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“Heh, kid!” At first, Malachi didn’t even react. He didn’t expect strangers to talk to him. They usually didn’t. Adults mostly ignored kids in NC. Everyone was busy all the time, running to their destination. Why would you bother with others at all, let alone children? So it took some more words until he realised it was him they were talking to. “Yes?”, he asked and looked up to the woman next to him. He had never seen her and his brain couldn’t think of a reason why she was talking to him. Naturally, he just stared in confusion at her.
“Are you alone here?”
Malachi tilted his head. His confusion only grew some more. “Why?”, he just asked. Of course, he could answer it properly, tell them just ‘no’ and that would settle it. He was used to being on his own and walking NC alone as well. Vik couldn’t be with him all the time, he had to work and Malachi knew how to keep safe. And it wasn't that unusual for children to be on their own. With parents working three jobs, how should one find the time to be with their children? Of course, most of them were off on their own. And that was fine for Malachi. He was careful. But adults being concerned for his well-being and that seemingly out of the blue confused him quite a lot. It baffled him and he was relieved when he heard Vik’s steps coming closer. The ripperdoc held two bags in one hand. He had just quickly gone into the store and Malachi had insisted he wanted to wait outside this time. “You okay, kid?”, Vik asked.
Malachi was this close to nodding to him, as the woman scanned Vik: “And who is that?”. V didn’t like her glare. She might be only concerned about him but it was unnecessary. He could take care of himself. Vik seemed surprised, not really sure what he had stumbled in right now and what was going on here. The kid looked from one to the other until he reached out and grabbed Vik’s free hand, holding him tight and nodded with oozing confidence: “He’s my Dad!” Very directly Malachi stared at the woman and pulled Vik with him away from the store while the ripperdoc was still surprised by the whole situation. What was happening right now?
The light was dim around them. With a sigh, Vik had fallen onto the couch in the corner of the clinic. Malachi had scooted over, gave him some room before he leaned against the ripperdoc again, his eyes still fixated on the small screen before him. For hours he was watching some videos, switching between some old boxing fights, some commercials and some short videos some gonk had uploaded with the most hilarious fails V had ever seen in his life. Meanwhile, Vik had cleaned the clinic after the last patient had left.
A little half-hearted V had asked if he should help. Already knowing that Vik would say no. He always did. But Malachi always asked, though he already knew the answer. By now the clinic was silent. Only V’s videos were playing. One could hear the whirring of the lights above them, spending only so much light. V shortly looked over his shoulder. Vik looked tired. He still had his glasses on (like always) but the way he held his head, how he leaned back showed it clearly. It was obvious. “Maybe we should go home?”, he asked.
“Yeah”, Vik nodded. His voice was rough. He moved a little and sighed. “Just let me sit for a second. Been on my legs all day. Then we can leave.”
“Okay.” Malachi slid a little more down the coach, placing his legs on the couch’s backrest. He leaned against Vik. “I saw a cool fight. Maybe Em could use that…”, he said out loud.
“Mhm, you think?”
“Yep. You wanna see?”
“Sure.”
“Nice. Gonna send it to ya”, V grinned as he did. “Em has a fight in a few days, that really could help. That dude is huge. We went to his hood today, watched him training from afar. Like for real he’s a beast. And not even an Animal.” V slightly shook his head. The guy would have been damn impressive if he wasn’t about to hit his best friend. It was obvious who V would root for. “Do you think we can get some Ramen on the way home, Vik?”, he asked after a while.
“Mhm.”
“Preem”, grinned V. Happily he wagged his feet. Now that he was thinking of it he felt really hungry. The last time he ate had been this morning when he had gulped down some cold burrito because Vik was already gone and Malachi just couldn’t be trusted to get something decent. He had grabbed the burrito on his way to Emmerick, forgot about it until it was cold and ate it anyway because he usually didn’t care. He clicked on his phone, tabbed to the next video. It was a classic fail video. Some goon who was so out of the world that he didn’t get out of the alleyway. Malachi giggled a little. “Oh man, what a gonk”, he laughed. “Do you wanna see, Vik?”
No answer.
“Vik?” The gonk kept pushing as he should pull and started trying to climb the fence of the alleyway. “He’s climbing ...or trying to climb the fence. Hahaha, he is stuck with his foot. Do you wanna see, Vik?” A broad grin was on his face. “Vik? It’s super funny.” With his elbow, he pushed against the ripper’s leg. “Vik, take a look!” He raised his phone higher so the ripper could see. But still, he got no reaction. V pushed him a little harder. “Vik.” His voice got a little louder, his eyes still glued on the phone and one more time he pushed Vik: “Dad!”
Immediately, V froze. He stared at the phone in his hand, not really watching anymore. Oh no, did he really say that? Oh god. He had never called Vik his dad. Not that he could remember at least. And he had called Vik dad right now. They had never talked about that and if he could do that. Even though he saw Vik as his adoptive dad, they had never talked about it. They didn’t speak about things like this. His head flew around, staring at the ripper. Panic was on his face but vanished fast again. Vik was fast asleep next to him. His head had fallen back, his breathing slow. He hadn’t woken up because of V. He didn’t hear it. Good. V turned around again, his chest felt way lighter. He wasn’t ready for a talk like that. And he didn’t want to make things weird. They didn’t have to talk about that. Nevertheless, a small smile crept on his face and stayed as he was watching some more videos before he would wake Vik so they could go home.
At least V didn’t feel that puckering pain anymore. It had washed through his body like a never-ending wave that came back stronger than before. When he had come to the clinic he had bled all over Vik’s floor and had barely made it to the operation chair on his own. Vik had pumped quite some amount of meds into him while he had started to fix him up. Perhaps a little too much because V had whined more than usual. Probably Malachi had whined a little bit too much. But damn it had felt as if he would vomit his organs right then and there. He didn’t. They had stayed inside him where they belonged. He giggled at the thought. But now he really didn’t regret that. Those meds hit strong today. And it felt really nice. His head was like cotton, he barely felt his body in general. And warmness tingled inside his chest. Overall, he felt pretty good.
So good that he almost forgot that he was lying here, blinking against the bright lights from above, because he had been shot so many times that Vik was still getting the bullets out of his body and stitching him back together. He didn’t feel it. T’was pretty easy to overlook actually. But now everything was fine. He blinked against the light and closed his eyes. Aah, that felt better. His eyes felt so heavy. T’was better if he just kept them closed and let them rest for a second. Just for a second. He heard Vik moving around, but it felt so distant and very far away. Almost as if they weren’t even in the same room. But now that he was thinking of it… sounded nice and soothing. So he just enjoyed it (how stupid did that sound. He enjoyed being stitched back together. Damn those drugs hit really good), listening to Vik and his work, the soft sounds of the clinic around him. The vents. The lights. The machines. It sounded so good. And for a second Malachi wasn’t even sure if he fell asleep for real. It almost felt like he was jerking awake. Not fully, just a tinsy tiny bit. But perhaps it was only because he heard Vik’s chair move again. Though, it didn’t startle him enough to open his eyes that were way too heavy anyways. A small grunt escaped him.
“Don’t worry, kid”, he heard Vik say as an answer. The ripperdoc carefully gave him a pat against the leg. “All done and you’re almost good to go again.”
Again there were only some unintelligible sounds Malachi managed to produce. He wanted to say something but his lips felt glued together. Also so heavy. He wiggled a little in his seat.
“No no no”, Vik said with a stern voice. V felt his brows wrinkle at that. Could Vik actually sound stern? Had he ever been like this? Or did it just sound like this for him? Before he could give it too much further thought he heard Vik again: “Stay there for a while until you’re awake again, okay, kid? Don’t have anywhere to be anyway.”
Way too often V’s head wobbled around as he nodded to Vik’s words. “n’kay”, he slurred, trying to open his eyes a little. He was seeing a hint of the bright lights but then stopped trying. Was too hard. He would listen to Vik and just stay here a little bit, sleep a little perhaps, listen to things around him. Worked pretty well. He liked it. With a sigh, he slid a little deeper, his head falling to the side until his cheek rested against his shoulder. “Thanks, Dad”, he managed to mumble under his breath before he drifted off again.