Adelaide didn't sleep much that night; either from the excitement knowing DogNut was back or from having Jared die right in front of her, she didn't know. But her night was a restless one – her dreams were mixed between seeing DogNut again and hearing the gun go off and Jared's death. In the end, the only way she managed to survive the night and get some sleep was to scream at her inner demons and fall into a world of darkness.

At breakfast, she was basically a zombie; she barely ate or spoke to anyone and everyone knew not to try to interact with her. Things like that usually happened whenever someone died, and it wasn't something people tended to talk about.

Giving her untouched food to another kid, she requested that once DogNut was awake and had been fed to meet her on the roof. After returning to her room to collect a book and a bottle of alcohol, she slowly made her way towards the roof to wait for DogNut.

Ignoring her book, Adelaide focused solely on the alcohol – despite how disgusting it tasted. It helped her forget all the bad things that happened. If only her parents could see her now; she'd turned into an insomniac with a dependency on alcohol to deal with her issues, they'd disown her in a heartbeat.

"Romeo and Juliet? Never pictured you as the literary type." DogNut's voice brought Adelaide back to reality from her thinking. He sat down next to her, her slightly battered copy of Romeo and Juliet in his hand.

Adelaide smiled softly, moving in closer to him, bringing the bottle with her and placing it between them. "Yeah, well, times have changed."

DogNut looked between Adelaide and the bottle between them, shrugging his shoulders as he mentally thought "screw it" and had a small mouthful. The disgusting tasting liquid hit his throat quickly, causing him to cough and struggle to almost breathe while Adelaide couldn't help but laugh.

"It takes some getting used to!" she laughed, taking the bottle from him and taking a drink from it before placing it down away from him.

"That is disgusting! Why do you drink that?"

"It saves water!"

The pair looked at each other and burst into laughter, unable to stop themselves. For once in what seemed like forever, they felt like kids again. Just two normal teenagers laughing and having fun without a care in the world. Adelaide wished it would stay like that but she knew that these fleeting moments of happiness were just that – fleeting, and sooner or later they would have to return to their normality of killing sickos and everyday fighting for their survival.

Their laughter died down soon enough and both were left in silence until DogNut spoke up again. "How've you been?"

The moment he asked that question, all trace of laughter was gone and Adelaide's demeanour changed almost immediately. Adelaide shook her head, looking out over London as she composed herself, trying to keep her emotions to herself. She couldn't explain it but whenever she was with DogNut, she felt as if she could pour her heart out to him and he wouldn't abandon her like she guessed most people would. "I've been okay… I'm basically the best fighter here so I guess I'm a badass now, I suppose."

Once DogNut noticed that Adelaide on the verge of tears, he placed an arm around her shoulders and brought her in closer to him. "Hey, you're okay. You're okay, I'm here."

Adelaide buried her face in the crook of DogNut's neck, clinging onto his shirt. Taking a shaky breath, she moved her head to rest on his shoulder. "I'm trying... I'm trying all the time but everyone's counting on me and it's so hard."

DogNut pressed a gentle kiss to Adelaide's forehead, his eyes closing as he rested his forehead against hers, his thumbs brushing away her tears. "I'm here now, you don't have to do this alone."

Instead of speaking, Adelaide looked at DogNut and did the only thing she thought she could. She kissed him. Softly at first, testing the waters, but once he kissed her back it got more serious.

Their kiss quickly became heated, with Adelaide slowly moving to sit on DogNut's lap while his arms kept around her waist. The pair were so engrossed in each other that they didn't notice or hear the door being opened and someone stepping onto the roof until they spoke up.

"Addie-"

Goddammit, Justin.

Adelaide groaned internally as she reluctantly ended the kiss, shooting a glare towards Justin. "I'm a little busy right now, can't you tell?"

Justin stood there awkwardly, trying not to look at the compromising position Adelaide and DogNut were in while also trying to look Adelaide in the face. "Sorry, ma'am, but there's a group of sickos coming our way and we need you."

Adelaide rolled her eyes and took a large gulp of alcohol from the bottle beside her, cringing a little as the bitter taste of alcohol went down her throat before she placed the bottle back down, screwing the lid back on. "Alright, let's do this. And call me ma'am one more time and I'll rip your head off and use it as target practice."

She moved off DogNut's lap and stood back up, straightening her shirt out before she stormed off the roof and back down the stairs, DogNut and Justin following close behind her. Adelaide walked through the museum, trying her hair up into a tight ponytail but leaving a few strands around her face. It was safe to say that she was angry; she'd finally gotten some alone time with DogNut and they'd been interrupted by king cockblock himself.

Adelaide picked up her baseball bat and attached her knives to her belt before removing her jacket and let it fall to the floor, not saying a word to anyone as various people were giving her orders.

"Six of them are coming – four mothers and two fathers."

"Aim for the head, make it a clean cut."

Their voices weren't entirely going into Adelaide's brain – she'd heard them a million times before and she knew what she was doing, she didn't need to be told again. She turned to DogNut and pressed a kiss to his lips, a small smile on her face. "I'll be back."

As Adelaide walked out towards the main gates to fight off the sickos, Justin led DogNut up towards a balcony to watch – mostly to make sure that all the sickos were dead after she as finished but to see if they needed to call in backup.

Once on the balcony, DogNut looked between Adelaide and the sickos and Justin. "Listen, buddy, I just got my girlfriend back after a year of thinking she was gone and you're sending her out alone to fight against six of those things? Are you completely insane?"

Justin kept his eyes on Adelaide, a slight smirk on his lips as he watched her prepare. "She can handle it, just watch. She's our best fighter, next to Jackson, of course."

DogNut sighed, gripping the edge of the balcony as he swore under his breath. He felt a hand gently squeeze his shoulder and saw Courtney standing beside him, giving him a comforting smile. He smiled back for a second before focusing back on Adelaide.

On the ground, Adelaide closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her thundering heart before she did a short sprint before surprising everyone by throwing one of her knives, hitting one of the mother's square between the eyes, causing her to let out a shriek as she went down.

One down, five to go.

Twirling her bat in her hands, Adelaide sprinted towards the group and smashed the nails against a father's head as hard as she possibly could. A mixture of blood and puss spilled from the large wound in the side of his head, spraying the side of Adelaide's face and the street below their feet. She knew that blow wasn't enough to kill him, it just disfigured him and slowed him down.

Kicking the father back, Adelaide swung her bat at a mother beside her, hitting its arm and knocking it clean off, blood dripping from what was left of her arm. In any other world, Adelaide would've been disgusted but she was used to it by this point; she'd seen it every single day since she'd become a fighter.

The fight became blurred to her, and she barely registered what was going on until the grown-ups around her were dead and she was almost on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

There was one grown-up left and Adelaide had to almost force herself to carry on and finish the job. Blowing a piece of fallen hair out of her face, she took a deep breath before forcing one of her knives out of one of the grown-ups and sprinting towards the last grown-up.

Adelaide let out a loud scream as she charged towards the last grown-up, tackling the mother to the ground and slashing her knife into the mother relentlessly, not caring that her face was now being completely coated in blood.

Once she was done with her knife, Adelaide needed to make sure the grown-up was properly taken care of. Placing her hands on the sides of its head, she thrust her thumbs into its eyes and forced them through the sockets until blood was pouring out of them and the mother stopped moving.

Taking a deep breath, she got off the grown-up and slowly made her way through the carnage to retrieve her weapons to go back inside and wash off the blood she was now completely coated in.

On the balcony, DogNut was completely speechless. He had no idea that Adelaide – his princess – was capable of taking down six grown-ups without getting killed in the process. She was ruthless, and he loved it. Somewhere in his teenage brain, that just made her a hell of a lot hotter than she already was.

"I did tell you she was our best fighter." Justin said, breaking the silence as he kept his eyes on Adelaide. As much as he hated to admit it – Adelaide was by far their greatest asset and he would do almost anything to make sure that she stayed with their group.

After seeing the fight, Courtney hated to admit it but prissy Adelaide was one hell of a fighter, it scared her a little, actually. Now she understood why DogNut liked her so much but that still didn't stop the jealousy from rising within her.

Adelaide walked slowly back inside the museum, handing over her weapons to one of the kids to have them cleaned before she promptly collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.

After being on the floor for several minutes, a hand was extended out to her and she took it, slowly sitting up at first before standing back up. She smiled when she was once again in the arms of DogNut, her forehead resting against his.

"That was awesome," he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek.

Adelaide nodded, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. Licking her lips, finally spoke up. "Listen, it's Esme's birthday today and we're kind of throwing a party for her tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to come. You don't have to, like, I get it if you think it's dumb-"

"Babe, if you're there, I'm there."

Note

You can thank Stripes213 for this chapter since talking to him and reading his story (The Rising (ya'll should check it out)) inspired me to get past my mental bullshit and write more on this story, and include Adelaide being a boss ass bitch.

And Esme for the whole roof scene, tbh.

Hope this extra-long chapter makes up for my absence.

Until next time;

Lorna.