....And All Shall Fade to Black (Part 2)

Jax tossed and turned on the lumpy mattress that was currently serving as his bed. It wasn’t the worse thing he’d ever slept on, but it was a far cry from the best. With a groan, he rolled onto his back and draped an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the early morning sun. The last thing he was looking forward to this morning was getting up and going to work, but since he didn’t have the luxury of skipping out, he was left no choice but to roll to his feet and head to the bathroom.

As he stood under the warm spray from the shower, some of the anger from the night before began to creep back in. Without a doubt, that had to be one of the stupidest things he’d ever done. In fact, if he were to rank a lifetime of insanity and bad decisions, that one was floating somewhere between number two and number five in a very long list.

It wasn’t like it was going to make a difference, the small guy, what the fuck had he said his name was, Denny, Danny, whatever, he’d prolly bailed the asshole out and was up making him breakfast and laying his shit out for work. Dumbass.

He sighed and brushed the water out of his eyes. His sister would tell him that he was being a cynic, that not everyone was like their mom had been. Fuck that noise, his sister saw rainbows and sunshine in everything. Even when people pissed her off she just smiled and somehow or another managed to win them over. That wasn’t him, that had never been him and never would be.  People only showed you good when they wanted something, or when they wanted you to like them, as soon as they’d suckered you in, who they really were tended to emerge and he’d learned early on that it was safer to play with pit bulls then people. At least a dog wasn’t gonna bite you unless you provoked them to.

People on the other hand…

Turning the water off, he shook his head, sending water droplets everywhere before grabbing a towel and quickly toweling off. He’d barely pulled on his jeans when someone began knocking on his door. For a moment, he considered ignoring it, but the knocking grew more insistent and with a groan he resigned himself to the fact that whoever it was just wasn’t going to go away.

Muttering curses he stalked to the door and yanked it open, only to see the top of Denny-Danny’s head. The smaller man looked up at him with a sheepish grin, the bruises on his face and neck looking much worse in the light. His nose was still crooked though, and Jax wondered if maybe it hadn't been broken long before the incident. 

“Hi, umm,” Danny stammered, as Jax crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, wondering how long this was going to take.

“I ummm, I just wanted to, ummm,” Danny continued, looking around awkwardly. “You didn’t ummm, have to help last night, and ummm, I just want to ummm, thank you.”

“Is that all?” Jax asked abruptly, pushing away from the doorway. “Don’t expect it to happen again.”

Danny took a step back, eyes widening in shock at Jax’s harsh tone. “I-I don’t, I mean, I-I won’t.”

 “Good. And do me a favor, try and keep it down the next time you guys decide to fight. No one else needs to hear that shit.”

Jax reached for the door, intent on shutting it, when Danny slammed his hand against the door, stopping him. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to do that, except fury and indignation. He hadn’t asked for help last night, but he had been grateful for it. Now he wondered why his savior had even bothered at all if he seemed so annoyed by the whole thing. Or maybe it was disgusted. Maybe he’d come over thinking it was a domestic between a man and a woman and felt obligated to help since he was there.

“Look,” Danny said, forcing himself to look up into Jax’s eyes. Blue, they were bright, captivating, a prismatic shade of aquamarine, darkened only by his apparent anger. “I didn’t mean to disturb your night. I didn’t ask for him to go off on me like that, he was higher than I’ve ever seen him and to be honest, I’m still not sure exactly what set him off.”

“But you bailed him out anyway, right?” Jax shot back, scowling. “Apologized for everything, made him breakfast and even promised to make him a nice dinner tonight when he came home from work, right?”

Danny’s eyes narrowed and his fingers curled into a fist against the door. “Actually. I left his ass at the precinct, called a moving van to get his shit out of here, rented a storage unit for them to put it in, and planned to invite you over for dinner to thank you, but you can pretty much forget that part of the plan. I don’t invite people into my life who are going to treat me like shit, and I sure as hell aren’t the type to actually forgive them and bail them out after they do. I don’t know what kind of people you’ve been around, but, not everyone likes to play the part of a human punching bag. Anyway, for what it’s worth, thank you for coming to my rescue, trust me when I say there will never be a need for it to happen again.”

And with that Danny turned and stalked back to his door, disappearing inside with a slam that jolted Jax out of the stupor he’d fallen into as soon as the small man had started going off on him. Too bad he hadn’t used some of that last night instead of cowering in a corner. Jax shook his head, confused at how the whole conversation had gone down.

With a shake of his head he closed the door. One thing was for certain, living here wasn’t going to be boring.