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The Boss had been working in the simulation for three days now, when she finally left the simulated Steelport and all she wanted to do was sleep. The tireless efforts of the lead saint had finally failed, had she been in the simulation much longer it might have killed her. Only the tireless nagging of Kinzie had finally got the Boss to leave. She now moved as quick as her tired body would let her, she hadn't skipped out on this much sleep in months, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep unless she had another body near her. Matt was busy, her normal human pillow. Johnny it would have to be then, "I haven't slept in the same bed as Johnny since before he died, damn that was an age ago" she thought to herself.
Johnny saw how tired the Boss was as she dragged herself through the door way, her shoulders drooping and feet dragging across the floor.
He walked over to her and supported her body weight in his arms whispering, "Fuck! Boss you look like death".
The Boss gripped onto Johnny tight, and refused to let go, her fingers dug tightly into the flesh of Johnny's arms. Johnny picked her up and carried her to the sofa in the common room where she could sleep peacefully. He put her down on the old sofa, but she still wouldn't let go of him.
"Boss I'm not being your teddy bear", Johnny groaned as her weight pulled him down next to her. The Boss's only reply was a loud groan, "fuck it" he thought and he led down on the sofa behind her. The Boss turned around so she could cuddle up to Johnny's chest, and wrap her arms around his middle.
Gat ran his fingers through her long purple hair; he noticed that her natural dirty blonde was coming through. No hair dye in space, she’ll be pissed about that her hair had been purple since she joined the saints; her purple hair had become part of her, it was her first loyalty symbol. Her tattoos were fading now; they weren't as clear or bright as when she showed them off to him when she first got them. Her Lilly pads down her arm weren't as beautiful as they had once been, scars criss-crossed over them ruining the design. She had changed a lot since they first met; she was a confident leader now, not a scared mute. She may have lost bits of who she was, but even so she was a better person because of it. A smile graced his face, she had grown up, and it made him proud. He wished he could have been through it all with her, and not stuck in that simulated hell.
Gat heard a squeak come from the other end of the room. Johnny wanted to get up and see what it was, but getting up would mean waking the Boss up. The Boss needed her sleep, and also she was terrifying when rudely awoke. Gat had learnt that hard way; he still had the scar from that little event. A small 4 inch scar at the top of his left arm, she’d come at him with a bowie knife which she used to keep under her pillow.
"Which one of you guys is it sneaking around in the dark?" Gat questioned in the loudest quiet voice he had.
Matt Miller walked into the light.
"Hey kid" Gat said cheerfully.
"Hi Johnny, sorry I thought I'd walked in on something private." Matt muttered, the floor suddenly becoming interesting.
Matt wouldn't meet Gat's stare, he kept staring at his shoes he was too scared to meet Johnny’s eyes. Matt had heard the stories, seen the scars from battles and experience the revenge given in his name. The saints had taken over a whole city in revenge for Johnny Gat, so meeting the man himself had both been an honour and scared the shit out of him.
Gat started laughing, "Boss has been working too hard again. She doesn't like sleeping without someone near her, throw back from the old days when having someone sleep next to you was the only protection you had. Even having a knife under your pillow wasn't enough. She has a habit of clinging onto first poor fucker she can find." Gat explained his fingers still running threw her hair.
The Boss started to wake up a bit, gripping onto Gat's jumpsuit. She groaned loudly, Gat stopped laughing, and started to sooth her back to sleep.
"She's just tired, she always forgets to look after herself, she's more likely to work herself to death then bleed out from a shot to the head. Back when we were taking over Stilwater she didn't sleep for a week, when she got back to the crib she fell asleep in corner and no-one could wake her up for 4 days. She even stabbed me once for waking her up, so I tend to leave her where she falls." Gat carried on explaining to Matt.
Matt finally looked at Johnny, he was looking down at the Boss's face with a kind of love and affection that Matt didn't know any of the Saints was capable of.
"She scares me when she's fully rested, she'd probably kill me if I woke her up. She almost caved my face for disagreeing with her once, over you actually." Matt ran his finger tips over the now healed bruises.
All he had done was called her out on how shitty her plan was and got punched into the ground for the effort. After finally meeting Johnny in person he could understand why the Boss wanted him back so badly, they were soul mates, they needed each other.
"Yeah that sounds like the Boss and since she'll never say it, thank you. I know how stupid it was to come after me, and someone standing up to her maybe have just given her a reality check." Johnny gave Matt that kind of smile that made everything better, it reassured him that everything would be fine between the three of them.
"The Boss is a fire cracker waiting to go off, being president probably didn't let her blow off steam as much as she could do before." Johnny said with an air of proudness.
"This might be a bit personal, but was there anything between you and the Boss, before you died?" Matt asked, feeling a little braver.
Matt was jealous, jealous of how close they were, how easily they slid back into their previous rolls. In the whole of Matt's life, he's never had anyone he could count on like those two could. Might have been why he was such a little shit, closest thing he has to a family is this rag tag group of people and the Boss who had spared his life when she didn't need to. Matt had felt something more for the boss ever since that day she didn't kill him, he’d never act on it like Gat said she’s a fire cracker and he didn't know if he could handle her. Gat is the same breed as the Boss, he understood the Boss's very soul.
"There was, before Steelport, but it was just sex, closer to stress relief than anything else. It wasn't until she saved me from that hell that a felt anything more then platonic love for her. It's probably obvious to her, she'll never say anything though she likes to think she's above such emotions." Gat looked heart broken, he took off his sunglasses to wipe his eyes.
"Say anything and I'll gut you." his normal blank expression was back, and the sunglasses were back in place.
This never happened was what the silent blank stare said that Gat gave Matt.
Matt put his hands up in defence, "I wouldn't dare, I like being alive."
Gat laughed, "You're lucky that the Boss likes you or someone would have thrown you out the airlock weeks ago."
Matt didn't say anything else just walked back to his sofa in the cargo bay to think. He'd missed his chance, there was no way he could go against Johnny for the Boss's affections, and not that he would have tried anyway. Matt detached from his feelings of hopelessness, built small simulations of his past. His reactor before the saints took over, his childhood hone in London, his ex-girlfriends flat, and his first ever computer world. He spent the rest of the night reliving his past, and reliving his happy memories.