❝Even the devil was once an angel...❞
☽ ---------------- 𓆙𓆙𓆙 ---------------- ☾
AT THE SOUND OF HIS VOICE Theo lowers her arms in an instant, the bat touching the floor as she eased her grip on it and turned to find Fangs and Sweet Pea standing by the kitchen pantry. There's a flash of chrome from his rings as Sweet Pea crosses his arms over his chest, creasing the leather of his jacket as he does so and Fangs is holding two towels from the linen closet by the kitchen.
"What the fuck Fangs? Don't sneak up on someone like that!" Theo exclaims as she slides the bat back into the umbrella stand, shaking her head at her friends antics.
All he can say back, throwing his hands out wildly as he spoke, "Well, I didn't think you'd go for the kneecaps!"
Sweet Pea and Theo each roll their eyes at that.
"What are you even doing here?" Theo questions, her eyes flickering from one teenage boy to the other. She noticed the fact that neither one had made any motion to move, standing in the dark shadow of the hallway out of the kitchen while she stood by the back door, and when she glances at the kitchen peninsula, next to her bag of Pop's she notes, "Is that... is that blood?"
One of them, Fangs she's sure, let out a croak of a laugh in response but neither one of them answer. So Theo steps around the peninsula and feels the wall for the switch, illuminating the kitchen and the two boys standing at the edge of it.
Sweet Pea was worse for wear than Fangs, his lip split open and blood dried down his chin, the skin under one eye was swollen in a way that would give way to a good bruise in a day or two, and a gash was present on his other cheek, blood both dried and fresh seeping from his hairline. Theo's eyes flickered to his hands, from what she could see they were equally as bruised and raw, blood encased the face of one of his rings.
Fangs's knuckles were just as beat up, but his face had taken less of a beating. Nothing more than a few bruises.
The only response Theo had was to put her hands on her hips and question, "What in the fuck are you getting me involved in this time?"
Fangs was very quick to fumble his way through some assurances, "Nothing, I swear. We just... had a little... disagreement of sorts with some Northsiders."
Her brow lifted, "Disagreement?"
All she could think of was how the sight of the two of them certainly didn't portray a simple disagreement.
"They're lucky that idiot stabbed himself." Sweet Pea stated with an eye roll, mouth pursed into a tight scowl.
"Someone stabbed themselves?" Theo asked incredulously, looking between the two boys before she put her hands up in a silent plea for them to stop, "You know what, please stop talking. The less I know the better."
Fangs nodded his head slowly as he shoved one of the towels in his hand at Sweet Pea, who dragged it over his damp, dark hair in a rather pathetic attempt to dry it. Fangs vigorously rubbed his own hair with his towel in a much more effective manor before he tossed it onto the counter. Theo rolled her eyes, but she noted the fact that Sweet Pea had taken care to fold his own as neatly as he could before he placed it on the counter by the crumpled mess that Fangs' was.
"Truth is..." Fangs started, pausing.
"And here comes the real reason you're here." Theo adds in.
Clearing his throat he tells his oldest friend, "We kind of need a place to hide out, lay low for a bit."
Again Theo raises her brow, "And you chose here for all places?"
Fangs shrugs his shoulders and is about to respond when Sweet Pea speaks indignantly, "Trust me, not my first choice either."
Fangs turns his dark eyes onto Sweet Pea and he fires off with aggravation, "We would not have made it back to Sunnyside looking like this. You really think either one of us could have made it home in one piece? You can barely even hold onto the handlebars of your bike, man."
The only response Sweet Pea has is to roll his eyes, and Theo begins to wonder if that's the only response he knows.
She meets the dark eyes of her friend, who's expression softens to that of concern as he pleads their case while also assuring her, "Just an hour or two. The bikes are in the garage, no one knows we're here."
"Fine." Theo mutters, shaking her head in disbelief at the answer that came out of her own mouth. She slides between them, a hiss of pain escaping Sweet Pea's lips when she bumps into him on her way to the linen closet in the hall. She comes back with a first aid kit and states, "Jackets off, take a seat and if either one of you complains you know where the door is."
Fangs complies instantly, but it takes Sweet Pea a moment to move. He eyes her cautiously, his eyes flickering down to the box of first aid supplies in her hand as she moves past him to the counter. Fangs has already taken up residence on a bar stool, going so far as to have reached into her bag of food and was currently shoveling a handful of French fries into his mouth and Sweet Pea shakes his head at his friend.
But eventually he does sit.
Theo raises a peroxide soaked cotton ball to the gash on Sweet Pea's lip, and he flinches away from her, snatching the cotton from her hands and pressing it to his mouth himself. She rolls her eyes, mutters under her breath about him being a stubborn asshole before turning to Fangs.
Sweet Pea sits and watches as she tends to the wounds on Fang's hands and face, her movements deliberate and yet so gentle as she cleaned up his knuckles and then placed a bag of frozen vegetables she had plucked from the freezer against his chin. Her eyes flicker over to him, the peroxide in the cotton ball seeping down his chin and neck as he pressed it against his skin tightly and he watches her get up from the seat next to Fangs to grab another bag from the freezer.
When she approaches him it's slow and cautious, her movements tentative as she raises the bag near his face and then stops as if hesitating. Their eyes lock, dark and searching for a hint of the others next move. Theo scanned his expression for objection, and Sweet Pea searched for fear like he always did.
But Theo had none as she pressed the frozen bag against his cheek with a gentleness he wasn't used to. She held it firmly in place until he reached up to take over, their fingers brushing one and others during the hand off.
She only tears her eyes away from his to clean up the wound in his hairline, scrubbing the dried blood from his skin with the edge of a towel soaked in water and then wiping the peroxide streaks from his chin and neck.
He isn't sure what she was intending on doing when her fingers brushed against the metal of his rings, and he flinches away from her but to her credit Theo boldly reaches for his ring, holding his hand stable as she wiggled it off of his finger. She works under Sweet Pea's intense stare, cleaning the blood from the ring meticulously before placing it into the palm of his hand.
Upon tossing the towel onto the counter top between them Theo clears her throat and Sweet Pea looks down at the ring in his palm as she says, "Alright, it's been an hour and you're both somewhat cleaned up."
"Right, yeah, we should get out of here." Fangs agrees with a nod of his head and Sweet Pea clears his throat as he rises from his stool.
She guides them both to the garage, forcing a bottle of peroxide and an unopened sleeve of gauze into Sweet Pea's hand before she sees them off, standing at the back door of the garage as they push their bikes through the yard and into the alley behind the house. She waits until she can hear the low rumble of the engines as they disappeared into the darkness before she pulls the garage door shut and clicks the deadbolt into place.
A sigh slips from her mouth as she stops in the entrance of the kitchen, piles of discarded gauze and rags soaked in blood littered the counter. As she cleaned she tried to prepare herself for what the morning would bring.
A day that had began with an article about the black hood would end with a new one.
'NORTHSIDE TEEN STABBED BY SOUTHSIDE SERPENT- Riverdale Register'
And so would begin the Southside witch-hunt.
** And here is part 2. Planning to (hopefully) get another update out this week **