"

Except that he did, and he wanted to tell her that, but he couldn't find the words once again. He appreciated her, and she was the epitome of delicate and soft. Juice had taught him a trick years ago to help curb his impulsivity and lack of brain-to-mouth filter. "If you aren't completely sure that it won't make things better, then don't say it. And if you're still not sure, then ask me before you say it." The advice had saved him more times than he could count, and he wondered if he could slip away for a few seconds to call his friend and ask him if that was something that he could say to someone.

Sunshine continued baby-talking the pigeon, who seemed to be enjoying her attention immensely (Happy could begrudgingly relate to that, except that Sunshine never stroked his head, and he was wildly jealous of it).

"Do you think Jim will let me keep it?" She asked, mostly to herself.

"Maybe," Happy shrugged.

"I couldn't take him home; Apestoso would eat him," she looked sadly down at the bird.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

"What?" She turned to look at him and laughed. "No, I don't have a boyfriend; Apestoso is my dog." Shaking her head, she gave him a reproachful look.

"If you know people that eat pigeons, you need better friends," she commented dryly.

"My friends do crazier shit than eat pigeons."

"You live an interesting life, Happy. Now open the door for me before you try throwing him in a crockpot for your friends," the sight of Sunshine pointing to the backdoor with a relaxed pigeon in her hands yanked another laugh from Happy's mouth, even as he did as he was told.

"Goodbye, little friend, don't ever come back!" she said as she opened her hands for the bird to fly away, but he just sat in her palms like a dunce.

"Did you hit your head when you came in?" Sunshine mumbled, slowly setting him on the concrete step. He hopped out of her hands and turned to look at her, tilting his head up to her and cooing.

"Wow, pigeons really are stupid," Happy commented, standing over her.

"Shush."

Sunshine bent down again, her shirt and jeans separating in the movement, and bared four square inches of the small of her back, smooth and dark.

Happy forgot how to breathe. It was obtuse of him, really; crow eaters showed square feet of skin a day, and never not once had it so effectively drained every thought from his head as a small strip above the band of her high-waisted jeans.

In his distraction, he missed the conversation that was happening, but somehow Sunshine had reasoned with the bird that he needed to fly away, or he'd be a quick snack for the alley cats.

The pigeon cooed once more at her before taking flight into the patch of trees.

"Did he just...listen to you?"

"Of course he did; I'm irresistible," Sunshine faux scoffed, rising to her feet and beelining for the sink, where she lathered her hands up to her elbows.

"Oh, you don't have to tell me," Happy whispered to himself, closing the backdoor.

"Do you want me to scan the building for more woodland creatures that might be waiting to jump out at you?" Happy said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Haha," she wrinkled her nose.

"I'm pretty sure I saw a hummingbird fly by the window earlier. Do you want me to make sure he's not hiding in the drawers?"

"Get out of my kitchen," Sunshine said without hesitation, whipping the towel she was using at his chest.

He caught it with a grin.

"You always going to come running when I'm even remotely distressed?" she teased back, picking up the bowls off the floor.

"Yes," he answered honestly.

"Aww," she grinned at him. "My very own knight in biker leather."

Happy didn't let on of how strangely proud the title made him.Notes:

This chapter is dedicated to that pretty white dove that Jax so cruelly ran over with his bike in season six. I really didn't appreciate that scene.