Bulletproof

I spent the rest of that day firmly attached to Kindred’s side, trying my damned hardest to keep her calm. The roles were usually reversed, truth be told, so this was a new experience for the both of us. I got really nervous when she looked like she was close to crying, mostly because I wasn’t sure what to do. Sure, she was my best friend, but it was usually me that did the crying. She got surly a lot, but she would usually shut herself away from everyone else when that happened. I couldn’t exactly leave her alone, since she’d take off and kill everything in sight if she got the chance.

This, however, proved to be the perfect distraction. I wasn’t thinking about Nic (well, I was, just not as much), and I wasn’t sad. I was just really nervous. My mood seemed to be affecting everyone else, too; Gerard had hardly stopped pacing all day, Ray fidgeted with his hair, Mikey bounced his knee (when he actually sat down, usually he was pacing just as much as Gerard), and Frank would walk aimlessly from one room to the next, looking like he was thinking really hard. Grace followed Kindred and I sometimes, other times going to look for more entertaining company. Sasha and Christian mostly sat back and watched all of us, only speaking between the two of them. Sasha was still having a hard time because of all the intensified emotions and her withdrawal.

Kindred picked at her nails listlessly, occasionally casting a glance out of the window to her left. Leaning against a table across from her, I watched her movements carefully. If she was thinking of much, it wasn’t translating to her face; she was blank. Unreadable.

“Scarlet,” I murmured softly, making sure no one would overhear. Her head snapped in my direction, her eyes wide and innocent, as if I’d just yelled at her. “Scar, it’ll be alright. I know it sucks right now, but we’ll find her, okay? It’s not going to happen right away. We’ll get things squared away here, then we’ll go back to the Lair and get our information straight. If we waste a bunch of time looking for her with no direction, then BLI is going to watch us more closely. We can’t take that heat right now,” I told her softly. She nodded without looking like she was listening to me. I sighed, running a hand down my face. It was hard, seeing her like this. She was completely vacant. She stared out the window again, leaving her nails be.

“Hey.” I turned and looked at Frank as he greeted me. I gave a little half-wave back. “How’s… well, how’re you holding up?”

“I’m fine,” I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “Well, as fine as the situation allows. Worried as hell about Kin, Sash, and Christian. I can’t figure out why they’d decide to question Kin’s mom now of all times, since Kin’s been out in the Zones as long as I have. They’ve had ample opportunity to do it before, so why now?”

“Beats the hell out of me. You’re right, though- that’s weird,” he shrugged, causing me to sigh again. I was going to deflate if I kept expelling that much air. He gave me his contagious grin, and it spread to my face.

“God damn you, Frank,” I muttered, laughing under my breath. “You can’t just let me stew in my own anxiety, can you?”

“Nah,” he shook his head. “Can’t have that. Someone’s gotta keep a level head around here. Sure as hell isn’t going to be her,” he nodded in Kin’s direction, “or the guys, or Sasha, or Christian. I never have a level head, so… up to you, sunshine.”

I poked my tongue at him childishly, which made his grin grow. “Act your age, silly man. If anyone here’s got the right to be upset, it’s me.”

“I know,” his voice was gentler now, and I smacked myself mentally. I didn’t want pity. “You’re really toughing this out. I’m impressed.”

I allowed a little smile of victory to overcome my features. “Yeah, well, no one said life in the Zones was going to be easy. I’ll find time to feel sorry for myself after we take down BLI.”

“You’re a tough kid,” Frank shook his head, still smiling at me. “It’s a little ridiculous. Sure you’re not a robot or some shit like that?”

I rolled my eyes at him, grinning nonetheless. “You wanna watch her for a second? I should go check on Sasha.”

“Sure thing,” he agreed, so I left him to it. I ruffled Kindred’s hair on the way by, but she didn’t take any notice. I swallowed another sigh and went to find Sasha. After a minute of searching, I concluded that she wasn’t anywhere in the lower level, so I headed up the stairs, knocking on the door at the top. Christian opened it a second later, stepping aside to let me through. Sasha was crying again, face in her hands as her shoulders shook. I sat down on one side of her, Christian taking the other side. She didn’t look up even as she felt the bed sink under our combined weight.

“Sash,” I murmured gently, pulling her so that her head rested against my shoulder. “Sasha, sweetheart, listen to me, okay? We’re gonna pull through this.”

My soft words made her shoulders tense. I knew I was going to be yelled at- Sasha’s usual fiery spirit combined with her past. To my surprise, though, she just let out another sob and said nothing. I frowned over her bowed head at Christian, who looked just as confused. This was unusual, even considering the circumstances.

Christian rubbed her back soothingly, and the three of us sat in (near) silence until she calmed down enough to speak.

“How’re you so okay with this?” she demanded of me, looking straight into my eyes with her bloodshot ones.

“I’m really not,” I admitted quietly. “I’m really sad, I’m really scared, and I miss him like hell. I’m pissed off at BLI, even more than before. I don’t even want to save anyone anymore- I just want to destroy them. But…” I paused and swallowed, thinking about what I wanted to say, “I’m part of something bigger than just me now. I’ve got other things to think about, and that helps. I’ve got the guys, and they depend on me. Sometimes,” I corrected myself quickly, which made Christian smile and Sasha frown.

“You’re scared?” she scoffed disbelievingly. “Nic’s dead, Lee’s dead, Mom and Dad are gone, and my baby sister spends her time having gun fights in the middle of the god damn desert! You’re the only family that I have left, and you’re hardly ever here! You‘re out there playing hero, and I‘m always afraid that you‘re not going to come back!”

I bit my lip guiltily. “Sasha, I… I’m really sorry. I don’t want you to feel like that, but I can’t stop now. I made a promise to myself, to the guys, to Kindred, and to Nic. I can’t let all that’s happened to us happen to other people. In order to make sure it doesn’t happen again, I’ve got to help them take BLI down. I can’t just sit by and do nothing. You know me better than that.”

Her stare was so intense that it actually made me uncomfortable. “If you don’t come back alive through all of this, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll spit on your grave. You know I will.”

I smiled at that, laughing. “Alright, but you should know that most Killjoys don’t get graves.”

Her face dropped so quickly that I laughed even harder.

“I’m kidding. Sort of. Anyway, are you okay, aside from the obvious?”

She nodded after a second, smiling just a tiny bit. “Yeah, I’m okay. But if you find that fucker that killed Nic, bring him back here.”

“I would,” I laughed again, “but all of those damn Dracs look alike. It’ll be hard to tell which one did it specifically.”

“Well, just dust every single one that you get a clean shot at, then,” she laughed, too. Christian chuckled quietly at us.

“Okay, I need to go watch Kindred and make sure she hasn’t done unspeakable things to Ghoul yet,” I excused myself, mussing Sasha’s hair as I left. I giggled as she called me a rude name while I walked away, continuing down the stairs and back into the dining area. Kindred hadn’t moved, but Gerard had joined Frank. The two of them were chatting quietly as I walked up beside them.

“She was a real handful,” Frank informed me seriously. Or, he would’ve been serious if I couldn’t see the telltale twinkle in his eye. A grin lit his face after a second, too.

“Yeah, I bet. She’s positively wild at the moment. How’d you ever make it out alive?” I asked, playing along with feigned shock. Gerard chuckled at the both of us.

“Everything okay with your sister?” he asked, leaning against the table that I’d occupied previously. I nodded the affirmative.

“Yeah, she’s getting there. She’s tough, so she’ll pull through this alright. I have something I want to ask you guys,” I added to my response, ready to change the subject completely. They both nodded, so I went on. “How did you guys manage to break into that place to get me? When I was taken in, it was pretty heavily guarded.”

“That,” Gerard grinned, “is something that we’re pretty proud of. It was so simple, but it worked out perfectly.”

“You think they woulda seen it coming,” Frank added, laughing. I found myself becoming annoyed, since they weren’t giving me the details right away. I couldn’t not laugh when Frank laughed, though, so I ended up giggling a little bit despite my annoyance.

“C’mon, guys, tell me already!” I demanded, throwing my arms up in mock exasperation. They shared a chuckle at my expense.

“Well, it was easy. We drove around to other Killjoy hideouts and called in favors with them. We’ve gotten a lot of Killjoys around here out of trouble at one point or another, so they were more than glad to help,” Gerard explained, but I was still in the dark. Help with what?

“We asked them to send in false sightings of us,” Frank elaborated. I nodded, still frowning. “Oh, c’mon, isn’t it obvious? We hit up like, six different places, and then they told their friends, so on and so forth. According to… well, everyone, we were in about twenty-three different places all at once that day. Korse can’t ignore that kind of thing, and so Dracs were sent out all over the place, trying to find us. The Killjoys that helped us out all took to hiding out for a while, so that they wouldn’t be found and brought in.”

“Korse was pissed,” Gerard laughed, “and he was storming all over the Zones, trying to find any Killjoy to get his hands on. Unfortunately for him, though, everyone was pretty hell bent on surviving. While they were occupied, we followed Kindred to the fortress, ghosted the few remaining Dracs, searched the place, and found you. Then, we got the hell out.”

“… That’s it?” I asked after a second, awed by how simple it sounded. They both nodded, grinning like morons. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Frank confirmed, grinning with all his teeth at me. “So, was it everything you hoped for and more?”

“No,” I responded immediately, prompting more laughter. “How did they even fall for that?”

“Well, it’s not like they can just ignore sightings of four dangerous, gun-wielding maniacs. Especially not when they’ve been hunting said maniacs for years now,” Gerard smirked. I shook my head at him.

“That’s… ridiculous, guys.”

“Admit it, you’re impressed!” Frank prompted, jabbing me in the shoulder. I crouched away from his prodding finger, nodding after a little thought.

“Yeah, I kind of am. It’s unusual for me to see you guys doing something that doesn’t involve all of you almost dying,” I grinned, getting a jab in. They both frowned at me. “What? Prove me wrong and I’ll take it back.”

Neither one of them said anything, so I took it as my win. I could tell that their frowns were mostly in good humor, anyway. I looked back at Kindred, who appeared to have been watching the three of us through the guys’ little story. I offered her a soft smile, which she returned, even just barely. It was a good sign.

“How’re you doing, Kin?” I asked. Frank and Gerard both turned their heads to look at her, too, both offering up their own smiles. She shrugged.

“A little better, I guess. Listening to you guys laughing helps a lot, honestly,” she admitted, making our grins grow. She looked away from us, back to her hands on the tabletop. “Stop looking at me like that. It’s getting kinda creepy.”

Despite her words, though, I could see the hint of her devilish grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. My smile grew to the point where it was almost painful. I skipped over to her, wrapping her shoulders in a hug while she let out a huffy sigh. She patted my arms after a couple of seconds, though, doing her best to return the hug from her less-than-ideal hugging position. In the end, both of us started laughing.

“And she says we’re ridiculous…” Gerard murmured to Frank, though it was quite obvious that he intended for the two of us to hear it. I ignored him cheerfully, rocking Kindred back and forth in my grip at a quick pace.

“Harley! Stop it,” she gasped between giggles. I eventually did, retracting my arms from her torso.

“All better?” I questioned innocently. She threw her hand behind her blindly, hoping to hit me. She did. Her hand connected right with my forehead. I chuckled out a swear word while she cradled her hand.

“Damn you and your solid head,” she cursed, but she was smiling.

“Wouldn’t have felt it if you hadn’t hit my face!”

“Uh, hate to break up the love fest, guys,” Ray walked in with Grace tugging on his hand, “but there’s a rally going on somewhere in Zone Three starting tomorrow. We should put in an appearance to up the morale, y’know? Plus, some fun would do us all some good,” he shot a rather pointed look towards Kin and me.

“What kind of rally?” I asked, curious. Kin and I had never heard of anything like that, since we were pretty isolated until recently. I’d never been around a bigger group of Killjoys than the one that I was in right at that moment.

“It’s a surprise!” Mikey exclaimed excitedly, breaking his usual cool. I hadn’t noticed that he’d come in behind Ray. His enthusiasm appeared to be contagious.

“C’mon, guys! That’s not fair!” I whined pathetically. Kindred nodded her agreement.

“Sure it is,” Gerard grinned. “Grace doesn’t know a thing about it, either. You’re the new kids, so it’s only fair if you get to live in suspense until we get there.”

“Your logic is bullshit!” I accused, laughing despite myself. He gave a modest shrug but said nothing more. “Hold on a sec, though. You said ‘somewhere’ in Zone Three. Is part of the fun finding the damn thing?”

“Yeah,” Frank nodded. “Though, it’s generally not very hard to find.”

“Quit talking, Harley. They’re just going to keep dropping cryptic hints that’ll make no sense to us,” Kindred sighed, trying to sound pathetic. No one bought her act, but Grace started pulling on Ray’s hand impatiently.

“Why can’t you tell us?” she demanded, still yanking on him.

“’Cause that would spoil the surprise!” he rolled his eyes, communicating that it was the most obvious thing in the world. I grumbled along with the two other girls, and the three of us set our faces in ferocious pouts. The guys filed out of the room, ignoring us and buzzing excitedly to one another. I made a rude gesture at their backs, which prompted laughter from Kindred and a slightly surprised noise from Grace.

“What do you think it could be?” Grace asked after a minute, twisting some of her wild hair between her fingers. “They’re awfully excited.”

“I have no clue, kiddo,” I replied, frowning. “It must be cool, though, since they’re all acting like they’re little kids.”

“No different from usual,” Kindred interjected. I smirked, thinking about how true that was.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, then,” I declared, but the excitement and suspense were starting to build in my stomach. The sooner we got to that rally, the better.