Status: Hoping to upload a chapter every Saturday, a little weekend treat :)

Getting Surreal

XVIII

“Holy shit, Becks.” Gerard said loudly, staring at the cabinet barely clinging to the wall. “How the fuck are you not dead?”

“Mehh,” she shrugged awkwardly as Mikey let her down from the piggyback ride he’d given her, keeping a strong arm on her at all times in case she felt like falling over again. “I’m hard to kill,” she said, leaning into the younger Way and wrapping her arms around his waist, surveying the damage herself.

“I’ll just call you Bruce Willis,” Frank muttered, walking up to the cabinet, looking closely at all the broken pieces and large chunks that were sticking out everywhere. “Fucking Die-Hard.” Gerard joined him, bending down to pick up some of the large bits of shelving that had fallen on the ground.

“Man,” Becks mumbled into Mikey’s side as she looked at the large amp still sitting in the middle of the hall.

“Hmm?” Mikey asked, looking down at her.

“I almost made it,” she shook her head and tsk’d at herself. He chuckled.

“Fuck, Becks!” Gerard uttered from his spot by the cabinet, dropping a chunk of wood, blood staining his hand. “There’s fuckin’ blood everywhere!”

Shit,” Frank whispered, looking down.

“What?” Becks asked loudly, tearing herself from Mikey’s hold and wobbling over to where she’d landed.

“Fuck, it’s everywhere. How much did you lose?” Gerard asked as she eased herself down to the floor, looking at the small pool of dark red on the floor.

“I’m pretty sure you should’ve died-Don’t touch that!” Frank shrieked as Becks stuck her hand in the puddle tentatively. “Oh my God, that’s so gross.”

“It’s so cool, though,” she said, not even looking at him. She was having too much fun testing the tackiness of her own blood spilled on the floor. “Dude, look! I can draw pictures in it!”

“Oh look, she’s drawing a fucking smiley face in her own fucking blood.” Frank said, exasperated. He had a thing about hygiene, and this was crossing a line for him.

The Way brothers just stood there watching down at her in shock. This was something of unexpected behavior to them. The Becks they knew was chill and almost always a little ball of sunshine. The Becks in front of them was…dark and more than a little bit twisted.

“Okay, Satan,” Gerard said as she started making handprints on the clean spots of floor. She was just starting to really smear it around, nothing short of completely fascinated with all of it, when Mikey hoisted her up, careful to avoid the blood himself.

“Uh, Becks,” Mikey said as she started toying with the splinter of wood she’d picked up when he was lifting it off the floor.

“Mmm?” She asked, poking at her fingertips with the sharp end of the wood.

“Are you okay?” He plucked the wood out of her hand and dropped it on the ground.

“Do you think it’s the drugs?” Gerard asked Frank.

“Nah, I just really like blood,” Becks said, looking down somewhat longingly at the pool of it on the ground before turning and looking Gerard dead in the eyes, he would have thought her crazy but for the glaze look in her eye and the fact that she was clearly unsteady on her feet. “Always have.”

The pair stared each other down for a minute before she burst into a childish grin.

“You are one sick motherfucker, you know that, Becks?” Gerard asked her, smiling himself.

“Ohhhh, yeah,” she replied, giggling. “Fuck,” she started swaying on her feet a little again, and Mikey was right there, arm tight around her waist to keep her up.

“We should take you back to the bus or greenroom or something,” he said, looking at the other guys, making sure they agreed with him.

“I think the bus,” Gerard said, nodding. “She can, uh…clean up there.” Frank nodded heartily, keeping his distance.

“Yeah, okay,” Mikey said, then he looked at the girl. “Becks?” She didn’t respond, just stood there looking blank. He looked at the other guys with a knowing look that they all shared. The drugs were really hitting her hard. “Becks?” He tried again, giving her a small squeeze.

“Hm?” She slowly blinked and looked up at the man holding her.

“I’m gonna take you to the bus now, okay?” She just stared up at him, her gaze coming in and out of focus.

“What the fuck did they give her?” Frank asked the room, watching his clearly blitzed-out-of-her-mind tech.

“I dunno, man,” Gerard replied, not taking his eyes of the girl, either, “but it’s hitting her hard.”

“Becks, we’re gonna go rest, okay?” Mikey tried again, using his free hand to touch her cheek lightly. She slowly nodded, slurring out something that sounded like an ‘okay’ and started walking slowly with him down the hall towards the back exit that would lead to the busses.

“We’ll let Brian know, Mikes!” Gerard shouted after them.

---

After the pair had made it back to the bus, Mikey led Becks, with a steady and guiding grip around her waist, into the bathroom where she washed her hands, then eased her down onto the closed toilet so he could better clean her up.

“The nurse didn’t really care to wipe off all this blood, did she?” He asked her kindly as he knelt down (with some difficulty - bus bathrooms aren’t exactly spacious) in front of her, damp paper towel in hand.

Becks shook her head in a child-like manner. “Nope,” she said, smiling vacantly. “She just wanted it to stop.” She tapped lightly at the bandage wrapped on the right side of her head.

“The blood?”

“Yeah, she was very nice, though,” Becks pursed her lips and nodded, as though to agree with her own statement.

“Was she?” Mikey asked her, indulging in her conversation as he placed one hand under her chin, holding her head still and started gently patting with the towel at the caked and dried blood on her temple with the other.

“Yeah, she helped me,” Becks said, matter-o-factly.

The pair then fell into a brief silence as Mikey carefully cleaned off the blood from her temple and she just watched his face as he concentrated.

“Still good?” He asked her as he scrubbed a little harder after he’d swapped out the dirty paper towel with a fresh one. There was a tough section near her hairline where the blood just wasn’t wiping off as easily. His hand that he originally had holding her chin, he now cradled her cheek with, his thumb lightly stroking back and forth across her cheekbone soothingly.

“Mmm,” Becks hummed, letting him know he was fine, her eyes fluttering shut. She’d been feeling the drugs pulling at her mind for a while, now, but she was really starting to reel from the effects, just wanting to sleep. After a more intent scrubbing of the towel, though, she let out a little grunt of pain and grimaced.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Mikey apologized, moving to withdraw his hands from her face, but Becks caught the one that was on her cheek with her own hand, holding it in place. She stroked her thumb across the back of his hand then slowly opened her eyes to look at him, and his breath caught when their gazes met. “Did I hurt you?” He all but whispered after a few moments. At this, her brow furrowed, and the hand that wasn’t holding onto his reached up to brush some of his hair back from his face, then trailed her fingertips lightly down his cheek before cupping it while she stared intently at him.

“You’re too good t’me, y’know that, Mikeyway?”

She slurred it all in a hushed breath. He just blinked behind his glasses at her, unsure of what to do. When he didn’t say anything, she hummed and tilted her head a little, still staring openly at him.

Mikey blinked again. “I...” he attempted to speak, but her bright eyes, that seemed a very piercing blue at the moment, though he never really was able to figure out what color they truly were, were boring into his, and he just couldn’t make a whole sentence happen for the life of him.

“I trust you.”

It came out in a whisper so quiet that Mikey wasn’t quite sure if she’d said it at all, but one glance at her small, shy smile and her eyes that were, though a bit unfocused from her medication, shining even more brightly as if to help convey her message, and he knew. He felt it like a tidal wave washing over his whole being. In that moment, even if she was doped out of her mind (and perhaps even more so because of the honesty that tends to come with such territory), he felt her sincerity in the depths of himself.

I trust you.’

The words were echoing in his head.

They spent the next few moments staring at each other, taking each other in, before Becks cracked a very doped-up sort of smile and tugged on the hair near Mikey’s ear that was tucked under his glasses, the moment clearly over.

“You’re such a good guy, ya know?” Her grin was lopsided as she slurred the words out, her apparent moment of clarity clearly gone. And then, she was slumping over in her seat, leaning against the wall of the bathroom, dropping the hand that was playing with Mikey’s hair, but continued to hold the one on his in place as his thumb stroked her cheek.

“You should lie down for a bit,” he whispered to her, taking in her drowsy eyes. She just hummed in agreeance, nuzzling into his hand and he looked at her fondly, a whirlwind of emotions stirring in his chest. “Come on, Becks,” he said, removing his hand from her face and earning an unhappy groan.

“I don’ wanna” she slurred grumpily.

“Don’t wanna, what?” He asked her, standing up. She just shook her head slowly. “Don’t wanna get up?”

“Yeah,” she huffed out, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the wall. Mikey sighed out something of a chuckle.

“Do you want me to carry you?” He asked after a moment of thought. At this, she forced her eyes open to look up at him. She reached out and grabbed onto his hand, nodding like a sleepy two year old. “Yeah, okay,” Mikey nodded to himself, and leaned down, wrapping his arms around her. “Ready?” She hummed into his shoulder. “O-kay,” the word coming out a little strained from the effort of lifting her. Once he had her up, he adjusted to hold her better and she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Where do you wanna go?” He asked her as he stepped out of the bathroom. “Your bunk? The couch?”

“Couch is fine,” she mumbled and he did his best to ignore the blush that was spreading across his cheeks as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck.

“Okay,” and he headed carried her to the back lounge, gently laying her down on the couch. As soon as she was down, he stood up and removed himself from her grasp.

“Hey,” she whined grumpily at this. “Where y’goin’?”

“I’ll be right back, I promise,” Mikey replied, walking out of the lounge and disappearing out of her sight.

Becks just frowned and curled up into a small ball on the couch. She closed her eyes, pouting, feeling like she’d been left alone before she heard him speak again.

“Hey,” he said softly and she peeled open her eyes to look up at him in wonder. He had only been gone about a minute, but in her drug-induced state, it felt like ages.

“You came back,” she whispered as he threw a blanket over her, tucking it around her comfortably.

“I told you I would,” he chuckled a little, and as he went to pull away, she grabbed his wrist and blinked tiredly up at him, her eyes heavy lidded.

“Can y’stay?” He felt his blush return as he looked down at her, his brow furrowing minutely. “I don’ wannabe alone,” she explained in a hushed whisper, looking away and blushing herself.

Mikey pulled his arm free from her grasp and she made a noise of discontent before he said, “okay,” and sat down on the couch next to her. She scooted up and laid her head in his lap as a pillow, and looked up at him dazedly.

“Yer a good man, Mikeyway,” she slurred to him, and the tiny smile on his face was the last thing she saw as her eyes slipped shut for the last time, and she fell into oblivion, his fingers running up and down her arm lightly lulling her into a comfortable slumber.
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