Wow, i wanna say thank you so, so much for all the reviews/alerts/favs on the first chapter. it made me really happy {: ALSO! IMPORTANT! i never read squee, because i'm a loser and what not and didn't have any money... /cough. anyway, i'm tossing pepito in for the benefit of not creating more people. if pep seems ooc, please mention why, and i'll work on it {:

DISCLAIMER: i don't own anything jhonen vasquez related. or bright eyes related. boo.

After bumbling along for a pointless amount of time, Nny found himself stepping off the aluminum Hell and into a much greener one. It was cleaner, clearer, and had nicer air, but it was still another version of Hell. Some of the people just hadn't died and gone to heaven yet. Chances were, Nny would change that.

Nothing had really altered. The whole place was still a dump, there were still easily identifiable groups of people, and the 24/7 still hadn't replaced the lights in their neon signs. If one thing really bothered the maniac, it was the fact that he always felt like the place was closed just because of the dull sign, which he blamed on human programming. It made him think a sign would tell him when he could and could not get a delicious brain freezy.

He felt like stabbing the throat of the workers who refused to change the signs but controlled his urges. It was a 24/7, after all. But he still couldn't comprehend how it was such a big fucking deal to take a few moments out of their day to turn the open sign on so as not to mislead people. Assholes.

Shrugging the feeling away as best as possible, Nny slung his bag over his shoulders and flicked his iPod to another song as he sauntered into the gas station toward the brain freezy machine. He got his favourite flavor-cherry-paid, and left. Too many filthy people to stick around.

"Excuse me, sir?" a voice called out brokenly from beside him.

Sipping his drink, Nny cast him a sidelong glance, eyes narrowing. "What do you want?" he asked, forcefully putting his straw back in his mouth as if it would help express his lack of desire to communicate with this man.

"C-could you spare me some change? A man needs alcohol to escape this Hell."

Nny felt an even more overwhelming desire to shove all the pennies lost in his clothes down the man's eye sockets. "No. If you weren't such a degrading piece of human flesh, incapable of anything but begging, I might. Both of us know you could get yourself out of this mess with more than just pining for pennies." Nny leaned down and gave the man a glare. "And as for an escape from Hell, you don't want to see or even begin to grasp the concept of the Hell I've brought many men to, a Hell I created, and escaped myself, without alcohol, if you will."

Straightening up, Nny brushed off any imaginary dirt off his jacket and turned to stride away, not bothering to see the man's reaction as he threw one last comment over his shoulder, "I suggest you think long and hard about this. Someone out there may not be as tolerant of human waste as I am."

Earphones buried in his ears, Johnny began trekking down the once-familiar sidewalks, replaying the scene of his first encounter with humanity since he'd arrived back. He felt it had gone…swimmingly. Not only had he crushed his psychotic urges, but he'd even conquered his rare feelings of pity for the homeless. Hurray.

A jovial gait joined his walk, making it much more enjoyable to be heading back to a place he really could define as Hell, minus the people who couldn't be pleased. Well, until he had killed them, which probably wasn't really pleasing either. Oh, well, no turning back time now, was there?

He looked around and wondered what had been going on with the people who had been there, the ones who lived. He mostly caught himself thinking of Devi, and even more, Squee.

An alien feeling lurched in his stomach. What happened to Squeegee? It seemed so farfetched as to think the boy could have resisted the inevitable change society brings upon people. Surely he had succumbed to all sorts of peer pressure, stupidity, and lowered himself to the mindset of the flesh robots around him. He was probably ignorantly happy, too.

This caused a frown to tug at Johnny's lips. It was when he had thoughts like this that he found himself turning the music in his ears up to drum-popping levels, not wanting to think about the present state of his only, dearest friend. Out of all the people he'd tolerated over the past few years, Squee had been the only person who he really wanted to be around. Of all the people, a little kid was the company he preferred. What did that say about humanity?

"Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, swiftly go the days. Sunrise, sunset, you wake and then you undress, it always is the same," the music sang to him, and Nny snorted. Sometimes he felt like he could really get along with this Conor Oberst person, but also knew he would be completely baffled by him. Nny didn't like being baffled, so he was better off where he was. Probably, anyway.

As Johnny neared his old home, he began to question what had possessed him to return. He wiped his brow for perspiration.

"Sunrise and sunset, go home to your apartment, put the cassette in the tape deck, and let that fever play."

X

Immediately upon reaching home, Jill had nearly tackled Todd with a hug that made his ribs hurt. When she pulled away, she looked as though she might say something, but instead pressed her lips together tightly. Todd thought he saw tears in her eyes.

"Pepito is in the tree house, so you know," She said softly. Jill had long since grown used to the anti-Christ coming around and spending nights there. It was just as well; Jill didn't have the heart to be mean to any living thing, and often times went to extra measures to make sure Pepito felt at home. Todd sometimes thought she must have the biggest heart of anyone he'd ever known.

"Yeah, he texted me earlier," Todd answered, already trekking toward the backyard. Neither Todd nor Pepito felt any real desire to have a big graduation party, or go to any, so they decided to just hang out in Todd's tree house.

Todd reached the ladder that wound itself along the trunk and hoisted himself on it, stopping to flick his shaggy black hair out of his eyes. By this time, Pepito's head was poking out of the door, his equally unruly black hair casting a shadow on his face.

"Hurry up, amigo!" he said excitedly, disappearing back into the tree house. The tree house had been built ages ago and had lasted such a long time because Jill was against allowing Todd anywhere she deemed unsafe. With a space heater, Todd was pretty sure he could sleep out there in the winter.

The whole place was basically nestled into the tree, foundation boards placed everywhere for extra support. The house itself was big enough to accommodate Todd and a few of his friends, and the things they tended to bring up there. Jill had let Todd and his friend paint it, so it was covered in scribbles and other nonsensical things that little boys draw. Todd and Pepito always brought up how they should repaint it, but never got around to it.

Todd slung his bag off his shoulder as he neared the top and threw it through the door before Pepito impatiently tugged him inside.

"Could you be any slower?" Pepito muttered, going in to sit on a pile of clothes that really needed taken down.

Simpering, Todd sat down across from him. "Of course I could, and it would probably save me the trip of actually climbing, because you would drag me up here yourself."

Pepito rolled his eyes and grabbed two sodas out of a tiny mini fridge they'd invested in after many nights of being thirsty and having Jill bring them sodas.

"We're getting a little too old for this, aren't we?" Todd said, taking one of the sodas and popping the tab.

"No way, this is exactly what it's going to be like in college, except we won't have to ask Jill to let us into the house at 3 in the morning to use the restroom," Pepito argued, taking a sip from his soda and setting it down. "Besides, you're super secluded about your room anyway, so it isn't like we could hang out in there."

Todd couldn't disagree with him. Ever since Todd was little, he never wanted anyone in his room. Something about it made him feel really uneasy. He also didn't like it when people read his journal or the things he wrote, unless he Okayed it. Not the journal though; he would never let anyone read that. He was just a private person.

Pepito crinkled his nose and smirked at Todd. "And just what would Jill think if we did suddenly start hanging out in your room? Do you know how many times I've had to assure her that I'm straight? That would ruin all my progress!" He laughed as Todd's face grew flushed.

"Hey, I never even let any of my boyfriends in my room, so I'm sure she wouldn't assume anything." Todd's voice trailed off, the lewdness of Pepito's sentence making him uneasy.

Straightening up, Pepito put on his best Jill voice, "Oh, Pepito! You know you didn't have to hide this from me! I'm just so glad Todd is with someone who I approve of!" Then he broke off, sniggering.

"Haha, more like she'd be wondering what kind of mess she'd gotten herself into. First she adopts a kid who won't let anyone in his room, whose best friend also happens to be the anti-Christ. Then she finds out her adoptive son is also dating the anti-Christ and doing very anti-Christ things in the bedroom," Todd laughed.

"Any other mother would be very disappointed. I can just see Jill smothering me with love and telling me to call her 'Mom'," Pepito drained the last of his soda and stood up. "And I'll have you know that Dad would approve. But hey! Let's go get brain freezies. There's no such thing as a party without them."

Todd just shook his head, remarking how not even he calls Jill Mom but agreed and followed his friend, who was already halfway down the ladder.

hurray for chapter two! review? {: