The Trapeze Swinger

3.5

"Well don't you two look cosy, hehhghehh."

The voice sliced through the warm folds of sleep I had been cocooned in, dragging me from that blissful nothingness and into the harsh fluorescent light of 2D's underwater bedroom. I blinked , dimly registering that at some point the power must have turned back on as my bleary vision slowly focused on the narrow green face leering over mine.

"Agh!" I gasped involuntarily, voice pitching as I jumped in fright at having Murdoc in such sudden proximity. There was no longer any visible trace of my previous assault to his nose save for a slightly purplish bruise across the crooked bridge, stark against the mossy colour of his skin.

At my reaction to his wake up call, the man cackled heartily, straightening up so that he towered over where 2D and I still lay curled together under the blanket. There was a half-empty bottle in his hand, the unmistakable smell of whisky beginning to permeate the air. I frowned, hating not only that he'd managed to make me shriek so lamely, but also the fact that 2D's cynical guess that Murdoc would have only taken so long to turn the power back on because he was intoxicated being now proved accurate. I wrinkled my nose at the bottle with the strange sensation of being let down, before slowly extricating myself from beneath 2D's lanky arm. As I sat up on the side of the bed I refused to meet Murdoc's ever-watchful gaze as I stretched, legs hanging over the mattress and arms aching from being restrained backwards for so long.
                  Beside me the still sleeping blue-haired man yawned, reaching out sleepily for me as he semi-consciously registered my absence. Long fingers gently enclosed themselves around one of my manacled hands, and I shook him off with the pretence of nonchalance as I glared at Murdoc's suggestive smirk.

"I had been worried when the power turned off that you might have frozen down here, but it looks like you two had no trouble finding ways to keep warm," He drawled drunkenly, lazily trailing his gaze along the rumpled bedspread before flashing me a sneer.

I was shaking my head, about to snap a defensive response to his undisguised and contemptuous presumption when I felt 2D move beside me, sitting up even as he responded flatly to Murdoc's remark.

"You were worried? Aw. What a sweet surprise ta know you do care," He said coldly, his usually lilting voice turned monotone and full of unbridled animosity.

"Care about you? HAH," Murdoc snorted derisively, rolling his eyes, "I really couldn't care less about you, 2D..."

"Well that makes more sense, since you don't care about anyfink except yourself."

"... it was Sloane I was worried about."

I jolted at the sound of my name, glancing up abruptly to look at Murdoc's face as I felt 2D freeze beside me. Expecting him to be sneering, I felt an unsettling sense of surprise flow through me as I saw nothing ingenuous written across his green features, his face instead already turning blank and unreadable in the sudden silence. As I watched he brought the bottle in his hand up to his lips and tipped it back to take a gulp of the amber coloured liquid inside.

"Me?" I heard my own voice ask incredulously, sitting stunned on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah well," Murdoc sniffed, already waving a dismissive hand as he turned away from us both and began stalking back to the open and waiting elevator, "Only because you're still wearing my jumper, and I wouldn't have wanted to rip it off your frrrrrozen corpse mmheggheh. Now hurry up, 2D, I need my vocalist."

I rolled my eyes at his sniggering, shuffling to stand so I could follow him to the heaven-sent graffitied interior of the lift. I could hear 2D behind me as he grumbled something incomprehensible into the pillow.