chapter 1

When Sky got home it was well past midnight. Elliot was in bed when he heard the door click shut behind her, and he tore his eyes away from the reality TV show playing loudly from the corner of the room, muting the sound to acknowledge her.

"Sky?"

"Yeah, it's me."

Sky, thin and beautiful, her blonde hair streaked with something dark red and stiff, drifted over and sat on the side of Elliot's bed and stared numbly at the opposite wall, dropping a full plastic bag onto the rug by her feet.

"Where've you been?" Elliot asked, struggling to sit up so he could see her better over his chest. Feeling the movement and hearing the creak of the mattress, Sky's head jerked around and she shook her head, pressing her fingers against him to nudge him back down.

"Jason wanted me to take someone out tonight," she said, her gaze drifting over the steep curve of the duvet draped over Elliot's abdomen, her fingers still ghosting his chest. "Nothing big, just... some junkie. Never ended up paying for his shit."

Elliot hummed in the back of his throat, all too focused on Sky's fingers as they scratched down the sheets to settle on his stomach. "How much d'you get for it?" He croaked, and yawned. He hadn't long been awake even though it was so late, and had spent the whole day lying in front of the TV.

Sky bit her lip and grinned, looking up to Elliot's face. "Seven thousand." She told him, her hand sliding across his belly to curl over his waist, her fingertips pressing into the soft flesh of his hip. "So I thought I'd get you somethin'..."

As though it physically pained her to pull away, Sky withdrew her hand and picked up the plastic bag, dipping into it and laying the contents on the bed one by one. Everything inside was from the takeout nearest their apartment: a huge box of fried rice, an even bigger paper bag of prawn crackers that was turning translucent from the grease, a large bottle of Pepsi, an order of fries and a styrofoam box of onion bhajis. The smell of all the disgustingly unhealthy food filled the room.

Elliot's face lit up and he cracked a smile as Sky showed him what she'd bought. "I thought you'd be hungry," she smirked almost sarcastically. "Since you've been on your own all day... I figured you'd be too lazy to get up and make your own food, right?"

"It's been agony," Elliot whined, playing up the part, resting his head back on the pillow and stretching his arms out for the first time that evening. "Livin' off marshmallows for so long... I don't know how I survived."

Sky smiled softly and reached down to undo the clasp on her heels, kicking them off and crawling onto the bed on her knees, settling so that they were closer together near the headboard. "My poor baby," she cooed, running her fingers over the uneven skin of his cheek. "You must be starving..." Without looking away she picked up the closest thing to her hand which turned out to be the noodles, and popped the box open gently. "Open up little bird." She teased, scooping up a wad of the dripping brown strands and shovelling them into Elliot's open mouth, her eyes misting over dreamily as she watched him struggle to take it all in one go. She hummed happily, watching the difficulty he had in chewing the lump of greasy noodles.

Elliot swallowed hard before he'd finished mashing them up with his teeth, the grease smearing over his lips and making them shine. He moaned at how good it felt to eat properly again and let his eyes fall shut as he opened his mouth for more.

Sky paused, raising her eyebrows expectantly. "Uh-uh, what d'you say?"

Elliot sighed and opened his eyes. "Please?"

"That's better."