Not an Epic Bromance, but They're Something Special

Who: Maddy and Roy
Where: Around town-ish
When: Late Afternoon

Boys.... boys were stupid. They were stupid, stupid jerks. Why were they stupid jerks? Because they made you feel weird, that's what. They kissed ya then pretended it was a game.

Not that Maddy was denying that it had been a game. Oh no, a game that she won. CLEARLY won but then Dodge had to be stupid and Maddy kicked over a trashcan in the alley in frustration, denting the side. The limp locks of the red wig she was wearing stuck to her cheeks, real and synthetic hair getting caught in the corners of her mouth. It was as much of a disguise as she was going to put on. It had been stupid to go in the church, but Maddy was getting desperate and it wasn't that lady's fault if she went to the orphanage to find out more about her. She was awesome and in her position, she'd be doing the same thing.

Maddy kicked another innocent garbage can and ducked in a doorway for a little bit to get out of the rain. Stupid Dodge and his doorways floated through her mind. Ooooh, she wanted to throttle him. And not just for the kiss, either. For the stupid kidnapping plot. Because she was so over feeling guilty for that.

And like an answer to her prayers, Roy suddenly turned the corner, shrunk in on himself against the rain, absolutely drenched. What the hell is he doing out here? Maddy wondered. He shouldn't be out here getting wet again. He should be inside. Oooh, that boy didn't know how to take care of himself. Shoving her wet, blue gloved hands, she marched out into the rain and straight into his path. "What are you doing out here?" she all but yelled at him. Did he not care for his health and well-being? Ahhh, perfect case of mis-directed rage floated through her mind, taunting. Maddy brushed it away. "Are you trying to kill yourself?!" He'd get sick, that's what would happen (She wouldn't. She never got sick. Duh) Her reasons for being out in the rain were good ones. Like being super angry at boys and needing to cool down. Roy did not have a good excuse for being out in the rain, she was sure of it.

Roy hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to his surroundings, and definitely not enough to have noticed Maddy to begin with. Hell, he didn't even know what street he was on. When people put themselves into your path, however, you tended to stop and look up, and the first thing that he took note of was the wig. Sure, he could see she was pissy with him for some reason, though that was only a dull, distant twitch in the back of his mind. No, he was just seeing a bad wig. So he skipped over whatever she'd said to him, and went straight for that. "What died on your head?" he asked.

Maddy paused, mouth open in mid-scolding, thrown completely off track. Her head? What did her head have to do with him walking in the rain? Was he the deaf one? Maddy reached up to touch her head, only getting wet strands of hair. "Well, it had stopped raining when I came outside." Her lip curled in annoyance and she took off the wig, dry blonde hair tumbling around her wet shoulder, bright for only a minute before the heavy rain started soaking it. "Dammit," she muttered and tossed the ruined wig into a trashcan. Dammit.

"Much better." he told her. The wig had done nothing for her, after all. She looked fine how she was, as far as he was concerned, though it was mostly seeing the wig that put that into perspective. It wasn't as if he sat around and thought about what Maddy looked like and whether or not it was acceptable. "Now you're getting wet. You should probably find someplace to keep dry." he said. Nevermind he wasn't, but he didn't feel his own circumstances warranted the same reaction. He was having an amazingly shitty time of late, and he was walking in the rain. He had an excuse. She didn't, so far as he knew. And anyways, wasn't she meant to be laying low?

She rolled her eyes, plucking at his soaked shirt. Maddy was out for a perfectly reasonable walk. "I'd say the same thing about you. What're you doing out here anyway?" A crack of thunder punctuated her statement but at least the rain didn't fall harder. Still a steady, hard fall. She had to lean in a little bit to hear him better. When you're half deaf, you get a different perspective on people. Like Dodge and Finn. She really didn't have that much of a problem hearing them. They were loud in every way, but Roy, not only did he seem to fade in the background, but his voice seemed to be like that as well.

Roy exhaled and moved to take Maddy by the shoulders, bodily moving her into the nearest doorway he could find, which happened to be the one she'd ducked out of in the first place. "Walking." he told her. "Shouldn't you be someplace not out in the open where people might see you? I heard that you're possibly in trouble. You should be laying low." he told her, since yeah, he was concerned about that. Bad mood or not, he was concerned.

Ah. So the stupid bastard had already put out the word. Well... it totally didn't matter. Dodge was still a jerk. "That's what the wig was for," she explained, wiping rain out of her eyes and face. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine." She forced a grin on her face even though she didn't feel like grinning. It was nice to know that people cared. "Dodge was just exaggerating, the fucker." Okay, so "fucker" wasn't necessary but in her defense it just slipped out.

Roy didn't say much to that, he just shrugged one shoulder, and glanced away. "Can't be too careful sometimes." he said. "And if you're going for a disguise, go for something less...bright." he told her. "I know you're used to drawing every eye in the room, D, but at the moment not being noticed might be your best call." He knew all about not being noticed. It was his lot in life. Girls like her, though...they got noticed. They made sure they got noticed.

"You know, I'm really sick of people telling me what to do," she snapped, finger pointing in his face. "I just wanted a fucking ear to the ground, not the troops rallying around to put me in a tower. Is that what your job is, Roy? Huh? Are you going to be the one to kidnap me this time because I swear to God if you try, I'll snap your spine and pull it out of your mouth." Maddy... did not intend for that to come out so harshly. She really, really didn't but dammit, she was angry and had no other outlet for her anger. Metal trashcans didn't fight back and that's what she needed. A fight. Any kind of fight.

Eyes narrowing, Roy looked down at her, considering she was far shorter than him. "Maybe people tell you what to do because you don't stop and think for two seconds what kind of impact your actions'll have, D." he snapped back. "Maybe, people feel the need to look out for you, because you parade around trying to draw in as much fucking attention as humanly possible, and people like you. Well good job, it worked, don't bitch that you have people willing to look out for you, it's one hell of a lot more than most of us have, you ungrateful little brat." Which was really something he never would have said if he wasn't in the mood he was, but damnit, he wasn't going to be threatened and bitched at for giving a damn.

"WHAT?" Maddy nearly growled. "You think I like people paying attention to me? I can't help that I'm so amazing and stuff, but I'd rather people forget about me than stalk me or try to be overprotective jerks or take advantage of me being short to lock me up in places." She slugged him with her small fist in his upper arm. "I just wanted a heads up! That's all! All you stupid guys are alike, you know that? Stupid and annoying and trying to prove that you're better than me. Well I could take on all a'ya! So there!" She stamped her foot. Maddy actually stamped her foot but it was either stamping her foot or kicking him between the legs and as mad as she was, she wasn't that far gone yet.

He looked down at her when she hit him, and listened to her continuing to bitch, but he didn't address any of it. Some of it filtered through and sent up distant red flags, things he should ask her about, but in his current state of mind, and probably hers, it wasn't happening now. "That all you got?" he asked, leaning closer. "Go on. You want to hit me? Go ahead." he told her. It wasn't like he didn't already have bruises on his face, one blossomed on his jaw, or little cuts from the fight he'd gotten into earlier. She wanted to lash out? He was just pissed off and in just dark enough a place to provoke her. He reached up and tapped his cheek, just above where the bruising faded.

Maddy's eyes narrowed, taking in the bruises and cuts already on his face, the scrapes on his hand that he was holding up. "No," she said, getting back into his face. "It wouldn't be a satisfying fight. When I kick your ass, I want you at full fighting force." She pulled away a little bit, back straight, arms crossed, her chin tilted up haughtily. "I don't find wounded puppies." Because, well, that's what Roy kind of looked like. A hurt little puppy. "Don't tell me you went down into the tunnels too."

Roy didn't answer her. What he did do was turn, and he cracked his fist into the brick wall outside the doorway, and he started to head away. Clearly, this wasn't the answer. Not the way to go at all. It had been a huge part of the reason he hadnt' gone back to the vault--he hadn't wanted anyone who might want to see him to be around. It was really only dimly that he recognized that his fist now fucking hurt, that his wrist jarred painfully along with it. Hitting solid walls like that wasn't ever an adviseable thing, but he wasn't going to take it out on her. But he did need an outlet, especially when she went and just added more fuel to the already meltdown fire in his head.

To say that Maddy was shaken by the wild punch that he'd thrown would not be far off the mark. She stared at him, wide-eyed when he spun away and strode off. A sane person wouldn't go after him. Someone who was not Maddy, that is. So Maddy ran after him, grabbing his arm when she caught up, holding on with all her might to make him stop. "What happened?" she asked. Or demanded, depending on one's interpretation. "Roy, what happened?" Oh no, did someone die? Did one of his brothers or sisters or cousins (Maddy had no idea who he had exactly) die?

Roy tensed badly when she latched onto him. He'd really thought she would have left him alone at that point, though it jarred him enough to look down at her again, watching rain hit her cheeks. "Go home, D, alright?" he said, tone pretty much the polar opposite of what it had been a moment ago. "Just go. You don't want to be around me right now." he told her, really really aware in that moment that he was so far off the reservation at this point that she shouldn't be anywhere in the vicinity. His knuckles felt like they were on fire, and he knew from experience that he'd left skin on the bricks. He didn't really want to be bleeding on her either, and tried to gently extract his arm from her grip.

The problem with Maddy was that she didn't know what was good for her. When someone tells her to go away, she doesn't. She'll open the door. She didn't know what was good for her after all. "Yeah, but you're my friend and there's something seriously fucking wrong," she told him, still wrapped around his arm. "So how can I fix it?"

"There isn't any fix for it, okay? It's just...me. Something's wrong with me." he told her. Which was largely the truth. He knew it. He didn't like it, but he understood it. That sometimes things just got so dark in his mind that he could barely see straight anymore. Nowish was one of those times. And he hadn't gotten to see Marian, so it had onset faster. Pile on that that lately it seemed like every time he tried spending time with anyone (save D) it seemed to sour. Even Miss Wright, who he'd thought was one of the most beautiful creatures in the world, it had gone sideways. "It's okay, D. It's fine. Just go home. You've got enough to worry about right now, right? And anyways, I'm just a kicked puppy, right? Not really worth the time."

Maddy raised her eyebrows, relaxing her iron grip. "Roy, you're my friend. One of my oldest friends. And because you're my friend, that means you've been touched by the highly sought after grace of the Supreme Goddess of the Universe, so yes, you're worth the time." She smiled brilliantly at him, her Doll smile. Maddy had what she considered to be a rather interesting collection of boys that she called friends. All of them were different.

With Dodge, it was... well it was complicated and she hated being soft around him. Saying 'sorry' was one of the things on the list to avoid with him. With Finn, well, Finn was such a boy-child that 'sorry' never actually came up. It was song and dance with Finn. With Roy, it felt quieter, like Maddy (perhaps putting more worth on herself, giving herself more credit, than she should probably be doing) was the one thing that could make him laugh or smile and while Roy was by no means fragile, Maddy knew that Roy was much different from how she would handle Finn. Different from how she'd handle Dodge. And perhaps it was because she treated "her boys" all as individuals, it was how she kept their loyalty.

So Maddy shined her rare Doll smile, bright blue eyes remorseful. "Now tell me whose ass I have to kick for bringing you down." While she didn't actually say the words, Roy would know that this was her apology for taking her anger out on him.

He kept his eyes on her, not saying anything for a few long moments. He didn't want to be around people when he was like this. It was deep down, but he did understand just how unreasonable he got. Hell, some part of him even understood he'd been overly harsh with Dodge earlier, even if he still wasn't anything resembling repenatnt for his behavior. Though part of him did want to spare her this, moreso than other people, maybe. Possibly because he was protective of her. Or because she was a bright spot on an otherwise drab slate gray backdrop of a world. He wasn't sure why. Could be her youth, too, even if he understood that she was a street kid just as much as he was and it wasn't as if she was magically going to be spared knowing how bad things could get.

Knowing how bad things could get though was different than contributing to it himself. That was probably the kicker. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, a move that was surprisingly gentle considering he'd just hauled off and punched a wall as hard as he could, and had been picking fights today. "I'm pretty sure not even divine intervention's going to help me out, D." he told her, tone quiet. "I really don't..." want you to see me like this "...I'll be okay. I just have a lot on my mind." And he did. Though if pressed, at this point, he couldn't even properly say what it was.

Maddy frowned at having her "divinity" doubted, but then again, Roy was a hard customer to please at 'The Maddy Show' sometimes. He scared her sometimes. Not in a 'fear for her life' sort of way. Perhaps it would be better worded as 'scared FOR him'. She was scared that he'd hurt himself too badly that he wouldn't get better. Like... killing himself or killing someone else or any number of bad things that Maddy didn't really like thinking about. "Well, divine intervention has to be good for something and if it ain't gonna work for me, it damn sure should work for you." Because damn if God didn't seem to be doing his job at answering prayers.

Flexing his hand a little, testing the aching stiffness there, and aware he was still kind of bleeding, and hoping it wasn't getting on her, Roy wasn't sure what to do. Her words were kind of echong in the back of his mind, what she'd said when she'd been yelling at him. A wounded puppy. Shit like that. It was just a part of the blackness though, just one voice in the myriad of them that shadowed his mind. "D. I really think it's best for me to be alone right now. It's not you, okay? And I'll...I don't know. Get out of the rain. Would that make you happy?" he asked. Since everyone seemed to want him to get out of the rain today.

"Yes, that would make me happy." Her thoughts were trailing off to the grocer on the corner and how easy it was to get some decent alcohol from there. Another crack of thunder, this time accompanied by some rather fantastic lightning seemed to emphasize the need for shelter and she gave him a wry half grin. "I'll see you after the storm," she said, almost like a command than a hopeful request for confirmation. The rain was getting colder, it seemed, the streets emptying as people sought shelter.

He nodded, not quite sure what she meant there, but he'd agree to it. Sure. "Okay. You get out of the rain too. I'll...see you another time." Hopefully with his head screwed on straight, even. He could hope that, right? That maybe it would pass just like the clouds overhead? They always did...it just always felt like the blackness was there to stay when he was in the middle of it. He stepped back from her, hopng she was going to be giving his arm up now.

Maddy let his arm go and tipped her invisible hat to him. "Try not to hit any more walls," she said, her grin broadening and she slowly started walking away from him, backwards to keep looking at him. She was going to get herself something good to drink and she was going to hide under her blankets and wish she had a voodoo doll of Dodge to stick pins into.