Title: December 1955
Author: Yoko_cw
Date Written: 9/1/09
Summary: Legs Confesses One December
Night Standard Disclaimers Apply
*Maddy POV*
I remember; I remember the winter of that year, when our other sisters went out looking for discount blankets, rummaging abandonded houses for canned food; anything. Anything to help us survive.
They. Not us. Not me and Legs; Sheena, my jungle cat. We stood atop the bridge, leaning on rusty railing. All was still; the snow had stopped falling and evening was fading into night and I couldn't stop looking at her. Her hands covered mine, thin, cracked and bloodied from blisters and dry skin.
Her face was lit up from within, glaring white in the moon; my eyes traced her high cheekbones, the scar on her chin and the bruise on her face from a fight with someone she only called 'that boy'. You know Maddy, your my heart My own heart swelled with happiness, uncontainable, when her words echoed inside my head again.
"...I don't know what we're going to do, Maddy-Monkey." Her voice was low, body tense and dark eyes darting around, looking for danger in the silence. Her ashy-blonde hair was loose, tangled down her shoulders. Cigarettes clung to her. She looked fierce, unvulnerable as ever in dark jeans and her thick button-up shirt. "Shit, we're out of money again," she continued, throwing a stone into the water, "We can't even buy food let alone warmer clothes. I mean shit, your already sick from this and I don't know anything about remedies for colds or flu... How do they do it? How do people get through it?"
Her already low voice gradually grew softer, unusually tender. I put my arm over her shoulders, feeling the hard muscles in her back, tense, alert and always ready for a fight or an escape. Her eyes, glinting like broken glass, trailed to me and locked. I couldn't look away; I didn't even want to.
"We're gonna be okay, Legs," I whispered in her ear, "We always have been, right?"
She shook her head, resting her forhead to mine as though trying to absorb my confidence, the kind I had to fake this night, the kind I hardly even believed. "I guess." We stood there for a while, shivering and looking at eachother in a shy sort of way though not exactly uncomfortable. She picked her skin until it bled. It would be infected later. We watched the dark apartments, happy people in warm beds, not caring for anyone else who might be out.
"...We should get back to the van," I sighed, "See if the girls are back yet."
"...I'll race you." A cocky smile, and then before I knew it, Sheena was off like a bullet. She wouldn't trip on ice or a crack in the sidewalk. She wouldn't notice when her lungs were filled with icy air and her fingers went completely numb. She would only notice her feet on the concrete and my laughter echoing behind her.
We would get back to find woolen blankets already on our mattress. Still clothed, we layed together, out of breath and still winter-cold with Legs' knife poking me in the thigh throughout the nights. We would wake up with lingering worries we would never speak of in front of our FOXFIRE sisters. We would wait for spring.