And We Dream of a Better Tomorrow

Who: Maddy and Roy
Where: Roy's Vault
When: Evening

She was a girl on a mission, that's what Maddy was. She'd left the McKinnon's with their phone number in her pocket and pilfered cough medicine, leaving behind a note that she'd pay them back for the bottle as soon as possible. However that wasn't what she had on her mind. Not at that moment. No.

Her fevered dreams had touched on him a few times, amidst fuzzy memories of a mother she couldn't quite remember, her brother that she could remember, a little of Dodge, but Roy. Maybe it was something that came with near death experiences, Maddy thought as she cut through some alleys to get to the bank building faster. She wasn't running. No, she wasn't well enough yet for that, as much as she hated to admit to herself.

It occurred to her sometime during the night when the fever briefly spiked back up that Roy... was the only one she actually let yell at her. Let lecture her. The one whose disappointment was like a public flogging. Because Roy so desperately cared and didn't let her get away with things. He wasn't tiring like Dodge could be sometimes. He... Well, Maddy didn't know. All she knew was that she needed to see him and grovel and say what she wanted to say before one of them died.

So that was her excuse when she barged into the old bank building yelling his name, her voice bouncing off the old stonework as she tried to navigate her way to where his 'room' was. "Roy!" she yelled again. Because she didn't look like herself. Sure, she was wearing her regular clothes, but they'd been washed and ironed and her skin was scrubbed pink and clean and her hair. Instead of some tangled, somewhat frizzy mass, it was clean and straight and soft and a golden color that could only come from a really nice and proper bath. It's how she knew that she wasn't recognized when she went past a few of Dodge's boys on the street and they gave no acknowledgment and she knew they would have because she'd been missing.

Roy was asleep, the quiet sounds of his sister's breathing close by. But he was a light sleeper at the best of times and he roused at the sounds of his name. Getting up, he walked towards the vault door, pushing it open a little. Crouching down, he lit the little oil lantern he kept in there, and stepped out, looking a little more vulnerable than usual. That was because he was barefoot, with just a thin undershirt on, and more comfortable pants than usual. His hair was tousled from sleep, and he headed towards the stairwell, where he'd heard the echo in the first place. "Hello?" he called down it, the sound echoing in the big, currently mostly empty building.

"Roy?!" Maddy didn't care if she sounded panicked or relieved, tripping and skidding around debris. Dammit. He needed to pay the electrical bill or something because it was too dark. Or maybe she should've brought a flashlight but that didn't matter. And wow, it was hard to breathe. No more running when you're sick, kiddo, she thought to herself, bumping up against the steps with a painful little grunt. "Roy!" she yelled again, more hopeful this time, less panicked or desperate or any of the other things that Maddy wasn't acknowledging at the moment.

It was that first sound that filtered through the most, how she sounded panicked, and distressed, and other things that were firmly listed under Bad, so that had him rushing down the steps. And being he was on the third floor, that was a lot of steps. But eventually he got down there, setting the lantern down quickly at the landing just before he got to the ground floor, and he reached her, turning her by the shoulders so he could see her in the light, worried. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked, that before he had to let go, immediately going into a coughing fit that he deemed ill fucking timed, but he didn't get a say in that stuff. He looked back at her though, just then noticing that if he'd actually been looking at her as opposed to just going for her and running on instinct, that he might not even have recognized her straight away. 'Hurt' didn't really look like it made the list of things she was today.

"I'm so sorry about everything I did the other day. I was stupid and really stupid and reckless and you were right. You were so right that I don't take care of myself very well but I thought I had it under control and I even went and got some medicine! But then I almost died because the fever was cooking my brains or something like that and all I could think about is how you were right and how I never, EVER want you to look at me like the way you did the other day ever again because it makes me want to kill myself. Well, not really kill myself because I think that would make you even more mad and I never want to make you mad and I was so scared that when I found you, you were going to be dead and I even brought you medicine!"

And then she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding onto him tightly. Maddy had never done that before, never in all the years that they were friends. "I'm so sorry and I missed you and I was scared that you were going to die." She didn't care if he was still sick because she'd gotten over it and had taken some medicine already so she just held onto him, her hair smelling like honeysuckle soap. She just relaxed as she hugged him, so terribly relieved that he was still alive and she could tell him how sorry she had been.

Roy was a little overwhelmed when she was rambling at him, and he was desperately trying to keep up. And then he was even more overwhelmed when suddenly she was glomming onto him, and he was pulled down a little so she could get her arms around his neck. After a few blinking, bewildered moments, he hugged her back, holding onto her about as tight as he could manage even if she was kind of aggravating the bruises he'd gotten from the fight with Dodge and his goons earlier. He just didn't say anything about it, because well. She was really, really upset, and clinging to him. So that kicked in other sorts of responses, not 'ow, that hurts' ones.

"Shh, it's okay, okay?" he said first, thinking that needed doing immediately, because she was obviously so upset. Then he tried to pick out things she'd said and address them. He rubbed her back a little, a light motion, something he didn't even think about doing. "Everything's okay. I'm not mad at you, I promise, I'm not mad," he added in there because that seemed important to her. He was kind of slowly realizing that what he'd said to her had actually sunk in, apparently. He really hadn't thought it had. He was all kinds of just on uneven ground at the moment, but he tried to be solid for her, with the Upset going on.

"I don't mind if you yell at me. You go ahead and yell and scream or hit me -- I'll hit back of course -- when I'm being stupid. I mean, I will mind because no one wants to get yelled at or hit or something unless they're fucked up in the head then I dunno." The circles on her back were comforting and she sagged a little more against him when he started doing that. Oh. "And if Dodge ever tries to say I like him more or something, well that isn't true and he's just being a little bitch." Yes. That needed saying too, especially after the weird week she was having with him.

"Hit you? I'd never hit you." Roy told her, that surprising him, throwing him off, and that was clear in his tone. "Jesus, I know I--" he stopped, and pulled back a little so he could look down at her. Catch her eye in the sort of poor light. "I know I get... overwhelmed sometimes. But I wouldn't hit you." he promised. It was why that one day he'd hit the wall. He'd do that every time. "No one should ever hit you. Don't you take that from anyone," he said, wondering if she did. If maybe Dodge smacked her around or something. He didn't know.

He had her upper arms grasped lightly, still holding onto the eye contact. He was still sick, but he was feeling better. Both physically and emotionally, since he'd seen Marian again, and she usually set the dial on 'black spiral of doom' back a good bit. The bit about Dodge made him blink though, not sure why she was telling him that, or what was relevant about it. "I--huh?" he asked, not even sure what that was about.

"Dude, do you really think I'd let some asshole smack me around?" she asked, momentarily taken off track to give him a confused look. "And I know you wouldn't hit me. I know how you get sometimes and it scares the living daylights out of me," she said honestly, looking up at him sincerely. There was no Doll Girl in her look. No arrogance or 'Supreme Goddess'ness. Just genuine Maddy. Madeline. "And I wish I knew how to make it better but I just want to say that if it ever, ever happened, I'm not going to hate you or something. I'll smack you around for it, but I'll never hate you." Because I'm pretty sure you can't control it. For lack of anything to do with her hands, she cupped his face, making sure he remained looking at her. "Dodge is my friend, yeah. And I tend to tell him more things because of the way his minions work. Like with Jack. But I never, ever want you to think that I like him more than I like you. That I would pick him over you or anything like that." She bit her lip. "I just didn't want you to think I was in love with the brat or anything like that. That I'd pick him over you or something." Maddy trailed off a little self-consciously, moving her hands away from his face, wondering if she was blushing like a girl. Cursed blushing.

Roy winced a little when she touched his face, her hand going right over the bruise on his jaw he had from the very boy she was discussing. Her first statement had him looking down though, internally wincing and he was sorry. Very, very sorry for everything. "I'm sorry, I don't--" he started, breaking off for a second. "I don't mean to scare you." he finished. He really didn't. He didn't mean to scare anyone but he knew sometimes he did. He also appreciated the bit of a switch going on. The usual airs she put on weren't present, and he felt more like he was really talking to her.

In the low light, he couldn't really tell she was blushing, but her body language was that of being a bit embarrassed or the like. "He was here today." he said, putting a hand behind her back and he nodded towards the stairs, back towards the lantern as well. "C'mon... it's warmer up there." he added quietly. He was freezing. He'd gone from being nice and warm under the blankets to out here and it was seeping into his bones.

"I know you don't mean to," Maddy said gently in response to his apology. "Because you're not the kind of person who does stuff like that on purpose." She slipped her hand into his as they walked up the steps, squeezing gently. She needed to hold onto him in some capacity for the time being and she was glad there were no witnesses to her... temporary weakness.

And Dodge had been there? "He came by?" she asked, heading up the steps with him. Roy was shaking and she could see the goose bumps on his arms as they got closer to the light. And as they drew closer, she could see the bruise on his face, the marks on his arms from where he must've been grabbed. Maddy felt something inside her gut. Worry and anger. A rush of anger that was curling around the worry.

There was another little faint wince as she took his hand, though it was because it was the one whose knuckles had split back open again that morning. He snagged the lantern as they walked past it, and he led them upstairs, sort of wondering at the hand holding and all the physically touching stuff, but he didn't question it. And, because of her demeanor and how she was behaving, at the moment he wasn't even going to be telling her not to because he was still sick. She seemed like she needed it, period. "Yeah. He thought I'd moved you." he said. He didn't really want to get into the rest of it, about the fight, or any of that. As far as he was concerned, she didn't really need to know, did she?

"He should talk," she said rather snidely. "He's the one who had his kids hogtie me and carry me back to his place like a sack of potatoes and lock me in his room to keep me from following up on a possible lead on Jack." Maddy lifted their joined hands to look at it for any kind of injury and noticed the state of his knuckles. With a quiet sigh, she pulled out a bandana from her pocket and started wrapping it around his hand as they walked, which was a little awkward but Maddy was quick about it.

She appreciated that he didn't question her odd behavior and seemed to understand what she needed. "I've got a thing of cough medicine for you by the way. And a bottle of pills," Maddy added as a sidebar, patting her jacket pocket.

Roy pulled up short at that, turning his hand she was wrapping around to grasp hers, to turn her towards him. "What? He did that to you?" he asked, frowning, really not liking the sound of that. He'd said it to Marian earlier -- that he thought Dodge thought of D as property. Like she belonged to him. That sort of confirmed it in his own head. You didn't do that to people. He caught the bit about the medicine -- he'd never in his life thought people cared as much as they apparently did -- and he'd get to that! But first, that Dodge thing needed addressing. Right now.

"I said I was going down into the tunnels and he wasn't going to stop me and he said he'd be going down into the tunnels because no way in hell was he going to let me go down there." The annoyance that Maddy had felt at the time was clear in her tone of voice and she was still kind of mad about it too. "And I wasn't going to promise him because seriously. He's not more awesome than I am. So I was locked in his room for fucking hours and he comes back beat up and I felt bad." And she did. She felt bad that he got beaten up. "I felt bad about him getting his stupid ass beaten up on my account." Maddy frowned a bit. "I feel a little bit manipulated," she said slowly. "But I don't want any of my boys getting beat up on my account, you know?" It was clear that it still confused her how things had turned out in the end, but it was also clear that she was still angry and bothered over it.

Then I really hope you don't press me for an answer on what happened to me. Roy thought. He really didn't like the idea of what he was hearing, though. "...D, if you ever need someplace to go... you can come here," he told her, tone light. "Even if I'm not here, you can. And...I don't know, maybe you should try and steer clear of him." he suggested, knowing it would be kind of impossible to do, considering he had little informants probably just jumping at the chance to inform on her to him, but still. She could try. "You feel manipulated... like he was trying to...?" he left that open ended, starting them up the stairs again, though at a slower pace.

"Thanks," she said, offering him a small smile before going back to fixing the wrap on his busted hand. "You know, I was actually going to say you could come live with me. Someday, I'm gonna have enough money saved up to get my own place," she told him, holding onto his wrist this time so she didn't mess with the bandage. "He wasn't trying to do anything like that," she explained quickly. "No." Although the gloves... "I dunno. I just feel weird about it." I told him my name before I told you, she thought. "He's been really good in helping me cross off places while I look for Jack and it's funny watching him try pretend that he could possibly hope to surpass me in any field." Kiss bandit.

He led them up to the third floor that most people had left alone, particularly over by his vault. He smiled a little when she said that, and he led her into the office that was closest to the vault, and he shut the door. There was still an old desk in there, and an old chair that had seen better days. The windows were intact, and he set the lantern down, fixing the lid on it so it lit the room much better than it had been. Pausing, he looked at her a second, then held up a finger to indicate he needed a minute, and he snuck out. A minute or two later he was back, and he had two thin blankets, one that he wrapped around her shoulders, the other that he wrapped around his. He sat on the desk, so she could have the chair. "Thanks for the offer," he told her, about her telling him he could live with her someday. It was sweet, really. It made him smile, which he knew he didn't really do that much of on a regular basis, but it made an appearance.

Then it was gone as he thought about the rest of what she'd said. "How do you feel weird?" he asked her, not wanting to gloss that over. Not when apparently the guy was tying her up and shutting her in rooms. That...that just wasn't right.

Maddy took out the thick glass bottle with the medicine in it and the little bottle of pills and set them on the desk before curling up in the chair. In the better light, it was clear to see that she was still quite pale, dark circles under her eyes giving her features and even more delicate appearance. It was also clear that wherever she'd been, she'd been able to get clean.

"I..." she wasn't sure what to say or how to put it. She was fifteen. Did all fifteen year olds go through what she felt? "I thought he thought I was pretty," Maddy said after awhile. "Not that I care about that sort of thing. I know I'm the most beautiful girl in the world, like there's any doubt. I felt like stuff was different."

Roy looked at the medicine bottles, and took up the one that looked like a cough medicine bottle. He uncapped it and swigged some down, wincing a little and squinting one eye shut because of the taste. But at least it was cough medicine. No mistaking that taste. Technically, she could have given him a bottle of poison and he wouldn't know because he wouldn't have been able to read that on the bottle. "Thank you." he told her. He was taking in more details about her as he sat there, and hoped she wasn't doing the same with him, because he knew he had to look like he'd been in a fight earlier, because he had been. By several guys even. "Of course you're pretty." he told her first, because she was. A pretty girl, and that was especially evident considering she looked like she'd gotten herself a good bath. Not a dip in a fountain one either. "But like what stuff was different?" he asked, sort of vaguely wondering if this conversation was going to a place he didn't especially want it to go. If Dodge had talked D into bed...

Maddy did notice the marks all over him. The one on his jaw from a pretty solid punch. The scrapes on his skin and the way he sat sort of hunched in on himself. Her eyes narrowed slightly. It was an unfair fight. She knew it was. If Dodge had come around looking for Roy, he wouldn't have been alone. There would've been at least two or three other boys not far behind. "I thought he might like me and I kind of thought I liked him back," she muttered, ashamed to say that. "Fucker. I can't believe I fell for it. I know how he's like but I was stupid and weak and don't you ever tell anyone." She knew Roy wouldn't, but she was going to say it anyway.

"Just tell me he didn't hurt you." Roy said. Because that was what was most important to him. Not that she'd been so called 'weak' even if he didn't necessarily believe that was true. Everyone wanted someone to care about them, to think they were special. He knew he did, even if he didn't think anyone thought of him like that. Well. Maybe that wasn't true lately. Though he didn't think anyone thought about him in that over the top looking for a companion way, and if that were the case, he was going to be a bit on the creeped out side. Still. He understood the motivation, the idea of vulnerability.

"I swear to you that Dodge didn't hurt me in any way, shape, or form," she swore to him, looking straight into his face. He looked older in the low light, shadows playing across his face that it was hard to notice the bruise if you didn't know to look for it. Did she want him to think of her in... that sort of way? Did he already think of her like that or was she just another possession to him. "I promised myself to never let anyone ever hurt me in any way ever again, and if Dodge ever hurts me, I promise I'll tell you, but I'm not a little girl, Roy. I'm sixteen." Well, almost sixteen.

"I didn't say you were." Roy said. "I know you want to look out for yourself, and I know most of the time you're good at it. I just..." he sighed, dragging his fingers through his slightly messy hair, tugging through the waves of it. "I also know he's got his goons." Like he'd known real well that morning, when they'd had him held so their fearless fucking leader could take shots at him while he couldn't fight back. "And I know he's arrogant, and he acts like this city, and everything in it is his. And everyone." Which was the bit that bothered him most. Because he thought it. That Dodge saw D as his possession. And with the shit he'd said to him this morning? It made it all the more clear. "I just know sometimes there isn't a way out." Not when you were surrounded by assholes who would come out of the woodwork to do whatever Dodge told them.

"Yeah, his little band of merry men," she said softly. "To be honest, most of them are scared of me and the older ones stay away. I mean, there's Roach who didn't get the memo that I wasn't interested in him and that was quashed pretty quickly. Dodge is a good person. He's helped me out a lot. I wouldn't want to marry him or anything but he's a good friend. I know he's got my back. Things just feel more complicated lately and now I feel like all I can think about are boys. I can't tell him not to look in on me. One way or another he's going to know what's up, whether he watches out for me or one of the kids do, but he respects me and the boundaries and that's all any girl can ask for."

Roy fell quiet. He didn't think being a good guy and having her hogtied and locked away were the same thing. He didn't thing being a good guy and out for her best interests included picking an unfair fight with someone even after he'd gotten the information he wanted. But it was clear that her opinion was what it was, and Roy didn't want to take anything away from her. He was worried, and he looked down and away, jaw setting a little as tension sparked up in him. He didn't like it. Like he didn't like how he really did think that even if Dodge did 'look out' for her? It wasn't for her. More it was because he thought he was entitled. And that was fucking dangerous, in Roy's opinion. He didn't like it. The part about respecting her and her boundaries made him twitch more, and he sat back a little, farther from the light so maybe she'd see it less. Do your boundaries include being bound, taken against your will and shoved into a room so you can't escape?

"I'm going to have what I like to call a friendly chat with him about fair fighting though," she said darkly, avoiding looking at him just like he was. "And what happens when you mess with my friends." A bitter smirk touched her lips and she ran her hands through her silky hair. "I think certain people need to be reminded that when I threaten to kick their ass, I really and truly can." Because this wasn't about her or her relationship with Dodge. It was about who the fuck he thought he was beating up her friends, concerned for her safety or not.

"How many were there?" she asked quietly, the look on her face still dark. It was as fierce as one of her Doll Smiles. This look even worse than her Lizard Look. It was a deadly blank. She remembered the nuns saying she looked "like the Angel of Death herself come down calling".

"I didn't tell you there was a fight." Roy said, tone still quiet. Light. A little too light, because he was trying not to be angry about it all, not to tell her what he really thought of Dodge and the entire thing. It was easier said than done, that was for fucking certain. But he hadn't said a word about there being a fight. He'd just said he'd been by. Not anything else. And he knew she'd seen. Obviously, she'd seen. And it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Still, though.

Maddy slowly got out of her chair, slipping the blanket off her shoulders. A moment later she took her jacket off, wearing the threadbare, long sleeved plaid men's shirt. She looked down at the gloves on her hands for awhile, thinking about how Dodge had taken them off of her that night. Or morning. Whatever it had been.

Maddy walked over to Roy, who still wasn't looking at her and slowly pulled her gloves off and set them on the desk beside him. She nudged his knees apart so she could stand between them and reached up with her cold finger tips to touch his bruised cheek, making him look at her, her other hand tangling fingers with his unhurt ones. "Roy, how many were there?" she asked again quietly.

That was definitely treatment that Roy wasn't at all used to. He didn't even know how to react to it, in any form. It was unexpected, and in the end, she sort of had free reign there, because he was so caught off guard. He did look though, when she made him. There was the light pain from the bruise on his jaw, and he felt the cold of her fingers sharply. He watched her eyes for a few long moments, searching them as he tried to decide how he was going to answer. He didn't know. He hadn't planned on telling her about the fight in the first place. He'd hoped she'd assume he picked them up someplace else. Or just not noticed, or not cared. "Doesn't matter," he said in the end. "Enough."

Maddy could be manipulative but it was never, ever on a malicious level or to hurt someone she cared for. She didn't like to use someone's feelings against them. And when she kissed his cheek and wrapped her arms around his neck, it wasn't to play on his feelings for her, be they platonic or not or... whatever they were. She just wanted to avenge Roy. She felt so angry that she was calm. "Please tell me," she whispered in his ear, holding onto him a little tighter.

People really didn't treat him this way. It was still tossing him for a loop, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it yet. He felt vulnerable, that was for damn sure, and he didn't know how to deal with that either. It would be nice if he felt on more solid ground, but he just didn't at the moment. Her lips were warm against his cheek, and he felt her breath there. And as a totally involuntary reaction, a shiver went through him when she whispered into his ear like that. It tickled a little, her breath against his skin. "D, don't do anything about this. It was just a fight, it happens. I'm sure it'll happen again sometime. It doesn't matter, it could have been worse," he told her, voice very, very quiet, sure that it would be worse if she did go try to give Dodge hell for it. That could set everyone back on him tenfold, if they thought he was trying to turn D against Dodge. He could see it now, only maybe next time he didn't walk away so easy. Maybe next time they snapped bones.

Maddy felt him shiver and she couldn't help but shiver back in response. She passed it off as just a reaction to the cold because no way was she thinking about Roy reacting to her kiss or something. "I'm doing something about it whether you like it or not," she said, kissing his cheek again before pulling back to look at his face. She knew this was a precarious situation and whether Roy liked it or not, she was involved in it. They were fighting about her, weren't they? And that seemed like a sore spot between the two. She didn't like it when her boys didn't get along and they usually did. "My names Madeline," she told him quietly, cocking her head to the side. "Doll Girl is what the nuns liked to call me. Sorta stuck, I guess."

He wanted to protest, tell her not to do it and why, but she distracted him with the random confession of her name. He blinked, head canting to the side a touch as he looked at her. "I never liked Doll Girl." he said. Which was why he'd always refused to call her that. He always called her D. "Always seemed too much like people were looking at you like you were an object. A toy or somethin," he added. "Madeline. I like it," he told her honestly. And he gave her the hint of a smile, recognizing that that was a secret she'd just told him. That it was some sort of an honor in a way. "I won't tell anyone." he said, before she even had to ask. He knew he was kind of a more rare type, not having a street name. Unless one counted Grady, but that was just his surname. He didn't have any clever title, he was just Roy.

She chuckled a little bit and hopped up on the table beside him, holding his hand with both of hers now. She rested her head on his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against the soft blanket. Life was so damn easy when she was with Roy. She could breathe. "Well, that would explain why they liked to dress me up like one, huh?" Maddy joked, feeling guilt at telling him her name when she'd told Dodge first. But Dodge just knew her as 'Maddy'. "It's Madeline Keyes, actually." Everything was so messed up. She was sick for two days and suddenly her world is all messed up.

He turned his head to look down at the top of hers, wondering at her holding his hand and kind of... was she snuggling? This felt like snuggling. Or like he was being snuggled, anyways. "Madeline Keyes," he repeated, trying the name out. "Do you have a middle name?" he asked, curious. "Mine's Edison. My ma said it was after some inventor or somethin'. Guess she thought I was going to grow up to be smart." Even if he'd failed miserably on that score.

"Not that I know of," she said quietly. Yeah, so maybe she was snuggling. It wasn't often she got to do this. "And the nuns never said 'Madeline Insert Middle Name Here Keyes' to me so I guess I don't got one. And yeah, Thomas Edison? I learned all about him." Sort of. "He invented electricity. And movies." She tilted her back to look up at him winningly. "And you're smart. You need to stop selling yourself short, buddy."

"Well, you're one up on me, knowing who the guy is." Roy told her, smirking very faintly as he looked down at her. "Not so smart now, am I?" he asked. "I never finished school." he told her. "... and I'd appreciate it if you never told anyone that," he added, because it was a major sore spot with him, something he was always really aware of, and he was ashamed of as well. Like he knew why he was chosen to run numbers. The numbers didn't mean anything to him, so even if someone caught him and tried to get information out of him, he didn't have any to give, even if he'd been looking directly at the numbers. "Maybe you should pick one. A middle name, I mean." he said, sort of quickly shifting the conversation back onto her.

A shrug. "Maybe." Her own middle name? Like, picking her own middle name? No one else picking it? It was an interesting idea and Maddy couldn't even begin to think of what she'd choose. Madeline was kind of a mouthful to begin with. "And I won't tell, don't worry. I could teach you stuff, if you want," she offered. "No one has to know. I'm okay with numbers and pretty good with reading. I help the actors with their lines sometimes."

Roy thought about that, hesitating, and he looked down, away for a minute, trying to decide if he wanted to go with that. "Would you really do that?" he asked finally, looking back at her. It was clear he felt all kinds of vulnerable there, not sure what to say, or do. But it was something that if he could fix it, he wanted to, and it wasn't like he was going to get proper schooling. But if she could even teach him some of the more basic stuff, he'd feel better in general, and maybe he could work harder and do better with other things. He didn't know.

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't prepared to follow through," she said, putting her head back on his shoulder. She really did want to help out Roy. Maybe then he'd be able to get a better job than what he was doing. Or maybe he could get a better job at the garage. Somewhere else too. "Think about it. I could help you out with this and maybe that means you could start getting paid better. And I could try find a job too, not just my art. And maybe we could start saving up for that place. And your sister could move in with us too."

He was looking down at the top of her head again, watching for a few long moments, not saying anything immediately. It was the second time she'd mentioned living together that night. Maybe she was really tired of just existing as the ghost in the attic at the theater. Maybe she wanted a real home. Wherever she'd been... she smelled nice. "Yeah, maybe we could." he said, voice quieter than it had been. "...where did you go when you were gone, Madeline?" he asked, tone the same.

Maddy liked that. Being called Madeline. She liked the way he said it. "After I talked to you, I went to the church to pray," she whispered. "I met this lady there the other day. Janey. She was really nice and she was there the other day too. I must've passed out because the next thing I knew I was waking up in this really nice, soft bed. A little place not uptown. They weren't rich by a long shot. Irish district by city hall and stuff. Her husband was nice. Kind of stand-offish. I think she wanted to keep me." Not that the sentiment was unusual. Not by a long shot. "It was nice Roy. I almost didn't want to leave." Because yeah... She loved her attic. She loved it a lot but there was something to be said for a house. Hell, she envied Dodge and his apartment. "Don't want to live with them but... do you know what I mean, Roy?"

He listened; glad someone was there to take care of her when she passed out. Kind of like him, earlier, his sister had come by to help scrape him off the sidewalk after Dodge and his goons had left him there. The statement of someone wanting to keep her needled him a little, and he wondered why it was everyone around apparently wanted to fucking own her. It wasn't right. Still, he didn't say anything about it. And some lady with a nice house and a husband and shit was a far cry better than Dodge. "Why did you leave, if you didn't want to?" he asked. "Why don't you want to live with them?" Especially if she'd be looked after properly. In a real home.

"Besides the fact that even though Danny was really nice to me, he didn't think it was such a good idea? You." It was the God's honest truth and she had no problem admitting that to him like she would with someone else who was going to wish he had never been born as soon as she found him. "I was hitting 104 or 105 that first day and all I could think about was when I saw you last. When you yelled at me and everything. And how sorry I was and how I didn't really say sorry and I wanted to. I was so scared that I'd come looking for you too late and you'd be dead."

Why was it everyone kept having fantasies about him being dead? Or thinking about him being dead? Yes, he was sick, and yes, he could die, but still. Seemed to be going around lately, people thinking of him dying. The rest of what she said was just really surprising for him, and he realized that maybe what he said to her didn't go in one ear and out the other. Most of the time he figured that was it, that she just kind of heard what she wanted to and pretended not to hear the rest. But apparently he was wrong there. "Me? I..." he trailed off for a moment, trying to think of how to word things. "You're forgiven," he told her, giving her hand a light squeeze, since she was still holding onto his. "And you caught me not-dead." Was that why she'd sounded so upset when she was calling for him? And why she'd launched into that big ramble and clung to him? Again, he was struck with the idea that he hadn't been aware anyone cared that much. He was learning he was wrong. "Why did the guy think it wasn't a good idea?" he asked. Because really, she'd found him not dead, told him what she'd needed to, so she could go back to a nice stable home, right?

"I think Janey can't have kids or their kids died or something," Maddy whispered, squeezing back. She was really surprised not to hear any protests or self-depreciating coming from him. Roy never seemed to realize that he was worth something, especially to her. Even when she told him how much of a friend he was to her. But maybe she had to be more serious about those things because she meant every single thing that she said when she found him earlier in the night. That she was sorry and that it was okay if he yelled at her when she made him mad because she didn't want to make him mad. "And I don't want parents. I haven't had parents in ten years. I like taking care of myself. I'm capable of taking care of myself. No one gets to control me, dammit. Because I'm not some toy and there are enough people out there who want me." She'd make good money stripping though. There were plenty of guys that seemed to like her. "I don't know why they do but if I'm going to do anything, it's gonna be my decision, yannow?"

He could understand the part about not having parents the most. How it would be hard to go back to an environment with them. He knew he'd have trouble. It had been just he and his siblings and cousins for so long, and things had been bad long before the household got scattered. "...you don't want to go anywhere near those kinds of people, though. The ones that... that want you," he said. He'd seen people look at her like that before. Passing glances, mostly older men, and he'd always detested seeing that sort of thing in anyone's eyes. Granted, most of the time that was all it was, just a look, but he'd noticed. He just usually stepped into their line of vision when he did. "And yeah, I know you want to make your own decisions. Maybe you could work something out where they weren't like stand-in parents, but you could stay there as a...well. Like a tenant." He figured she'd deal with that type of relationship better, if it was termed that way. At least, with how she was talking, he thought that might be the case.

"No. No, it wouldn't work. Would rather get a place on my own terms. Not under anyone's thumb. Don't want to live at a boarding house or Sunny Shores or in a backroom of a club or anything like that. I love the theater. I haven't had to buy my own clothes in years, but I wish I had a reliable lock on that door." Not that anyone had bothered her while she'd lived there. The directors and the caretaker made sure that she was left alone. "No. I want a real place with a living room that's separate from the bedroom and has a kitchen and a bathtub," she said fiercely, still holding onto his hand. "And a working heater," Maddy added as an afterthought. "Maybe a fishbowl."

Roy smiled a little again. She did that sometimes. Brought it out in him. And sure, lately he'd been in a spiral, getting darker every day, but he'd seen Marian and she'd kicked that back, so he was in a better place in general. So, she had the ability to get that out of him again... plus there was a whole different feel to this than anything they'd had lately. "A fishbowl?" he asked. "You want fish? What would you name them?" he asked. Usually people wanted furry pets. Though they ate more. He knew sometimes he wanted a dog, but he knew he couldn't afford to feed one.

It was always nice to see him smile. She always felt quite accomplished when she was able to draw one out of him. "I'd start out with fish then move onto a cat or dog," Maddy clarified, shivering from the cold but she didn't want to move away and grab her blanket again so she sort of wrapped herself around the hump under the blanket that was his arm. "Don't know... Sleepy, Sneezy, and Happy?" she suggested, referring to the cartoon movie that she'd seen awhile back. "Maybe Jack would have a better time finding me if he had an address to look up." Every day it felt like he was never going to be found. No word. Nothing. She missed him so much. Why didn't he come back?

"Maybe he would," Roy said, shifting. He grabbed the blanket that was around his shoulders, and put it around her instead, which took a little longer, since she still had hold of his one arm, but he managed. "And those are interesting names," he told her, not getting the reference she was making. But he sounded a little amused. "Would your dog be named 'Barky'?" he asked, flashing a little grin at her for a second. Yeah, she was definitely focused on a home now, and he could understand why. She looked like she'd been taken care of well, and he distantly remembered what it was like to have a real bed, to go to sleep where it was warm and wake up when it was still warm. Comfort. There was in some people's lives an element of that that wasn't purely intangible, like it mostly was in his. Comfort for him and most people like him was only available if it was the emotional kind, and then only if you found the right person at the right time.

"You could name the dog," she offered, grateful for the blanket. She kept holding onto his hand though, needing some sort of contact to remind herself that Roy was really there. It felt good to talk like this. It felt good to know that Roy supported her dream of having a place of her own, that he didn't seem against moving in with her. "None of us would ever have to go hungry again. Never have to sleep without any heat. Wonder if anyone's gonna come in trying to take our spots." She looked up at him, resting her chin on his shoulder. "How's that sound?" Yeah... yeah, she really wanted to do this. Get a place. Never have to rely on generosity ever again.

He looked at her, and gave her that light little smile. "Sounds nice." he told her. And maybe if he had a real place, a real house or something, he could start getting some siblings and cousins out of the orphanage. And if Marian came with... And what about when Dodge comes around, taking his 'cut' of everything? When he walks in like he owns the fucking place, taking whatever he wants out of any room he wants, letting his goons crawl all over and take whatever they want. Because he'll use it. According to him, it'd already be his, and everyone has bowed down. He'd said it. That everyone else just lived for his approval. The thoughts had him ticking his gaze away a little, realizing that that was the biggest sticking point.

Even if he did think she was just dreaming aloud, not really making actual plans. It was a fairy story, a good idea, something that could be daydreamed about when you were so cold your fingers were numb, and your stomach had gone past the point of hungry so far that you stopped again. But Roy believed in dreams. He believed in having something to hope for, to strive for. It was what kept him going. So she was most certainly entitled to hers, he just hit that stop-point with his ability to daydream with her.

"Of course it sounds nice," she said, returning his smile with a vibrant one of her own, glad that Roy was getting in on the plan. "And we'd have real good locks on the doors too so no one we didn't want could get in." Yes, it was all coming together in her head. Maybe she should draw up what it was going to look like. Start looking for a job of sorts. In her pleasant daydream, she didn't notice at first that Roy had looked away at all, that he'd stopped speaking. "I mean it, Roy. I'm really gonna do this." Maddy turned around a bit and gently wrapped her arms back around his middle, careful of any injuries, willing him to look back at her. "Get you outta this vault. Bring Marian with you. Bring anyone else you want. Dodge gets his own place." Even if he was sharing it with a bunch of other people, it was still more than the two of them had. "We deserve ours, right?" Her blue eyes were big and bright and hopeful, wanting him to say 'Yes, you're right, Madeline. We deserve a place too.'

He looked at her again, because he recognized that he couldn't keep looking away, plus she hugged him again, and was sort of making him look back at her. So, he did. He just didn't answer immediately. "You know he'll be around. And you know how he is. He'll be in and treating the place like it's his. Him and all his goons. And he won't give a damn." he said, tone quiet. "He showed up today, asking me where I put you, and even after I told him I hadn't done anything with you, he still picked a fight. He still had some of the bigger guys in his gang come hold me so he could take free shots." he said, going back on his decision not to tell her what had actually happened, because it seemed important at the moment. "And that was after they'd already had their shots at me, and before they dropped me and kicked me while I was down. And all that when I was sick to begin with." Shaking his head and dragging his fingers through his hair again, he sighed. "I think a place would be nice. I know you deserve one. I just don't think it'd be like that. Not really. Not with the self titled 'prince' walking around. Not when he said that people live for his approval." He was warped, and that was just how it was now. He still thought it hadn't always been like that, but somewhere along the line it changed.

"He kidnapped you. You said he respects your boundaries and you but he tied you up and locked you up. That's...that's not respect of anything. That's doing with you what he wants, and you don't get a say. Somewhere in his head, he thought that was okay to do to someone. To do to you."

A cold trickle went down her spine as Roy spoke. At first she was going to say that no, Dodge wouldn't be able to barge into their place because it wasn't his and he'd always knocked on her door but then she heard things like how Dodge still picked a fight when he knew she wasn't there. That he had some of his boys hold Roy down while he took some free swings. And Roy had no reason whatsoever to lie to her. He knew that Dodge was her friend and Roy always liked to shield things from her, in a way. Send her away when he was in one of his moods, that sort of thing, so the fact that he was telling her exactly what had happened that day, what happened to him…

And how Roy put it. Turning her words back on her like he did, showing her just how foolish she sounded. She sounded like one of those girls. The ones who stayed with their husbands and boyfriends long past that expiration date. It made her sick to her stomach. It made her skin crawl. She never wanted to be like that.

"It seems that I've been slacking off in my duties to make sure he knows his place in my world," she said quietly, that quiet, deathly calm settling over her voice but Maddy still looked at Roy with that hope she was holding onto. "I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it and then I'm going to make sure it stays taken care of." She was already going to have a talking to with Dodge over the fight with Roy but no… this had became much more serious than she had imagined.

"Madeline, I still don't want you going to him and starting something about what happened with me." he told her, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "If it's to stand up for what he did to you? You have my blessing. But for me?" he shook his head, keeping his eyes on hers. "I don't think there's a good ending there. I think all it would do is make things worse, make them harder." And he was still aware that it could backlash onto him all the harder. The fact that Dodge had showed up in the first place demanding information on the girl's whereabouts said loud and clear she meant something to him. So yeah, her showing up and taking Roy's side in things...maybe Dodge takes out his anger on him again, just to teach him a lesson about messing with Dodge's people. He'd seen it happen before, not necessarily with Dodge, but in general. And it wasn't pretty. And it got uglier every time. He had no plans of retaliation, it hadn't even actually occurred. It had happened, and it had sucked, and he didn't like the situation, where it was headed or how he saw it, but he hadn't thought of trying to get back at the guy. And he wondered if Dodge would view Maddy's involvement as retaliation.

"No one messes with you," she told him in that same, scary calm voice that she had used before, reaching her hand up to hold the one he used to tuck her hair back. "No one messes with the ones I care about, even if they're included in my affections." Had she really been letting Dodge get away with things by explaining them away as part of the never-ending game they played with one another? To think that she had been doing so made Maddy sick to her stomach. To think of herself as one of those girls… "And when I'm done with him, he won't even think about taking his frustrations back out on you. I promise you that. I swear it. I'll even blood oath it if you want me to." The street way of making promises. She'd sign a paper in blood to prove that she wouldn't let anything happen to him. "Because hurting you hurts me and I let no one hurt me," she added softly, almost too soft to hear.

He should have kept his mouth shut. Because, like he already knew about her--she did what she wanted. She was highly independent in general, and stubborn to boot. The girl wasn't a follower, and probably wasn't ever going to be. It was one of the things about her that he liked, and of course could be terribly frustrating at times too. One thing he didn't think he could make her understand was that her say so could mean nothing. Not if Dodge felt it needed to be answered for, if he really thought Roy was out to do something like take her away from him. And there was the part where Dodge could still keep the promise that he personally doesn't strike back, but if his goons happened to want to take things into their own hands... And her say probably wouldn't mean anything to them. To Dodge? Who knew. But his crew weren't exactly anything shy of shady, and they already actively participated in unfair fights on a regular basis. Who was to say they wouldn't go off the rails themselves? "I don't need a blood oath. Besides, you can't make it on behalf of other people." he told her, giving her that faint half smile again though it died right away. "I'd rather you be more upset about your own stuff than mine," he told her genuinely, still wondering about her tone there. He'd not really heard her sound like that before, and it was getting unnerving. Probably because she sounded so serious she sounded so much like whatever course of action she was taking--it was set.

Maddy shook her head, still holding both his hands. She felt sick to her stomach, a bundle of nerves humming under her skin. She had failed. She failed Roy so badly and Maddy didn't want to think about how much she'd failed herself. "Personal failures will be dealt with," she whispered, appalled by her actions. Sick of how she had acted. She was shamed. And so she channeled the shame she felt into retribution. "I'm gonna fix this, Roy." She bowed her head, looking down at the hand she was holding. "Because if Dodge did that, then there's gotta be something wrong." What was wrong, at least one of the things, was that she hadn't been making sure he was properly falling in line. Dodge had been out of sorts the last she talked with him over some stupid girl. She needed to fix things.

"You didn't fail anything." Roy said firmly. "If anyone's screwed up, it isn't you. It's not your responsibility to make sure anyone else behaves, and you don't dictate anyone's lives. This isn't your fault. Don't start taking responsibility for anyone else's screwed up mentality or actions," he told her. "You start doing that you'll never stop. He's going to do what he's going to do. I will what I am, and you will what you will. And we're all responsible for ourselves." He really didn't want her starting to take on Dodge's fuckups. That...that would be bad. In all kinds of ways.

"I let my guilt keep me from giving him a piece of my mind when he locked me up," she pointed out, looking at him from under her bangs. "If I had taken care of that. Kept him in line, then he wouldn't have gone off on you like that." Maddy exhaled slowly, letting go of his right hand and rubbing it over her face. It was difficult being responsible for people. Everything seemed to turn into a clusterfuck if she wasn't around. "What would you have done if you knew I'd gone missing?" she asked quietly.

"Madeline," Roy said, liking that he had a real name to call her, so he was going to use it. "The two things aren't connected. How Dodge reacts to me...that's not to do with you. Dodge doesn't like me because I won't submit to him. I'm not bowing down and joining the game, I don't fall in line. And I'm not going to." He stopped speaking for a few long moments when she asked the last question, giving it real thought. "I would have looked for you. Started at the theater, gone to the orphanage, started checking hospitals. I would have tried to find you."

Maddy liked hearing her full name being spoken. She didn't really like being called Madeline before, but it was nice to hear Roy say it. Why didn't I tell him before? she wondered, looking at their hands. "I wonder what took him so long," she murmured, sniffling a bit not from tears but because she felt her stuffy nose coming back. Because yeah, she never cried. "Guess none of his boys saw me being carried in and out of some taxi, huh?" She wasn't sure what she thought about that.

Roy didn't say anything for a long few moments. What he was seeing was a girl who had a crush on the wrong guy. A really wrong one, in Roy's opinion, but he didn't expect that would mean a ton. Plus, he was aware the heart wanted what the heart wanted, and sense didn't have much to do with it. Like the women who usually captured his interest were older, and far, far out of his league. So much so that he never even tried with them. "Just because he didn't get to me til today doesn't mean he wasn't looking before then," he said, not really wanting to do the guy any favors and talk him up at all, but whatever.

"Eh. I'll let him know while I'm watching him pick his teeth up off the ground that his information network is getting a little sloppy," she said with a smirk. "No, I know exactly what he was doing." Mooning over that girl of his he'd been moping over the past couple of days. But she wasn't going to tell Roy that because it wasn't Roy's business and Dodge wouldn't want her telling anyone. "If we're gonna get a place, where do you think we should move to?" She asked, changing subjects back to the two of them, because she didn't want Roy thinking she was heartbroken or sad that "prince" Dodge hadn't been immediately scouring the city for her.

Personally, Roy would rather that Dodge not be fucking spying on the girl all the damn time, but he didn't say as much. Instead, he thought about what she said, and he felt a little sad. She still didn't quite get it. Hell, even if they moved across the city from where Dodge usually hung out and lived, he'd still be there. Because of her. And something told Roy he wouldn't take kindly to her living with him. But that came back to the 'property' idea again too. It was a messy spiral in his head. "I don't know. Where would you like to live?" he asked her, still seeing no harm in dreaming about it, or letting her daydream about it.

"Dunno." She bit her lip, trying to think of places that would be real nice to live. "Would have to be an apartment, I think," she said after awhile. "Unless we could get a good deal on a little place. Have a garden out the back door. Marian could have that. She might like it, yeah?" Because Marian was going to be in their plans because if Roy got a place that had more room, Maddy was pretty sure that his sister was going to come too and she didn't mind, not at all. "There's some little neighborhoods by the school that could work. What do you want in the house?" She smiled almost shyly at him even though she wasn't shy herself. She just wanted Roy to smile again and to feel like the dream was his too. No. Not dream. A plan.

When she smiled at him like that, he smiled back. It was light, nothing full-form or anything, but it was most certainly present. It was nice she was including Marian. If Marian wanted to even do anything like that. Not that it was going to happen, but...well. Sometimes she couldn't stand seeing him, he knew that. Sometimes she needed her space. Still... "She'd like that." he confirmed. "And I don't know. Real beds. Real furniture." He paused, then landed on something less practical. "A radio."

Bingo. When he suggested the radio, her smile got bigger and her eyes brightened up in the dim light. It's what she wanted because maybe if he got into it, he'd realize that she really did mean it, this whole idea of getting a place. "How about a phonograph too? With all the records you could ever want?" she suggested, still smiling at him.

He chuckled a little. Roy didn't laugh a whole lot. It was even rarer than him smiling, at least lately, but there it was. "Tall order." he told her. "But yeah, a phonograph would be good. I like music." he said. And he did. He just didn't get to listen to it all that often. He never had money to go see any live musicians, and he didn't have a radio or anything. most of the time he only heard it when he was at the garage.

"You should come with me when I go to The Kitten Club!" Maddy suggested, positively jumping up on the desk, figuratively speaking. A chuckle. She'd actually gotten a chuckle out of Roy. Some night, huh?. "I draw some of the girls that sing on stage," she explained quickly, not wanting Roy to think that she'd started working there, what with all the talk of her wanting to get a place. Although, now that she thought about it, The Kitten Club wouldn't be a bad place to look for real work. "The bands are real good. I bet you'd like 'em."

Roy blinked, staring at her for a second. "You hang out at the Kitten Club." he said. "How's that? They even let you in?" He hadn't gone there. He'd been invited before by one of the guys at the garage, but he didn't have any money for anything like that, and plus...he wasn't entirely sure it was his thing. He had a hell of a lot more respect for women than a place like that he imagined had.

"Finn got me in," she explained. "Well, he was the one that asked me first to draw the singer that he had for one of the songs he wrote and the other girls liked that portrait I did so much that I go in once or twice a week to draw them. I don't get bothered too much either. One of the bouncers keeps an eye on me. And the music is good." She actually batted her eyelashes at him, playful, of course. "Oooh, come on big daddy, you know you wanna come with!" she crooned in an exaggerated southern drawl.

Roy made a face and winced. "I never wanna hear the words 'big daddy' out of your mouth again," he told her. Yeah, that just -- no. Whole worlds of no. "And I just --- I think I'll skip that," he told her, possibly blushing a faint bit, though it was hard to tell in the poor light. "I'll just... take your word for it," he opted for.

Maddy fell into a burst of giggles at his awkward protest, wholly amused at how uncomfortable that seemed to make him feel. "So when we're holding each other close at night, shouldn't call you 'big daddy', got it," she teased after calming down some. She tapped his nose and rested her chin on his shoulder, quieted down again in the span of heartbeats. "I want a swing set in the back yard." Her statement was quiet and serious compared to the teasing she was just doing. "A tree swing that when you swing on it, the ropes kind of creak."

Well, at least she moved onto the swing thing, even if he probably would have choked if she'd stuck with the whole 'when we're holding each other close at night' thing. Which he was positive she was teasing him. He was. Still. Jesus. The girl really didn't have a brain-to-mouth filter, did she? He coughed, turning his head away from her, though it was less because of his being ill and more due to that sort of statement aimed in his direction. "A swing set...with a creaky rope. Good to know you have such specific things in mind," he told her.

It was an interesting reaction that Roy had, although not wholly unexpected. Still, Maddy made a mental note not to tease him about that sort of thing for awhile. He was sick, after all. "It has to be a big tree though," she murmured. "That's the most important part because that way when you swing on it, you can look up at the sun through the leaves." Not that there was any sun in Eidolon City, but it was still nice to wish. "And we could eat dinner on a picnic blanket in the backyard when the night's are too hot to stay outside. Sleep out there too."

Roy smiled again. "Sounds nice," he said for the second time that night. Sleeping outside by choice not necessity, that sounded very nice, even. Something he could get behind. Sure, it wouldn't happen, and all, but still. the idea was a good one. Just the idea. "Guess we'll have to look, and figure things out, huh?" he suggested. He didn't think such a place even existed, but looking wouldn't hurt, right?

Maddy nodded, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. The house sounded nice, but this was nice too, the whole just sitting there in the half dark talking about the house she was going to get them someday. They should do stuff like this more often. Yes, they should. And she kind of wished that Roy would hug her again because she found that she really liked it when he held her. "We could look tomorrow," she suggested quietly. Wait, no. She had plans that needed to be taken care of. "Well, the day after anyway."

"Come find me." Roy said. "We can go look." Maybe. If he was feeling better. If he wasn't called up to run numbers or whatever. But he should be able to find some kind of time. He noticed she was rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, and sort of half wondered about that. "Are you leaving?" he asked. "You could stay. Marian's here too. There's room." he told her. It was late, so...

She shook her head, pulling away slowly and groped around for her gloves. "I came straight here from Janey's place," she said, tugging the ratty wool gloves on slowly. Her hands were cold and she was tired. "I should go check on my stuff." And figure out what I'm going to do to Dodge. "Next time I'll knock instead of scaring the living daylights outta you, okay?" It was nice to know how concerned Roy had been.

"Sure it can't wait til morning?" he asked. "...I'd feel better if it could." he admitted. Bad things happened and a lot of it was after dark, in the neighborhood he was in and the one she lived in. In between wasn't a great place to be either, and while he was aware that she probably did it a lot anyhow, his knowing about it just meant he was going to actively worry.

Maddy bit her lip, feeling unsure. On one hand, there was something to be said about sleeping in your own bed. On the other, it was getting really cold outside and she wouldn't be alone here. "Where would I sleep?" she asked softly, looking at the chair she'd been sitting in earlier. It was comfortable enough.

"In the vault, with us." Roy said. "There's lots of blankets. I don't have a proper bed or anything, but it's comfortable enough. It'll be warm." Even warmer with three people in there, but that wasn't really the point. Mostly he just wanted her to stick around til first light at least. Then she'd be safe, he knew. She could go do whatever she wanted after that, but she'd be safe til then.

Warm. That was the most important thing for kids like them. Screw the bedding and the pillows. As long as it was warm. And man, she really was tired. Kind of a bone-deep weariness that came from getting over being sick. "Alright," she agreed, pulling on her jacket and grabbing the second blanket, waiting for his direction. She'd never slept in his vault, let alone spent quality time in there.

Roy stood, bare feet hitting the cold floor and yeah he really wanted to get back to the vault where the blankets and body heat and all were going to make him much more comfortable. Putting a hand at the small of her back, he nudged her in the right direction, opening up the office door again, and he grabbed the lantern, leading them back to the vault. He pulled the heavy door open, and waited for her to get inside before he followed, setting the lantern just inside.

It was surprisingly warm, considering how big the room us, but then again, it was, well, disaster proof. No leaky windows or duct work along the ceiling. The most obvious thing about the room was Marian curled up on the pile of blankets like a hibernating bear. As usual, Roy's sister looked positively exhausted. Maddy walked further into the room, wrapping her blanket more around her and looked at the collection of knick-knacks decorating his living space. A dog and cat figurine to her immediate left caught her eye and she went over to it with a smile. "I remember giving you this," she said, flashing him a smile. "I'm glad you kept it."

He looked over even as he went and laid down on the blankets near his sister. "Why would I give it away? It was a gift." he said. Which was true, and he did tend to keep things anyone gave him, not that it happened all that often. But he remembered where he got things, that was for certain. Like the figurine. He laid out on his back, pulling blankets over himself, and he propped his head on his arm beneath it, watching her.

Maddy avoided looking over at Roy, being what some might consider rude at not going to bed, but she wasn't making him stay up to watch her. She slowly looked over his collection. It was such a magnificent one and Maddy thought it said a lot about Roy, more than what her attic said about her. Her lips quirked at the comparison while she looked at a pair of rather nice opera glasses. Her room was filled with clothes and scattered with drawings, few of them decorating the walls, but at the end of the day, the attic wasn't hers. Not really. "I just know you like to give things away sometimes," she murmured, not unkindly. She liked that about Roy. That he liked to do nice things for people when he didn't have to.

"Yeah. But you gave that to me," he said. It made a difference in his head somewhere. He kept his voice low, so he didn't wake Marian, knowing she needed sleep probably as badly as he did. still though, he didn't rush Maddy either. He just kept his eyes on her, letting her look around at his things. "If you want something, you can have it." he told her after a few long moments.

"Really?" She looked over at him, not surprised, not entirely. Maybe just a little bit. Maddy looked back at his collection, finally walking over to the mass of blankets where Roy and Marian were and sat down on the floor next to him, leaning against the empty drawers and resting her arms on her knees. "You don't have to stay up on my account," she whispered, lowering her voice even more. "I don't know if I can sleep." Because she really didn't. Her mind was buzzing with everything they talked about. The house. Dodge. Having to do things about it... She wanted to sleep. She needed to sleep but she didn't think she'd be able to. That and she wasn't sure if Roy would be freaked out if she ended up cuddling him. Or if Marian would get mad if she woke up while they were asleep. Some sisters were like that.

"I hear the first part to getting to sleep is laying down. and getting comfortable and all that." Roy told her, giving her a little bit of an amused half smile. "Bet you'll fall asleep if you do that." he said. Sitting up, he made a gesture to the blankets and all, giving her the open invitation. He grabbed the lantern and was going to put it out, but he wanted her situated first.

Maddy sighed a little, pretending to be inconvenienced but shrugged off her jacket and bunched it up, using it as a pillow and slid between the blankets next to Roy. "In our new house," she whispered conspiratorially. "We're going to have feather mattresses and goose down pillows."

Roy smirked. "Yeah?" he asked, reaching out to turn the lantern down then out. "Sounds nice." he said for the third time that night. Once upon a time, there were dreams. He guessed some people still had them. Maybe he did too, really. Maybe he was supposed to.

"Of course it sounds nice," she smiled back serenely. "I came up with the idea." The vault was dark, almost impossibly dark and Maddy felt a surge of fear for a moment until she got used to it. She felt Roy beside her and waited, trying to sense where his shoulder was before turning over onto her side and resting her head on his shoulder, her hand grabbing onto the front of his nightshirt like he was a teddy bear. A much bigger teddy bear. It was nice, not sleeping alone.

While he hadn't anticipated that she'd do that, he didn't stop her either. It was a strange place and all, so yeah. He was okay with her doing that. He just got comfortable, and let himself drift. Things would get figured out eventually, he figured. Til then, there wasn't anything he could do and he still needed his rest to beat the illness, and deal with the rest of his days. But maybe he'd have better dreams now.