Something That Makes Me Whole

Brian POV

I suddenly snorted, waking myself up. I sat up slightly, and blinked trying to get my eyes to focus. "Oh shit, I dribbled." I cursed, wiping the corner of my mouth. Then I looked up, realising there was a body underneath me, and met her icy blue eyes. Our faces were so close I could feel her steady breath on me.

"Morning." She yawned.

"Sorry 'bout the dribble." I apologized; she was still playing with my hair.

"Don't worry about it." She replied. "I got worse all over you yesterday so we're even I guess."

"Actually we're not because I still have to snot all over you." I replied, grinning. Then I began snorting as if I was trying to conjure some up, pinning her down as she began to scrabble away from me, laughing and complaining it was disgusting.

Then I spotted something I hadn't seen before on the back of her left wrist. There was the normal daisy chain tattoo she had had since I first met her back in September, but there was a heart on the back of her wrist that appeared to hang from the chain and within this some initials.

"What's that say?" I asked curiously, reaching over to grab her wrist.

"What?" Orchid said then realised what I was talking about. "It's nothing." She said stretching her arm out of my grasp before laying on top of it. It was useless because I still managed to pull her arm out. Instead she covered it up with her hand, which I just pulled away with my strong hands.

I looked at the daisy chain and the heart that "hung" from it, as she looked away turning red. There, in the middle of the heart were the initials 'SG'. Gently, I ran my fingers over the two tiny black letters, whilst holding her wrist in my open palm. I'd heard about the tattoo, but I hadn't believed it. Now, here it was: full proof. Just the sight of those two letters had made my day, had caused a party to start within my head. Yet she seemed happy enough to keep on denying it.

"Is that the initials of one of your friends?" I asked, playing along with her denial.

She took her arm back and rubbed her wrist with her thumb, looking at her tattoo herself. "Might be."

"You should tell him."

"I will."

I got out of bed at that point, saying nothing to her but smiling widely. It was funny how something so simple could cause a tidal wave of happiness. Maybe she does love me afterall.

When I was done in the shower, I found Orchid already dressed and rooting in the kitchen cupboards. She was wearing a baggy pair of ripped jeans with one of my belts that had no affect because her jeans had slipped down her butt to show off her pink and green underwear; on her top half was her faded Thin Lizzy skinny tee and her head was hidden under a hat. From where I was stood I couldn't see her feet, but I had every confidence she was wearing one of her billions of pairs of Converse All Stars.

"Do you not eat?" She said turning round. Only now did I come round from watching her in silence.

"What? Of course I eat!" I retorted incredulously. "I've got to, Amber lives here!"

"Then where is the food?" She said opening the fridge door wide enough for me to see inside; the cupboard doors were also already open. I strolled over and pulled out a lump of cheese from a shelf in the fridge.

"Cheese." I said waving it under her nose. "That's food."

"No, the cheese died." Orchid said taking it from me, holding it way out in front of her and slinging it in the bin. "Then it came back to life."

"Scrape off the living bit and it would be fine!"

"We're going shopping." Orchid said ignoring my pleas and she completely emptied the cupboards, the fridge and the freezer, though there wasn't much to be emptying them of. When she had done, she found her wallet and her bank cards, shoved them in her messenger bag and then took me downtown.

All the way to the first store I spent the journey complaining. I'd planned on doing all this the day before Amber got back from Disneyland; then again I hadn't banked on Batgirl coming to stay. "Get a cart." She instructed me whilst rooting for something in her car.

I wandered over to the store doors where the carts were and grabbed one. When she reached me she took the cart from me. I just walked along beside her, as she leaned over the handle bar and slid along the floor. Despite having pulled them up, her jeans were slipping even further down her waist now, showing even more of her girl boxers. "Hokey kokey," she said as she made her way up the fruit and vegetable isle "what vegetables do you eat?"

I shrugged in response to the question I didn't really because I'd been watching her behind, making a mental note to tell her to wear tight pants more often because she had a nice ass. At that I saw her begin putting things in plastic bags and weighing them, before sticking them in the cart. "These are carrots." She said in a mock voice as if talking to a child.

"Yes miss." I answered, standing behind her, slipping an arm around her tiny waist and burying my face into her neck. Then I realised and let go. "Sorry."

She just smiled affectionately and zoomed off to the fruit. I followed after her and began adding things to the cart myself, these only being items I happened to know Amber liked. "Oh my god!" Orchid said sarcastically, still smiling. "You do know what fruit is!"

"Shut up." I grinned, grabbing her with both hands; I pulled her closer and began to tickle her. She tried prizing my hands from her but I was too strong and carried on.

"Orchid!" A voice called. We stopped and both turned to see her mother coming up the aisle pushing a cart filled with similar items.

"Mom."

"Where have you been?" She asked stopping next to us; we stepped away from each other slightly. "I rang you last night and this morning and I called on you and so did Georgi and Conner. Why didn't you answer?"

"Because I wasn't there."

"Orchid!" Mrs Watson groaned. "What did I tell you?! Brian, you shouldn't have given in."

"Mom, I couldn't stay there!"

"Mrs Watson, with all due respect, you weren't there." I piped up in her defence. "She was hysterical and she was shaking so bad, her legs almost gave way. She screamed when I knocked on the door."

"If I'd stayed there I would have had a panic attack."

Mrs Watson pursed her lips. "You've got to get used to being there, honey."

"Mom, seriously, I couldn't be alone!"

"Well you can't not go back!"

"I can if I move out."

"Don't for one moment assume your father and I will put you up-" Mrs Watson steamed ahead, but her daughter cut across.

"I'll stay with Brian till I get somewhere else."

"There you go again!" Mrs Watson said, throwing a hand up in the air. "Assuming you have a place to stay."

"Actually, I already said she could." I informed her and Orchid began to nod.

"Mom, I thought you'd be a bit more supportive!" Orchid suddenly snapped, despite her mother having not spoke taken not just her mother, but me back too. "You weren't there! You weren't kidnapped! You weren't raped! You don't have to live in fear of it happening again! You're not the one who thinks someone will creep up on you every time you're alone!" She really was quite angry. "I was kidnapped! I was raped! I do know what the fear is like and I hate being alone! So don't tell me I have to get over something you haven't experienced!"

Mrs Watson stared in shocked silence at her teenage daughter. Then she said her goodbyes and carried on. I tried to suppress a laugh, but snorted instead. Orchid hit me on the arm, her face thoroughly un-amused by it and carried on.

Eventually we finished and after that, wound up at a tattoo parlour; Amber had instructed me to get another and Orchid had decided to pay for it as thank you present apparently. The only thing was she wasn't allowed to see it and so resigned herself to sitting in the familiar waiting room, chatting to the people behind the counter whilst I was inked yet again.