Merle Dixon's A+ Parenting

Withdrawals

Ronan woke up first the next morning. He laid there confused as to why the hell he was awake when a loud bang came from the kitchen. He sat up quickly and slid out of the bed carefully, grabbing his knife from the dresser beside the door where the others had set theirs for the night. He silently walked down the hall and peeked around the corner... Only to find Merle raiding their pantry. "The fuck Merle?" He asked rubbing his eye tiredly and the man turn to him "Looking fer somethin' ta eat" He shrugged and Ronan rolled his eyes. He entered the kitchen to look for his food, but it was nowhere to be seen, at least not in the cabinet.

"Where the hell-" Silver wrappers caught his eye, only they weren't where they were supposed to be. He picked up the box of poptarts but there was no weight to it. He tipped it over and all the wrappers fell out, none were left. "You ate all my poptarts?" He asked Merle, his body beginning to feel staticky and his hands began to shake "Yep. They were good too" Merle stated, smirking at Ronan. Tears filled his eyes as his breathing picked up.

Not wanting to have a meltdown in front of the new person he rushed to the bedroom where Connor and Adrian were waking up. He paced at the foot of the bed, flapping his hands angrily "Hey, what going on?" Adrian asked as he sat up "That asshole ate all my poptarts. They're all gone. All gone" He repeated as he began scratching the back of his hand harshly. 

Connor went to grab the scratching hand but stopped as Ronan shook his head, flinching away "Okay. Here" He handed him the blanket they found the day he got bit. Ronan snatched it as he clicked his tongue, running his hands over the soft texture, attempting to calm himself down as Alice and Warren woke up as well. "You guys try to calm him down while Adrian and I talk to our guest" Connor stated and the two girls nodded.

Adrian had already left the room and stood in front of Merle. "You ate all Ronan's poptarts?" He asked, starting out nice. The man looked up at the blue haired teen "Yeah. I already told 'im I ate 'em" He shrugged and Connor rolled his eyes "You can't just take our food without asking. That ain't how this shit works" Merle grunted at the statement "It's jus' food. Wha's the big deal?" he asked standing from the couch, towering over Adrian, to his surprise the young man stepped stepped closer to him. "'m glad ya ask tha'. The 'big deal', it tha' those were Ro's. Now, yer gonna go apologize to 'im and on our next run yer gonna get 'im three more boxes" He stated and Merle laughed "I ain't gonna apologize ta the little shit about somethin' so stupid" Merle rolled his eyes.

"That's pretty much the only thing Ronan eats, Merle. Poptarts and ravioli, which you ate most of apparently," Connor paused looking around the livingroom, realizing Merle had eaten most of the food supplies the five teens had gathered over the months and groaned, "How the fuck did you eat all this?" He asked eyeing the bulky man. Merle wasn't fat by any means, sure he had a slight beer gut but otherwise he was muscle "Withdrawals are a bitch" He muttered in realization and Adrian turned to him confused "Warren said he was on something when she found him, he's going through withdrawals. One of the symptoms is overeating because of the drug cravings. It ain't excusing you or nothin' but it explains it"

Merle grunted as he plopped back down onto the couch "The hell were ya on?" Adrian asked and the man smirked "A little bit of coke, some pot, opioids. Little bit of everythin'" He stated tilting his head back with a cocky smirk. "How much you wanna bet there's some Blue Sky in him as well" Connor asked his friend "I thought yer Dad busted the guy makin' tha' stuff" Adrian asked "Yer Dad busted Heisenberg?" Merle asked as the duo began cleaning Merle's mess "Explains the cocky attitude, yer a pigs son".

Connor ignored that last comment "Almost. The dudes a drug lord so he managed to get out of everything" Connor explained as Warren exited the room "What the hell happened to Ronan?" She asked turning to Merle "What did you do?" She accused and Merle groaned, Connor quickly explaining everything, including the reason behind it "I think that if he's going through withdrawals we should put him in the bedroom to detox for a couple days since Ro's feeling better and we sleep out here. There's a possibility of Merle getting dangerous with the cocktail of drugs he was on"