32. ♞ CUTE POISON

PHOEBE WAS SITTING BESIDE MICHAEL on the bench again, her eyes wide as she thought about everything Cameron had told her mere minutes before. Michael sighed as he looked at her.

"Are you sure that's all he told you?" Michael asked her calmly, yet on the inside, he was fuming. Phoebe nodded, looking down at the ground.

"Yep. He just told me why he was in here." She said with another nod, before looking over at Michael. "Why?" She asked, unsure of what she was feeling in that moment. Her stomach was twisted up in knots, she was nauseas. She didn't know what to think. Michael shrugged.

"You just look really upset." Michael pointed out with a frown. Phoebe mirrored his expression and nodded as the cool breeze blew through her hair, her hair tickling her face as she pushed it back with her hands.

"I just... I don't know what to feel or what to think of him now, you know?" She said with a shrug. "That's all." She admitted. Michael nodded.

"I understand." He said, clenching his jaw. "Heads up." Michael mumbled as he spotted Abruzzi walking towards them with something shoved in his pockets. Phoebe nodded, scooting as close as she could to Michael without throwing him off the edge of the bench. Abruzzi then approached them and sat beside Phoebe, leaving her trapped between the two men, looking over at them as he pulled the items out of his pockets. He pulled out a bottle of the chemical Michael had asked for, stacked on top of a shiv.

"There's a quicker way to take care of your problem." Abruzzi mumbled as he reached over Phoebe and handed Michael the items. Phoebe's eyes widened as she stared at the shiv in Abruzzi's hand. Michael grinned at Abruzzi.

"There's smarter ways, too." Michael deadpanned, reaching over and taking the bottle from Abruzzi's hand, leaving him with the shiv, as he then grabbed Phoebe's hand and pulled her along, shoving the chemical in his pocket. Phoebe cocked a brow.

"Where we goin'?" Phoebe asked. Michael turned to face her, his eyebrow cocked as he grinned at her.

"Inside." He responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Everyone is headed inside now." He pointed out with a chuckle. Phoebe blushed, feeling completely out of it as she was still overwhelmed with what Cameron had said to her earlier. Phoebe nodded.

"Oh. Right. Forgot about that." She said with a chuckle, tightening her grip on Michael's hand ever so slightly. "So, what's the plan with crazy, then?" She asked. Michael scratched his head with his free hand and looked down at her.

"I think your idea might be the best one." He mumbled as they walked past the officers guarding the courtyard.

—

THAT NIGHT, IN THEIR CELL, Phoebe was busy brushing out her hair, since she'd just recently showered, while Michael sat on his and Phoebe's bunk, toying around with something in his hands.

"Lights out in ten minutes." An officer called out from beneath them in the cell block. "Ten minutes! Lights out in ten minutes." He repeated as he walked past the many cells. Phoebe sighed, brushing her teeth and then tying her hair into a low ponytail. She then turned around, sitting next to Michael as she watched him open up the bottle of Drain Line Root Control and another one of Masonry Cleaner. Phoebe cocked a brow, as she caught onto what Michael was doing now.

"Ah," Phoebe hummed and nodded to herself, recalling the tattoo Michael had gotten in order to remember the mixture. "Cute poison?" She asked, which was a code name she and Michael had come up with for a chemical that could possibly be used to burn through metal, among other things it could be used for. He was mixing it in the empty tube of toothpaste he'd stolen before from Haywire. Phoebe had forgotten he had that. Michael nodded, closing up the top of the toothpaste tube.

"Cute poison." He repeated with another nod. Phoebe cocked a brow.

"You're not planning on using that on Haywire, are you?" She asked seriously, wondering if that was what he meant earlier by having a smarter way of getting rid of him. Michael chuckled to himself and shook his head.

"No. I said a smart way." Michael joked and chuckled, handing Phoebe the toothpaste tube. "Think you can hide this?" He asked. "You're the master at hiding things." He said with a small smirk. Phoebe gulped. She didn't know if she was overthinking it, but for some reason that hurt her feelings. She felt as if he was trying to say that she was hiding things from him. Or maybe she was just overthinking. She snapped out of her thoughts and grinned at Michael before nodding.

"Sure thing." She said, taking the tube from him. "Promise you won't give away my hiding spot?" She joked, hopping off the bed. She then proceeded to sit on the floor, just as the lights went out. Michael watched her intently. They were lucky Haywire hadn't come back from his visit to the doctor's office yet. Phoebe pulled out the extra mattress from under their bunk, pulling up part of the fitted sheet on it and exposing part of it. She carefully stuck her fingers in the edge of the mattress, where she'd carefully cut it open before, lifting it and shoving in the tube. She then carefully shoved in her tiny and incredibly flexible hand, pushing the tube in between the padding of the center of the mattress before pulling her hand out and putting everything back to normal.

Just as she put the extra mattress back in place, Michael cocked a brow and grinned at her, chuckling. Just then, the cell door opened, and an officer led Haywire inside, before the cell door closed and the officer walked away. Michael and Phoebe gave each other a look as Michael sat on the bunk, Phoebe on the floor, and Haywire ignored them as he jumped up into his bunk and began to anxiously scribble in his notebook. He'd been doing that ever since he'd seen Michael's tattoos, talking nonsense to himself. Michael motioned with his head for Phoebe to climb into the bed, and she did, squeezing past him and to her side of the bed, against the wall.

Neither one would admit it, but they liked this arrangement. And neither one knew that they usually cuddled in their sleep. Unfortunately, or fortunately for them, they always separated just as they were about to wake, therefore not knowing they'd cuddled at all. They were oblivious to their unconscious actions. But they were happy that way.

[ DEDICATED TO aguacate_en_tanga , Cloudlover4lyfe & simpforcelebritys ]