Gunpowder

Everything had seemed fine when the pizza man came, and then, about five minutes later, Poppy had burned her tongue. About five minutes after that, at least one piece of pizza was on the floor, and Poppy had decided that she didn’t like pizza that much.

“You never told me it would be so hot!” she complained, her speech a bit off from her injured tongue.

“Yeah.. Sorry about that. I keep forgetting that you don’t know all these things,”

“Is that supposed to happen?”

“Nah. You have to wait for it to cool down first. Wanna try it after it cools down?”

“I guess... Just promise it won’t burn my tongue again?”

“Promise,”

Axis smiled and picked up the TV remote, which was lying in the middle of the table like a centerpiece. She aimed it at the television, turned the screen on, and flipped to the news channel, as it was the only channel she knew the number for.

Poppy had picked up another piece of pizza and was blowing on it, wincing a bit as her gusts of breath wafted over the injured area on her tongue. She seemed to be quite intrigued when the television’s screen lit up. She began to take small bites of the triangular food in her hands as the newscaster began to speak.

The newscaster was a man, probably in his early thirties, with a full beard and short, stubbly brown hair that was brushed into a messy comb-over. Her sat at a little blue table, holding a tablet in his hands, which he seemed to be reading off of.

“The news?” Poppy inquired, not turning her gaze away from the screen.

“Yep,” Axis responded quietly, not wanting her voice to cover up the voice of the man on the screen.

The male on screen cleared his throat and began to read, “Good afternoon people of Kawden, and welcome to our news broadcast today. Some shenanigans over at the zoo will be our first headline today. The zoo’s prized two-headed peacock escaped from its enclosure and managed to get all the way to a nearby apartment building, where it climbed onto the sill of a high window. A resident of the building, who just happened to be a professional tree climber and retired zookeeper, got a ladder from a neighbor and rescued the bird. The peacock is now safe and sound, back at the zoo, and sustained no injuries, though its keepers described it to be “quite scared.” It is expected to be on display tomorrow, as normal, thanks to the heroic civilian who saved it! In other, slightly more somber news, there was a small jailbreak at an unnamed jail, involving a man and a woman. People are advised to stay in doors and keep the doors locked. Police are already on the hunt and say that there is nothing to worry about and that the criminals will be apprehended soon. For the reference of all, here are the pictures of the escapees. More details will be on our website, and more will be on after the commercial,”

Poppy stopped chewing on her pizza, letting cheese roll out of her mouth, as she stared at the two portraits onscreen. The male seemed a bit older than the female, his eyes lined with wrinkles. He had a bit of stubble around his chin, and his head was decorated with a brown comb-over. The technician took another slow bite of her pizza, taking a big gulp.

“Do you know who that is?” she asked, looking at Axis and cocking her head to the side.

She nodded, “A criminal. Don’t know much about him, I wasn’t involved in his case.”

“And that woman..”

“You know her?”

Axis stared at the portrait on screen for a minute, then looked at Axis,talking while still chewing, “Yes. Yes... That’s Abbet, or at least someone who looks like her,”

“Maybe that’s why I never saw Abbet,”

“It must be her. But, she’s got.. no eyes?”

“You didn’t see her after the crash?”

“I did.... But I don’t remember much. I would describe the feeling as being drunk after I got in the crash,”

“Shock can do things to a man, well woman. There were... glass shards, in her eyes. They were forced to remove them to save her life,”

“Oh, well... It is still quite scary. I don’t wish for an encounter with her,”

“Was she bad to you or something?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I was practically the dog of the team, they... weren’t the nicest.” She forced a laugh, “They truly called me a dog, and treated me like one. Called Abbet my.. “handler” or whatever.”

Axis muttered a curse word under her breath and looked back up at Poppy, “I″m sorry,”

Poppy finished her piece of pizza and turned off the television, “It isn’t your fault, truly. I’ve told you it many times,”

“I feel responsible, I’ve told you that many times,”

“It’s fine, truly,”

“Thanks....”

Poppy laid her head on the shoulder of the woman sitting next to her. Axis looked at her, confusion lighting up her face, but she didn’t protest.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Poppy responded, not moving.

“It’s fine,” Axis responded, smiling.

And so they sat like that for the rest of the night, not turning on the television, not eating anymore pizza. Eventually, Poppy fell asleep, and so did Axis a few hours later. They were like that until the sun came up, when Axis awoke. She carried her roommate to her bed, not wanting to wake her up and doing everything she could do to avoid doing such. She covered her in blankets, cleaned up the table, putting the pizza away. Poppy woke up hours later, but Axis was already gone by then, off to work. It seemed perfect, like the ending of some sort of cheesy high school romance movie. Axis made a breakfast of pancakes, which she didn’t end up burning, or at least the smoke detectors didn’t detect her burning it. (She may have dismantled the smoke detectors, so that they didn’t remind her of her lack of cooking experience.) She had thrown out the pancakes that she had burned out in the yard, being careful not to land it on the stereotypical white picket fence outside.