Just A Day In The Life - Tumblr Posts

"Can Ed draw on it?"

Spike, sitting on the couch, glanced down to his left where Ed was cross-legged on the floor but swaying side to side as she gazed at the unblemished whiteness of the cast on Spike's arm.

"Knock yourself out." He replied. His chest felt tight at the way her eyes lit up at being granted permission.

"You're in for it now," Jet told him with a chuckle as Ed scrambled to her feet and dashed from the room, presumably to acquire markers.

Spike stared up at the ceiling fan making slow circles. "I don't do a lot that makes people happy. Kinda nice when I can."

"Mm. Meds must be working on you."

"Nah, didn't take any." The revolution of the ceiling fan was mesmerizing. So steady. Never ending. "It's just a broken arm, Jet. I don't need to numb myself to that. The pain reminds me that I'm still here."

"That's probably not healthy, you know." Faye informed him as she came into the room from the kitchen, a plate stacked with grilled cheeses in one hand and the necks of three bottles of beer very carefully clenched in her other. "Ringalingaling, dinner bell!"

"See, life is just too wonderful here, Faye. It's like living a dream so I need to remember that it's real." Spike told her as he straightened up on the couch a bit and reached out with his unbroken right hand for one of the beers.

"Sarcasm isn't gonna get you a drink." She replied, sitting on the landing of the stairs that led to the round door. She arranged the bottles next to her after setting the platter of sandwiches on the table in between the men.

"That's what you made for dinner?" Jet asked then. "Just cheese and bread? No meat? No soup? No salad?"

"Hey be glad I found anything in there to make a meal." She snapped. "And that kind of gratitude isn't gonna get you a drink either."

Ed came rushing back into the room with Ein at her heels. The little dog was loaded down with an apron Ed had fashioned into a cape and then stuffed the pockets with jars of nail polish, permanent markers, and stickers boasting "catch of the day!"

"Woohoo! Gimme gimme gimme, yum yum yum!" The hacker cried as she threw herself to her knees and slid the last few feet to the table.

Faye was eyeing Ein's payload with suspicion as Ed dug in. "Are those my nail polish bottles, Ed?"

"Nope! Art supplies! For decorating Spike-person's cast!"

Spike smirked and Faye rolled her eyes. "Ugh whatever. Hey! Hands off until I get an appropriate thank you!" She yelled as she slapped at Jet's hand as he reached for a sandwich.

"Thanks? For this? Ein could have made this!"

"Yeah, well, did he? Didn't think so."

"I wasn't being sarcastic, Faye. Being here really is unreal. Never thought I'd find a place where I can just...be. I know I never really appreciated it before but... I do now." Spike spoke up again, interrupting the argument that had been brewing between Jet and Faye.

Faye eyed him suspiciously but opened one of the beers and passed it over. Ed, half a sandwich stuffed into her mouth, ripped the crust off another to give to Ein and then tossed the gooey center portion onto Spike's lap.

"Well... I guess it's nice that I didn't have to make those sammies." Jet begrudgingly admitted. "So...er...thanks Faye."

She smirked. "Yeah that's more like it." Tossing him the third bottle, she waited until he opened it to hold hers out towards the table in a gesture of a toast. "Cheers to beers. To being here. To food and family or whatever we are."

The guys shared a grin with each other and then her as well before leaning towards the table to clink their bottles together.

"Ooey gooey yum yum!" Ed added joyfully as she pushed back from the table. "Now that Ed has a full tummy... Let the artistry begin!"

"Save me some room on that cast, Ed." Faye told her. "If you're gonna use my polish for this... Well, I oughta get a chance too."

"I don't recall giving you permission to draw on me," Spike noted.

Faye raised both her eyebrows. "Oh no? I could've sworn you did when given the choice of that or having me draw on your actual face the next time you pass out."

Jet chuckled as Spike gave a sigh and nodded to Faye's threat.

"Jet! Here!" Ed tossed some of the stickers at the ex-cop. "Ed made a tic tac toe board! If we use stickers we can play again and again!" She grinned toothily up at Spike. "Wanna play winner?"

That tight feeling was spreading across his chest. It felt like his heart was cracking open but in a light and bright way. Like his heart was expanding.

He really hadn't been sarcastic earlier. Being on the Bebop, surrounded by these ridiculous individuals, it was a life he would have never imagined for himself. Who could have predicted these folks would become such an integral part of his world? That the things he avoided and disliked so much (in theory at least, in practice his initial opinion had been proven quite wrong) would be so dear to him?

Vicious and Julia were dead. The Red Dragons were in shambles. Spike Spiegel had successfully "died" again. Ed and Ein had found their way back to where they truly belonged.

He was alive after all ...and much to his surprise, life was actually good.