Six Years & Counting

Serena kept her eyes closed as her hand dangled down Mathias’ back, the red and black cuff still in place, blending in with his signature jacket.. She wasn’t sleeping, not really, but for the past six years, Mathias carried her home after the raves ended. She’d extended her stay with them indefinitely, and somewhere along the line, they became family. Her, Cyd, Mathias and Isaac, even if Isaac did spend a lot of his time in lock up. If you couldn’t afford bail, you stayed until you worked off your debt to society. And if there was one thing the Skye’s understood, it was debt. The end of every rave, Serena always made sure to curl up in a comfy spot, pretending to be sound asleep.

“She’s getting a little big for that,” Cyd chastised, as Mathias put the teen down on the bed she still shared with Cyd. “You still spoil her,” she teased.

“She isn’t that big enough yet.” Mathias said gently tugging off her shoes. “And I'm not that old I can’t carry her still.”

“You say that now, but don’t forget the heating pad has a short in it, you’ll get shocked if you try to use it.” Cyd warned, pulling off her own light-up shoes. Serena, for her part, snuggled into her pillow, warm, happy, content with her found family.

“That's not a bug it’s a feature … people pay to get shocked in the fancy spas now.” Mathias said as if that was a reasonable answer.

“I’ll keep that in mind if you need a paramedic,” Cyd chuckled. “Go on, shower up, I’ll take care of sleeping beauty.”

“So thoughtful!” Mathias chuckled as he headed to the bathroom. “Sweet hot .. hot shower here I come.” Mathias took his time washing the sweat, makeup, pain and glitter off. He was all to happy to trudge to his bed, a lumpy sofa he didn't fit in and was now starting to sage in places. Though the more he thought about it the more he thought it was like that the whole time.
Cyd crossed her arms across her chest and shook her head. “We both know you’re faking. C’mon - go shower,” she told Serena. “Before the whole bed smells like rave.” It was a distinct combination of weed, alcohol, sweat, glitter, if glitter had a scent, with a slight undertone of vomit - and laundry day wasn’t for another few days.

Serena groaned, but did as she was told, wobbling to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

Cyd went in the living room to cover Mathias with a thin blanket, and to make sure Lolo was in his makeshift room before fixing a large glass of water to try and ward off the Day After Rave feeling. “Teeth too,” she reminded Serena, who gave an exasperated sigh heading back into the bathroom. “Yeah yeah, I’m not having you breath on me all night with trench mouth,” Cyd replied.

Mathias smothered a sleepy chuckle rolling over to his side and arm hanging off the edge. “You can always take the couch Cyd.” He said barely understandable.

“Nice try, I think your outline is permanently indented, I don’t wanna mess up that groove,” she teased back, setting a glass of water on the small table next to him. She ruffled his red hair, and waited for Serena to finish up.

“It's true … the couch might not accept anyone else.” Mathias gave another muffled sleepy chuckle.

“Sleep, skip the overtime tomorrow. It looks like Candyman cleaned up, you can take a day to recover at least.” She told him.

“It's a trap. A false sense of security. Take one day off and the fridge will want a day off too.” Mathias said, lifting his head. “And you know how shifty that fridge is.”

“Shhhhhh,” Cyd said, stifling a yawn. “I won’t tell if you don’t. The fridge won’t suspect a thing.”

“Hmm.” Mathias flopped his head back down onto his pillow, too tired to put up much of a fight. Even when having a good time they were still working as it seemed the only time anyone wasn't working, hustling or fixing something was when they were sleeping.

Sleeping. They weren’t out for long, a few hours at most when someone pounded on the door.