“...What?” “I said that the job-” “I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID ANON! I just…” Fang looked at me, her wings were raised as if she was imitating a cat that had just been threatened. “...Fang… I know that you aren’t exactly eager to see or hear about anyone from the past, and I understand that. But I’m going to be honest, I can’t keep going without making some money. There’s things that I need to buy like a car, and I need to help you to get things in order for your life.” “What are you saying, Anon? That I can’t hold a job?” “What? No, Fang, I-” “Just because I need a place to stay doesn’t mean I’m not completely useless.” “I never said you were useless, Fang. I want to support you, no matter what choice you make. I know you’ve made some bad decisions, but so have I. You know about my Marine fiasco, that was a mountain of bad decisions. But that’s in the past, and that’s the same for you, Fang. Don’t judge yourself for the past.” “Anon, what the hell are you on about?” Shit. What was that about? “What I’m saying is that I don’t care if you have a job right now or not, that’s what I’m getting at. I want to help you get your life back, no matter what it costs. But I need a job to do that, and if Moe’s is the best way to do that, then I guess work is just gonna have to be awkward.” She lowers her wings while she stares at me. “...Alright. Sorry for freaking out.” “Don’t apologize. I understand why you did it.” After that little fiasco, I was surprised when Fang didn’t press it any further. She just sat on my bed, looking out my window. “Naser’s… married?” She said in a monotone voice. “I…” “Anon… I’m gonna go take a shower.” “Alright.” I went back to my job search, and after looking for any other alternatives, I had to settle with the offer from Moe’s place. It was the most viable option at the moment, but I’d be switching jobs as soon as I could. After doing that, I sat for a while to think about how I was gonna start writing my resume. But before I could do that, I heard something hit the floor in my bathroom. “Fang? Everything alright?” I got up and put my hand on the door. No response. “I’m coming in to check on you.” “Please… don’t.” She said through the door. She sounded… strained? Is she in pain? “Fang, you don’t sound alright. I’m sorry but I’m coming in to check on you.” “WAIT DON-” I opened the door. And I saw everything. Ignoring the fact that Fang was naked, I was concerned with how she was leaning on the bathroom wall, as well as being more focused on the belt currently around her arm, the blood and feathers around her form, and the open syringe beside her thigh along with her phone. Her wings lay behind her limply, bleeding into the puddle of crimson liquid pooling behind her. I rushed over to Fang, and unstrapped the belt around her cold, weak arm, and I immediately felt the warmth return to it. “FANG! Are you alright?!” What the fuck kind of question was that, Anon? I checked her wings to find bald spots everywhere she’d been plucking feathers from. It looked like she’d been trying to completely preen herself clean of anything on her wings, and evidently she’d been getting started on the ones near her elbows when I’d barged in. She looked at me dejectedly. “Leave me alone…” She said, her body limp against the wall. “No the fuck I will not!” I immediately rush over to my cabinet, finding it to be empty of medicine or bandages. Fuck what the hell am I gonna do?! Fang’s essentially bleeding out on my floor, she’s too high off of god-knows-what to realize she might die from blood loss, and I know for a fact she probably doesn’t have medical insurance. Wait, I had shit from my deployment! Maybe… I rush over to my pile of marine shit and after a few seconds find what I’m looking for; Doc’s medic kit. It hadn’t been touched since I’d gotten out, so hopefully the medicine and shit was still good. Without a second to spare I grab the IFAK and rush into the bathroom. “Fang, I’m going to try and help you, alright? I need you to tell me if it’s too painful or not.” With that, I open the pack and immediately grab two wing-specialized tourniquets. I’m surprised they carried female ones, but the Marine Corp will take anybody nowadays, man or woman. Wait, what the fuck? I’m supposed to be focusing on Fang! I shift Fang off the wall and onto my back, and I lift her up off the floor. After shuffling out of the steam-filled room, I dropped her onto my bed facefirst after minding her snoot. Checking her wings, I noticed just how many feathers she’d removed… It was well over half of them. Her wings weren’t full of feathers to begin with, so it only made them worse. I grabbed the tourniquets, and after finding the base of her wings I tightened them both. She didn’t even look like she minded, what with those drugs in her system… Wait, didn’t Reed do carfe? He mentioned something in high school about the different ways he’s taken it, and he’d mentioned using injections if he really wanted to get high. How much did she take?! You know what, less serious problems later- she isn’t overdosing, as far as I know, she needs to get her bleeding taken care of first. After searching for the liquid bandage and applying it on her wings I notice Fang shifting her body. I elected to ignore it and continued looking for things to continue fixing her up. So I decide to check her naked body out some more to make sure I didn’t miss anything. And after doing so I notice her wrists, arms and thighs are covered in cut marks- her wrists had literal layers of scars on them, some appearing years old. When I felt enough time had passed, I flipped her onto her back to make sure her front didn’t have any injuries. Apart from where the needle had penetrated her bicep, there wasn’t any damage. Once I was sure the liquid bandage had set, I slowly loosened and then altogether removed the tourniquets, hoping I didn’t do anything wrong… After that, I set her under my bed covers- she’d been out cold the entire time and just seemed to be passed out. I was still going to keep the narcan on my desk, just in case. *** *** *** After cleaning up the blood and feathers in my bathroom and shutting off the shower, I made sure to put her syringe in my safe, so that she wouldn’t get it again. But after checking for any feathers I might have missed, I found her phone, which was still powered on, unlocked, and was on a picture… “Oh God.” It was of her, Trish, and Reed at some sort of backstage area, instruments all around. Why did she nearly bleed out over this? Then I realized. She missed them. She probably wanted their old friendship back. This in mind, I went into her contacts list, guilt weighing me down further and further as I copied their numbers onto a piece of paper. Then I got to Naser. Why did she… You know what, not my business. I copied his number down too, and then shut off her phone. After that, I sat in my chair, mulling over what the hell I was gonna do. I can’t just start contacting these people all over the place. “Oh hey, Trish, it’s the guy that nearly got your lifelong friend to get herself killed out in the streets of Skin Row, how’re you doing?” “Hey Naser, it’s the guy who almost made your sister into a prostitute just for her survival, how’re you?” I’m a piece of shit, that much was certain. I didn’t deserve to be here. I should just get Fang a separate apartment and leave her to her devices. Fuck, with how much shit I’ve done over the years, did I deserve to even be in Volcaldera? I should have died out in that sandbox with Doc and- “Anon, what the fuck are you on about?” I froze. Raising my head, I looked at Fang, who sat on by bed fully conscious, holding a blanket to her form. “Fuck me. Did I mutter all of that?” “Yes, you did.” Sighing, I put my face in my hands. “Look. I have no fucking idea how you’re awake right now, what with how much shit is in your system. Actually, can you explain what that is?” She looked to the side. Question averted. “It’s… It’s carfe, Anon. I didn’t even get the chance to get much into me before you barged in.” “Barged in? Fang, you were bleeding out on my bathroom floor! What was I supposed to do, leave you to it?” She looked guilty. “Look… I’m not going to pretend to understand why talking about people from high school set you off like that. But I’m worried, Fang. And that… That didn’t help. I’m here for you, anything you need. I need to make up for how I hurt you, and-” “No, you don’t.” “...Sorry?” I said, looking at her. “You don’t, Anon. You’ve… You’ve done more than enough for me. I don’t deserve it.” “What do you mean? Fang, you deserve the world. What I did that night was pure bullshit, and you know it.” “It was, but it’s also in the past. You think you’re the only one that hurt people?” She got a distant look in those amber eyes of hers. “I hurt Naser, Anon. I… I never explained what happened to him, did I?” I shook my head no. “I’m the reason his wing is so fucked up. I told him that we could fly, and he jumped off the bluffs near the beach. Anon, he… He almost died because of it.” Fang was tearing up now, and I went in to hug her shaking form. “It’s alright, Fang. That’s in the past. If you’re going to excuse my actions, why should you beat yourself up over things you did much longer ago? And besides, Naser seemed like he wasn’t ever affected by it.” “...I don’t know anymore.” She wrapped her arms around my back, and I held her as she cried in my arms. God, Fang… You deserve so much more than this shithole. I remembered that day in high school, when we were supposed to be studying up in her room but we’d elected to play her guitar, her teaching me. What I said that day. “All that matters is her.” And truly, that’s all that matters. After she stopped crying, I held her in my arms, letting her know that it was alright and that people still cared about her. Eventually, though, I set her into the bed, and as soon as her head touched the pillow she went out like a light, her head lulling to the side and her snoot hitting the pillow. Actually… I’m kinda tired myself. Now that Fang was safe… I pulled up an e-mail and wrote to Moe’s address saying that I was interested in the job and that I would be down for the interview tomorrow. After I sent that, I addressed the mess of all of the medical supplies I’d left scattered all over my desk. After putting all of it back up in my IFAK, and I examine the kit that had helped keep Fang from bleeding out… I remember when I got it. It was when I was preparing to leave base for the last time, while I was waiting at the bus stop. Rodriguez had gotten out of the hospital, and we’d been talking. As I was preparing to leave, he gave me his civvie number and some of Jameson’s stuff. “He’d want you to have it”, Rodriguez had said. His bulky, red ankylo frame would have been intimidating to anyone who didn’t know him, and we’d been to hell and back together. “Thank you, man.” “No, thank YOU. You saved my life, man. I can see my kid now, and I won’t leave him to be raised by someone else.” I teared up, and did something I hadn’t done since I had gotten into the Marines. I hugged someone. Rodriguez, that is. “Look, man. You… You don’t owe me a damn thing. Just raise your kid right, and I’ll call it even.” I chuckled, remembering my shitty relationship with my mother and father. “Yeah, man. I will.” I broke off the hug, and stepped into the bus, taking the bag with me. Wait. I wasn’t in the bus. I was in my room. I was sitting at my desk, and I was at my computer. What the fuck was that, a flashback or some shit? Whatever. I look at the bag one last time before deciding to set it in the closet. “Jameson, thanks for saving my girl. I owe you one.” I mutter to the inanimate object before shutting the closet door. *** *** *** I arrived in front of the place where it all began. Where I’d truly seen Fang’s potential in the realm of music. Moe’s Pizzeria. After waking up Fang and telling her where I was going, she muttered something and went back to sleep, no doubt tired because of the shit from yesterday. I had left a note telling her where the pizza was, grabbed my gun and holster, and walked to my door to head for Moe’s. Unfortunately my leg was acting up today, so I’d grabbed my leg brace and went out. Long story short, I hailed a cab, and after a short drive I got out and now, here I was. Staring at the doors to Moe’s. After a little while (and after adjusting the hinges on my leg brace), I walked into the place, and over to the register, where a purple triceratops teen was sitting in a tank top, flicking through his phone. “Can I help you, sir?” He said, staring up at me. “I’m here for the job interview?” “In the back. Moe’ll be waiting.” “Alright, thanks.” With that, I went over to hobble towards the back area. Would Moe recognize me? I’d changed over the years, gotten more muscle on my lanky frame, and I had the scars from the Marines. But at the end of the day, I was still Anon. I was still the guy that had hurt Fang. Welp, time to find out. I walk over to the door which was labeled as being Moe’s office, and I knocked. “Come in!” I opened the door to see Moe sitting at his desk, the dimly lit yet warm room smelling like cigar smoke. He held a crystal glass in one hand… claw?, and he held a cigar in his massive jaws. He didn’t look like he’d aged a bit, and I felt his gaze fall on me as I entered his office. I closed the door behind me, and sat at his desk. “Now, I’d like to start with some introductions. I’m Moe, as youse probably know. And you?” “I’m…” I felt him look at me intently. “My name is Mous. I was in the 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Division. I got out of the Corp this week, and I’m looking for a job to make ends meet.” “I see the brace you got there. Combat injury?” He said. I pulled out the card that had come with my purple heart. “Yes, sir. It’s a long story, but… I got caught in the thick of things and someone thought it would be a good idea to throw some medals at me while I was comatose.” He chuckled at that, and I put the card back in my wallet. “So… Anon.” I froze. He stared at me with a fixed gaze, dropping the accent entirely “Why are you back here in Volcaldera, anyway?” “Well… After I got out of the Corp, I didn’t have anywhere to go. Parent’s sure as hell don’t want me back, and I can’t just survive off the money from deployment.” I sighed. “Look… If this is about Fang-” “You know, I haven’t seen her in years, Anon. What happened to her? Last I saw, you two were attached at the hip, and then all of a sudden, her and her family come with her in tow, and she looked like her entire world had been crushed. Then later that night I get a call about how she’d run away and Ripley was askin’ me to look out for her and…” He sighed, smoke emanating from his maw. “Sir… it’s a long story. But I was a piece of shit. A really massive one, at that.” I took out a cigar of my own from a pocket. “May I?” He nodded, and I took out my kabar to slice off the tip to light it. I took a drag, and exhaled. This was going to take a while… I recounted that day on the beach, me going through school like a ghost, and eventually my leave for the Marines. He listened intently while I told him about everything in Iraq, how I’d gotten out, and then I got to the end of my story. “...so then after all of that, I’d gotten settled back into my apartment but I needed food, so I went to a bar and guess who the fuck I met there.” “Who?” “Fang.” There was a moment of silence. “...You’re fuckin’ with me, kid.” “No, honest to God. She was PISSED, slapped me right off the barstool.” Moe chuckled at that, and I could have sworn I heard him mutter “attagirl”. “How was she?” “I’m… getting there. Whenever she yelled at me she told me a lot. She hasn’t been doing well Moe. But I’m trying to use what I have to help her. It’s the least she deserves. Actually, that’s why I came for the interview. I’m trying to get a job so that I don’t run out of money, and so that I can help Fang.” “I see…” He said. “Why are you helping her after all this? Trying to get back with her?” “Moe… I would be lying if I didn’t say I still had feelings for her. But I don’t care about that nearly as much as I do with making sure she isn’t still homeless. He got a grim look on his face. “It was that bad?” “...Yes. She’s done a lot of things that she isn’t proud of. And I’m mostly responsible for that, with everything that happened. I owe it to her.” I took a long drag from my cigar and pulled out my phone. I’d taken a picture of Fang while we were out buying clothes. I handed my phone to Moe. I swear to god, I saw a tear in his eye just then. “She still looks so beautiful. So you weren’t lying…” I nodded. “Can I send this to Rip?” “Rip?” Who the hell- Oh. I swear I dropped the cigar from my mouth onto the floor. Actually, I did. “Uhhhhh… Sure. Just don’t tell him where you got it from, please? He probably wants to staple my skull to his wall along with that rhino.” “Of course. I’ll just tell him that someone sent it to me.” After a little finnicking with his and mine phones, he handed mine back to me, and I saw his contact in my list. “You give that to Lucy, will ya?” “Of course, sir.” “Good, good…” He settled back down, and I picked up my cigar again, relighting it and sticking it back in my mouth. God, I was starting to get a habit of doing that… “So. About your job.” He looked like he was resisting the urge to ask about Fang. “You’re hired. No contest.” “Wait, really?” “Yeah. Come in on Wednesday at 6 PM. I’ll show ya the ropes.” I got up, my leg brace creaking. “Thank you, sir.” “Nah, don’t thank me. Just be sure to tell Lucy ya got the job and that we miss her.” “I will”, I said, standing at the door. “Take care, kid. And take care of Lucy.” he said as I walked out of his office, door closing behind me. I will, Moe. I will.