AN: I have absolutely no right to be posting things on here anymore, but I keep getting notifications and I'll take this opportunity to say this: If you want to read more from me, go to AO3. My username is writing_doodle. I write a lot of Danger Days stuff (this is one of them). My writings gotten a ton better. Please... let this account die in peace...

"D'you gotta story?"

Cherri was taken aback by the kid standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. She looked up at him inquisitively, waiting for him to confirm or deny. Cherri cleared his throat. "Um, why do you ask?" His voice was rough from disuse and he cleared his throat a few more times to smooth it over.

"Kobra said yer fun to talk to, so I figured you gotta story."

For the first time, Cherri noticed Poison and Kobra at the counter arguing with Tommy. Kobra briefly looked back at them and his mouth twisted with an apology he couldn't voice at the moment. Cherri waved him away and turned his attention back to the kid in front of him. He knelt at her level and asked, "What do you wanna hear?"

The kid shrugged and crossed her arms. "What d'you got?" She stared him down unflinching and Cherri almost laughed. God, she was just like Poison. It was almost concerning.

Cherri looked back at the argument at the counter and then jerked his head towards the door. "Um, there's chairs outside. I gotta feeling those two are gonna be there a while."

She scrunched up her face and looked him up and down. Cherri got the sense that she was trying to be intimidating and he pretended like it worked. Pleased, she nodded her head and let him lead her to the abandoned chairs in the front of the store. She plopped down and swung her legs, kicking up dust.

"So, uh, what do they call you, kid?" Cherri asked as he walked to a small icebox. After a few seconds of considering, he figured he wouldn't be killed if he have the kid a soda. "I've heard some things, but I think this is the first time we've met."

"Girl." She said, catching the can Cherri tossed to her.

"Girl?"

"THE Girl." The Girl eyed her can suspiciously and opened it at arms length away. She squealed when the soda spurted out the top and soaked her hand.

Cherri tried not to laugh. "Wow, that's a nice name."

"Thanks. Who're you?"

"Uh, Cherri Cola. With an 'i'."

The Girl looked at the can in her hands and back at him. "Why do they call you that?"

A shadow briefly passed over Cherri's face before it cleared away. He shrugged, smiling. "I just like soda."

The Girl squinted a little at his face, but didn't bring anything up. She said, "So, what's yer story?"

Cherri sat down in the plastic chair opposite of hers and thought. "Well... uh, it might not be a good thing to tell a motorbaby-"

"Hey! I'm notta motorbaby anymore, Poison said so!" The Girl exclaimed with as much indignation as she could muster.

Cherri held his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, my mistake." He continued his story, smiling. "Um, would you believe me if I told you that I met the Phoenix Witch?"

The Girl's jaw dropped. "No." She leaned forward, clutching her emptied soda can so tightly the aluminum bent in her hands.

Cherri nodded solemnly. "Yep. I met Her, but, uh, most people don't seem to believe me."

"'Cause it didn't happen!"

Cherri mocked offense. "Do I look like someone that'll lie to you?"

The Girl examined him. He was painfully skinny and jittery, with limp brown and grey hair and patchy stubble. Not to mention the questionable scars all over his body. Eventually she just nodded her head and said, "Yes."

Cherri considered that. "Yeah, you got me there." He scratched his head and stared into the horizon briefly, before looking back. "So do you want to hear my story or not?"

The Girl nodded her head energetically, her curls bouncing up and down until they covered her eyes.

"Okay, okay. Um... It was late at night and I was laying out in the sand... probably somewhere in Zone 3. She, uh, flew right down from the moon. She lives on the moon, y'know."

"How could She fly?"

"Don't you know She can turn into a crow? Man, what haven't the Four been telling you?"

The Girl frowned. "They jus' said She's real nice and helps lost souls get home. They took me to the mailbox one time!"

"Well, uh, at least you got that. There's more to Her than the mailbox and the souls, but it's a start. I'll tell you more, sometime." He rubbed at his face and neck. "Anyway, uh, so the Witch comes down from the moon. I can't believe my eyes, I thought I was going crazy or something-"

"Why were you layin' outside?"

"Huh?"

"You said you were laying outside. Why?"

"Oh, uh..." Cherri's mouth twisted in something that looked like regret. "I was, uh... I used to be a Wavehead, um, and I would lay out in the sun and, uh, get high on the radiation." He rubbed his arms. "Got to the point where I tried to get high off the moon, 'cause, uh, the sun reflects off it."

"Is that why yer skin's so weird?"

Cherri was so surprised by her bluntness that he laughed. He kept laughing until he could almost feel tears prick the edges of his eyes. He looked down at his arms, which were covered in blotchy red and white areas where the pigment was burnt off. He rubbed them and said, "Y-yeah. Yeah, that's why my skin's so weird."

The Girl's face fell. "Was that rude? I'm sorry, Jet always says I say too much and people think it's rude."

"No, no. You're fine. It's, uh, refreshing, actually. People usually dance around the subject."

"Please keep tellin' yer story, I promise I won't interrupt anymore."

"It's fine. It's not, uh, it's really not much of a story." He looked at his shoes for a while before continuing. "So, uh, I thought I was going crazy, right? Suddenly this woman dressed in a mask and black feathers is standing in front of me. She says, 'You'll die if you stay here', and She, um, She takes my hand and lifts me up. I didn't really process a lot of what She said. I was in a fog, y'know? Probably still high, or something.

"So, anyway, She leads me through the desert and I'm just stumbling after. She drops me off in front of a house and just flies away. Not another word or nothing. So I'm, um, really tired from all the waking, so I just fell asleep right there. I was woken up by Show Pony pouring a whole bottle of water on my face."

"Woah." The Girl breathed out with stars in her eyes. "How d'you know it happened, if you think you were high?"

Cherri shrugged, rubbing the back of his head. "I remember it, so it happened. Um, maybe it was a hallucination, but, it- it still happened. You get what I'm saying?"

The Girl thought about it and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so. Ghoul's talked about things like that, before. He doesn't gotta good memory and he isn't sure if it's right all the time, but it's still his."

"Yeah. Um, Ghoul and I got different problems, but it's essentially the same, I guess."

The Girl was about to say something else, when the door to the shop burst open. Poison was ranting and raving about Tommy being a, "Fucking crook, asking for ten fucking carbons for a box of hair dye, can you believe it, Kobra? I swear to the Witch he's bleeding this whole fucking desert dry."

"It's a luxury item, Poison, calm the fuck down."

"One of these days I'm gonna get a wad of carbons and shove 'em right up his-"

"Dude!" Kobra shoved him and gestured to The Girl looking at both of them. "Children are present!"

"Oh, shit." Poison grunted as Kobra elbowed his side. He shoved his brother away and said, "I'm so sorry, baby star, I was just a little upset. Please forget everything you just heard."

Cherri figured that Kobra rolled his eyes, but it was hard to tell under the sunglasses. He would've gotten upset over the trash talk, but he's heard it all before and he's heard much worse.

Poison shoved his bags into Kobra's arms and knelt down in front of The Girl. "How're you doin', honey? Hope Cola over there didn't bore you too bad."

The Girl shook her head wildly. "No! He was fun to talk to!"

Poison looked at Cherri curiously. "Really?" Cherri shrugged and Poison looked away. "Well, it's time to go, kiddo. Say goodbye to the one person on this earth that can stand to be around Chow Mein."

Kobra groaned loudly. "Let it go, oh my God." He grabbed his brother's shoulder and dragged him towards the car. He turned around and called out, "Sorry about him, Cherri, thank you for keeping The Girl company!"

"Nah, it's cool!" Cherri shouted back. He turned back to The Girl, who was still sitting in her chair. "Um, better go home, Girl."

The Girl looked at him solemnly, before leaping out of her chair and wrapping him in a big hug. "Next time I'm over you better have another story!" Then she let go and ran to the car as fast as her little legs could take her.

Cherri stared at the car until it disappeared into the horizon. He sighed, vaguely remembering a time when he was younger. He didn't think he had nearly as much spark at that kid. He hoped she kept that.

Cherri was broken out of his thoughts by a banging on the door. He spun around to see Tommy standing in the door frame, looking as grouchy as ever. "You had a nice break, Cola, now it's back to dusting off the shelves." He shuffled back inside and Cherri bit back a groan.

He got up, stretched until his back cracked, and spared another look at the horizon. He walked back inside and closed the door behind him.