Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (28 page)

“Of course,” I said, I put my hand over his hand and showed him how to hold the gun properly. “Tomorrow maybe we can go find some croaches to shoot, that would be a good start.”
“I’d like that,” Killian said softly. He placed the gun beside him and hugged me again. “Thank you, you’re just amazing, Reaver.”
I felt myself go a bit red. I was being touched more by him than I had been for the last year of my life. And most of that touching was prying a high or drunk Reno off of me.

I let him though, the mood was right. As long as he didn’t do this a lot when there were other people around.

He leaned against me, he had the gun in his hand again, he was admiring it. I watched as he ran his fingers along the barrel of it, and held it in his hand the way I had shown him.

I don’t know what came over me, before I could stop myself I felt the words escaping from my mouth.

“So how about it?”

Shit...
I shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people. This is why I don’t talk.

Of course Killian looked at me, I could tell he was trying to hide his confusion to be polite but he was kind of looking at me like I was inept.

“I mean...” I furrowed my brow, making damn sure I didn’t make eye contact. “Do... do you want to be my partner?”
Killian’s breathing stopped, I saw him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I gave him a sideways glance and pursed my lips to the side. Wondering if I could survive the fall if I ran and jumped off of the roof right now.
“Like... your boyfriend?”
I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to say anything. I finally turned my gaze away from the wasteland in front of us and looked at him.

I almost laughed as I saw what I recognised as his ‘about to cry’ face. Sure enough as soon as we locked eyes he burst into tears and dove into my arms.
“I never thought you would ask me, I didn’t think you would ever be able to,” Killian choked, squeezing me tight. This kid was so touchy, at least I was getting used to it. I was in for a lot of love mauling I think. “Yes, of course I will.”
It was my turn to smile now. I kind of felt proud of myself for finally having the balls to ask him that. I bet those shit head leaders of mine would be surprised I did it. Assholes.

Killian drew his hand up to my cheek and tilted my face towards his. I hated every cell inside my body as I felt my face flush under his warm touch. The corners of my mouth raised in a half smile.

I brought my own hand up and brushed the blood I saw had collected around his stitched lips, the goof had been smiling so much his stitches had torn. I wiped the corners gently. My eyes not leaving his.

“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he whispered. I loved how his eyes looked silver in the moon light. “You... I know you hate sappy shit-” well he was right about that.“- but let me just say this.”
Killian took a deep breath. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been happy, since my parents died. You already know I wanted to die too...”
I nodded.
“You... everyone thinks you’re an asshole, even you... but you’re not, at least not with me. And I don’t know why you chose me, but thank you.”
I looked at him, and couldn’t help but smile.
“Wow, that was sappy,” I remarked still smiling.

Killian gasped and started hitting me, I laughed and put my arms up.
“No, I take it back, you are an asshole!” he exclaimed, I could hear the happiness in his voice though. I grabbed his arms, and pushed them down. He smiled at me, his golden blond hair falling over his face. His bruised skin seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. He looked fucking beautiful.

I watched him laugh through rosy pink lips. The red rimmed stitches in the corners only adding to his beauty. He looked more beautiful with some roughness on him than he did uninjured. I don’t know why but I found the bruises and blood rather intoxicating. Bordering it on being a turn on.
With my heart threatning to beat out of my chest, I brought my hand up to his face and rested them against his cheek bone. He tilted his head.

I leaned into him, and slipped my hand to the back of his neck as he shifted into me also. I met my lips with his.

I felt them press against mine. Warm, silken pillows laced with the taste of copper. I opened my mouth and took him in.

My heart seemed to stop in that moment. I could feel his hand on my shoulder, stroking it. We broke away for a moment, only to rejoin again, deeper this time. I loved hearing his heart race, I knew mine was just as fast as his. I couldn’t believe I was kissing him.
I broke away from him. His mouth was open and I could feel his quick breath against my face. He brushed my hair back and looked at me, the emotion and love behind his eyes took me off guard. It was a bit intimidating. I didn’t know if I could give him everything he might want from me. I was new at this, it was hard for me to do this sappy feelings crap. But I was always looking for a challenge.
I kissed the corner of his mouth, before I moved back on the metal box I was sitting on. He got up and sat down in front of me.

As he leaned back against me, I wrapped my hands around his waist and pulled him closer to me. He rested his head against my chest, and I rested my back against the second level of the metal box behind me. We sat like that together in silence, not saying a word to each other. It was a few hours before dawn, the end of my shift, when I heard his heartbeat start to slow. He fell asleep in my arms.

I leaned down and kissed his hair, taking in the intoxicating clean scent. I let out a small sigh and drew him in closer, and watched the dark sky start to lighten.

Chapter 16

Reaver

Killian yawned and fell onto my bed. The springs squeaked as he bounced up and down a bit on the bed until it settled down. I pulled his shoes off and threw a blanket over him. My shift was over now, and he was tired. He had stayed up almost the whole night with me while I worked. I knew he would be out for a few hours now, but perhaps since he had gotten a couple hours of sleep in my arms we would wake up at the same time.
I popped a few pills to help me sleep and changed into a ratty t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. I wasn’t even going to bother waking him up to change into some actual sleeping clothes. I could already hear him snore.
I had left the foamy in the building, since I knew we would be needing it again. I grabbed some couch cushions instead and laid them down beside my bed. I was looking a bit forward to having my own space while I slept. I liked having the kid around, but I did have my limits, I still needed my own space. Kid wanted to be close to me all the time, he was like a house cat.

I stretched, hearing many bones and joints popping as I did. It was a bit cold in my den, but I wasn’t about to waste fuel when we would be sleeping anyways. As it was I was going to have to make a buy in the next week or so. The refinery fuel we made here from rat oil was rationed too much and I barely got enough to last me a week with my use of it. I always had to supplement it by either scavenging or trading. I knew I would be needing more soon, Mario was a nice way to spend time with him.
I closed the bedroom door. I wanted to lock it, but I didn’t want him to have to wake me up if he had to take a piss or something. He had been running to the bathroom a lot getting rid of the greasy shit he had digested. It was funny how embarrassed he got, like I actually cared.
I laid down on my cushions beside the bed, hearing him snore beside me. I stretched again, enjoying the space. It took me until the pills kicked in to sleep, but eventually I found myself fading out.

I woke up first, I checked my clock and was surprised to see I had slept a good six hours. More than I thought I would, I guess I had the pills to thank for that.

Killian was snoring beside me. He had kicked half of his covers off, I don’t know why he didn’t wake up by just being cold.
His body was still pale and spindly like it had been when I saw him in Doc’s. I made a note to start feeding him more, he was too skinny and tiny. Though he wasn’t short, only a few inches shorter than me, the way his body was shaped gave him the appearance of being slighter than he was.

I put the covers back over him, before opening my bedroom door and turning the generator on. I quickly half shut the door before the light could blind him awake.

I leaned up against the wall as a wave of dizziness overcame me. It had been coming and going since I got back to Aras. I think it was getting better, I didn’t feel the need to puke as much.

My back was healing too, though it itched like holy fuck. I was going to give Killian some of that Neosporin shit and get him to rub it on some of my wounds. I couldn’t smell infection yet at least, I had been keeping it as clean as I could.

I unplugged one of my den heaters and plugged it into an extension cord I had in the bedroom. That should keep the little fucker warm. I closed the door again and started on cooking some food for us. I wasn’t a good cook in any respect, but well, I was hungry as hell and I didn’t want to wait for him to wake up and cook us something decent. At least if I cooked something horrible it would encourage him to cook for me more.

I threw together some canned spaghetti sauce and canned bosen, and put some of the noodly things in. The spaghetti sauce didn’t taste that bad, considering its age, kinda tinny but that was about it. It tasted good all fried together in a mess. Looked like shit, but it was good shit.

Killian woke up a short time later, probably smelled the food cooking. We ate together then played some Mario, he still whooped my ass quite a few times, though I was learning his tricks. Then we took a walk over to the square to get our rationed meat. It would be nice to have something fresh to cook up, I was even going to check on the potatoes I was trying to grow. Maybe we could have some ol fashion pre-Fallocaust foot. Meat and Potatoes.

“How did last night go? Any head problems?” Greyson asked, I was helping him pack up the truck after distribution. Everyone who had come for pickup were slowly filtering back to their homes.
I shook my head. “Head hurts like hell, but the drugs help. East area was fine, absolutely empty though.”
“How was the boy?” Greyson asked, Killian could hear him but he didn’t seem to care. He was rinsing out bins with Leo.
“Quiet, obedient. He was fine,” I replied back. “No word from the outside?”
Greyson shook his head, he was securing the ration cards he had collected from the residence. “Not a damn peep, same with Reno... oh that reminds me. He was down here earlier to re-fill the quad. He wants you and the boy to visit him on the rock, says he has the thing.”
It took me a moment before I realized what
the thing
was. He had Killian’s guitar. Of course he did. I had forgotten about that god damn thing, Killian hadn’t mentioned it either. It had been the guitar’s fault he had gotten into this mess in the first place.

Well, he better like it anyways, I had spent a lot on that fucking thing. Which reminded me, he would probably be expecting his pay back since he had loaned me the money. I would need to rob one of my drug caches soon if I was paying off him on top of my usual drug habit.

“Maybe I’ll take Killian up there tonight if we’re feeling able to, he seems to be okay. My fucking back is killing me though, and it itches like hell,” I said. Greyson lifted up my shirt and cringed.
“Keep that clean, that could get really nasty really quickly,” he said shaking his head, he nodded over to Killian. “It’s your job now to make sure he takes care of that, god knows he wont.”
Killian nodded, I groaned as I saw the look of responsibility in his eyes, he wasn’t going to let this one go.
“Also, you can’t go to Reno’s tonight. I need you on the wall again, give me another night shift and you and Killian can have the next two days off.”
My mouth pursed to the side as I considered this, it seemed like a good enough deal. I would be close enough to Aras in case any trouble came up, and I should introduce Reno properly to Killian. “Deal.” I grabbed me and Killian’s rations and jumped off of the truck.
We started walking back towards home.
“Are you up for visiting Reno in his cabin?” I asked, I looked over and was surprised to see him look a bit  nervous. “We’ll pretty much be hugging the fence the entire way, then a twenty minute walk up the rocks to his shack. It’s at the very top of the hill back in a cleared out quarry, no one can get us there. It’s safe.”
I saw his shoulders slump, he looked at the ground, suddenly interested in his shoes. “Could I stay in the den?” he asked in a voice so small even I could barely hear it.
Well, I wasn’t sure what was preventing him from wanting to go. It wasn’t far from Aras at all and we wouldn’t be gone too long. Well, I might stay for a beer or some lines but that was about it. Maybe he just didn’t like Reno? Reno was a bit of an idiot, he could be loud and overwhelming when he was drunk or high.
“Still not feeling well? Do you just not like Reno?” I asked, I only got a half hearted shrug in return. “Well, do you just not feel safe?”
“All the above I think,” Killian said silently.

Hm, well I hoped he eventually warmed up to Reno, because I didn’t have anyone else in the way of friends besides the leaders. I liked doing drugs with Reno, messing around playing video games or whatever. I’m sure eventually he would grow on him. If Reno Nevada could befriend a bitey two year old, he could grow on anyone.
“Well, I won’t be long anyways, and it won’t be for a a day,” I said trying to be supportive. “Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

The boy nodded and I could see him tensing his hands. He sucked in a deep breath and squared his shoulders. As he did I smiled on the inside. I knew he was going to make himself go.

“I’ll go, I’ll be okay,” he said finally, nodding to the person he was trying to convince the most, himself.

I let the smile show through. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it though. “We’ll have a good time.”
 

I watched as Killian zipped up one of my old jackets. I think next time the merchants came I would urge him to start buying some proper armor. I didn’t have any spare bullet proof vests, I don’t think anyone did, and combat armor would be too heavy for him. I think it might be awhile before we got anymore merchants though so perhaps I would ask around. He kind of looked cute and dangerous when he wore sentry clothes, especially with the gun.
He packed up his bag again, and I brought a few things as well. Just as eleven o’clock was approaching we started off for the east watch building again. He seemed a bit more confident this time.