Mischievous Delight

The world had turned upside down, or maybe right side up? Delight crashed into my room/the garage, stumbling over metal pipes and gas canisters before finally tripping and falling over a half built engine. She was in tears, a strange sight for sure but my eyes found themselves drawn to the purple bruises circling her delicate neck, being partially covered by her shaking hand.

“Is there a reason you are tripping over my stuff or are you just excited to see me,” I said with a smirk. My hands dropping the wrench I was holding, wiping them on my pants.

“Love’s in a bad mood,” whispered Delight. Her hand moving away from her neck and into her jean pocket. “He was not exactly thrilled when I told him we went into Cynical's territory without permission.” Delight made her way over to me, skooching up onto my workbench and stretching her neck to show me the hand shaped bruises, already purple from the broken blood flow.

“Well Delight, you can't exactly blame the guy. We both know he’s a little" I teeter my hand in the air before reaching out towards her neck, "unstable. And it was downright stupid of you to say something when he was obsessing over Cynical. You know how he gets.” I retract my hand from her space and pulled the first aid kit out of its cubby on the floor. Delight reached over me to snatch the ice pack before placing it under her chin.

“Still… you'd think he would be a little kinder to the girl he’s sleeping with. He is Love after all.” The snark had returned to her voice, Delight was going to be fine.

“You and I both know that it doesn't work like that," I laughed darkly. "Love is only lovely around people he actually loves. Sorry to break it to you but he only has sex with you because you are what's available. Trust me, if I was gay and desperate he would be dicking me instead of yo…” a slap from Delight silenced me.

“I know that your whole thing is playing games Mischief but I'm really not in the mood. Besides, I only came by to give you a heads up that he was in a mood. He may have strangled me but if you bug him," she jammed her finger into my chest, "he will damn well shoot you.” And with that Delight slid off my workbench and began heading for the door.

“You gonna give me my ice pack back?” I teased. A flying socket wrench my answer as Delight slammed the garage door and wandered off, presumably in search of Joy, as though she would make her feel any better about the crap situation.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “at least he didn't kill her like the last one. There had been so much blood.” I picked up my wrench and got back to work; as Love’s second in command I needed to finish the new security system before he got too riled up. Delight did have a point, Cynical would have no qualms about shooting me in the foot. Then, assuming all my libs are still in working order, I'll have to check in with the rest of the light Empaths, attempt to keep them in order so we are ready when our fearless leader sends us into battle again. I twisted the wrench too far, watching it go flying as I crashed to the floor. I guess Delight wasn't going to be the only one today with bruises. God, I hate doing damage control.