Lisa Wilbourn/Tattletale
Even knowing what I was getting into, I still can’t believe just how fucking stupid this is. The mission was laid out like it was going to be a simple job, go here, find this guy, neutralize him by whatever means are available, make it out quickly, roll credits.
A simple plan with one variable, easy enough to force someone to do, especially when you’ve got a gun pointed at their head.
That plan looks easy on paper but it starts to fall apart when you put names to the variables, like our target for example.
Ymir is fairly new to the cape scene, he probably triggered right before or during Leviathan’s siege, but in the twoish months he’s been active, the guy has done more in his career than most parahumans do in a lifetime.
First thing he does upon joining the fight is getting rid of Leviathan’s main gun, just how many lives were saved by the glaciers he created will never be known. Of course, making those things took all of his energy and he passed out not long after but he’d already done more for that fight then any other cape, save of course Eidolon and Scion.
A record low for Parahuman deaths, not just for Leviathan but for all Endbringer fights. The trick would probably never work again but it was enough.
But of course, the good news comes with a catch. As anyone might be able to infer from the name, Ymir immediately decided to scoop his brain out and join the Empire.
You’d think, given that Kaiser and Hookwolf both bit it that fight, that Ymir would immediately duck out of those failing prospects and join the Protectorate, his dumbassery filed under a temporary loss of faculties.
But no, while the frosty cape is green as hell, what he did for the Bay garnered him enough fame and power that he was able to keep those morons together even without their metal emperor and vanguard.
He’s the glue that keeps the racists together but it’s really Krieg who holds the power right now, Ymir wouldn’t know leadership if you forced him to read the Art of War.
Despite his abysmal control, somehow the icy Blaster stayed in power, even given that Shatterbird herself nominated the guy. His luck just kept on going and despite the Nine’s tests, despite losing a whole hand’s worth of fingers, he survived.
Of course there’s a silver lining to it, Ymir might’ve weathered the tests well enough but that wasn’t because of any support from his team. In fact, the Nazis he called friends left him out to dry several times when the Nine came to town.
After getting the shit kicked out of him enough times, he finally wisened up to the fact that his friends weren’t ever gonna really have his back.
And that’s what brings us here, to an abandoned furniture store just barely within the city limits. The Empire is held together with duct tape and their leader is the only reason they haven’t scattered to the winds.
And with his trust in them fucking shattered, this is the perfect time to take him off the board.
As if taking down a Blaster 8 was ever going to be easy.
The store itself is strange, I’ve got my theories on why he’d choose here of all places to lay low but they’re not important. It doesn’t matter if he was an ex employee or the son of the owner or whatever the fuck, the only thing that matters is how well he knows the place.
To just about everyone else, furniture stores are confusing mazes of desks, shelves, beds, and chairs, they seem impossible to navigate the first times you go through them but I was hoping Skitter’s bugs would give us enough of a map that Ymir’s familiarity with this place wouldn’t matter.
But no plan survives first contact, especially a plan I had to come up with yesterday.
And not for the first time since we got here, I'm cursing Coil's name.
We got separated maybe ten minutes ago, our cover blown because the flying moron in front of me decided it was a good idea to chase after us.
Glory Girl soars above me, fists raised in a classic superhero pose as she slams into Ymir.
The man takes it like he's a Brute, the hasty ice shield he made crumbles into flakes as Glory Girl starts to flip through the air, unused to the brittleness of her target.
I try to keep cover where I can but fucking everything in this place is either made of cheap fiberboard or ice.
Ymir shouts at someone and I chance a glance over the back of a headboard. The pistol I'm holding shakes as I line up the shot.
Ymir is dressed in a weird mix of viking and knight armor, only instead of metal plates, thick sheets of ice jut out rockily from thin frames.
His horned helmet covers his eyes and head but leaves his mouth open, probably so his hate speech isn't muffled.
We're close to the exit, back on the first floor with him clearly eyeing his escape route.
I take the shot and wince as it goes wide, hitting the sliding glass doors behind him. He turns at the sound and I can just barely see his hands turn white before he points them at me.
For an instant, I can't do anything but remember. It isn't my whole life, not by any means but in that infinitesimal moment when my eyes close, my time in Brockton Bay zips by me like the world's fastest slideshow.
I hate this city, I hate most of the people but… not everyone was a pain to talk to. In fact, it's really only the people I'm going to miss.
I'll never get to poke Brian's buttons again, I'll never get coerce Rachel into watching a movie with us, I'll never hear Alec make another joke or watch the chatty girl in Taylor finally break free.
That's the last thought that goes through my brain before the wind's knocked out of me.
I feel myself flying through the air for the briefest moment but when I open my eyes, all I see is the couch I'm about to hit
I land face first into the cushions and see stars despite the softness of what I'm landing on. I try to get up but nausea fills my stomach and starts to climb up my throat as a shrill cracking fills the air.
I just barely manage to turn as icicles soar right towards me, the long sharp bits of ice just barely graze my nose before they stop. Something tries to force its way out of my stomach but I swallow it down as I sit up.
The scene in front of me isn’t good, the entrance is clogged up with ice so thick I can barely see the light on the other side and judging by its rapid decline, Ymir is piling it on.
Fuck.
Power builds off itself, reacts positively to ice, reacts exponentially to ice, will expand faster with each—
I force the whisper in my head to shut the fuck up, I already know how his power works. This mission is a bust, I’ve got to get up, got to get to my team and split before we’re trapp—
In a blink, there’s a hand on my throat and I’m lifted up out of my seat by one very furious girl. Victoria Dallon stares at me with a fury that befits the goddess she is, a whimper climbs up my throat as the gun I managed to hold on to falls from my limp fingers.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The goddess asks me, clearly rhetorical and clearly enjoying the fear on my face. Like a rat in a trap, I claw at her hand, trying to break free of her impossible grip.
“I-I-I—” I can’t get anything out, the world feels like it’s falling apart in front of me, something colder than the ice surrounding us lances up my spine as the perfect girl’s lips move up in a snarl.
“The other Undersiders,” the girl asks, her perfect eyes examining me, judging me like a diamond might judge a lump of coal. “Where are the rest of them, Grue, Regent, Bitch, that bug girl, where the fuck are they?”
Unused to casual cursing, doesn’t enjoy casual cursing, is cursing anyway, hates you, hates you for the bank robbery, hates you for manipulating her and her sister, wants to hurt you for it.
The only reason I don’t scream is because the hand around my throat gets tighter, bruising my skin and making it difficult to breathe as I choke out an answer.
“Further—” I cough, “Further in, near the beds I think!”
“Why are you here?!” She immediately jumps to her next question and the volume of it fills me with despair. I can’t answer her, I can’t let her know, I… I…. what the hell is going on?
Trying to get my terrified mind to come up with something, I ignore the question and try to deflect it.
“W-we—” the same stupid part of my mind that thought this was a good idea is cursing me. What the hell am I thinking, trying to trick the goddess before me? “We have to go, Ymir… he’s gonna ice us in!”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Victoria orders and I just barely resist the urge to nod as my power whispers to me, information injecting itself through my terrified synapses.
Not genuine fear, is using her power, is using her aura, is making you afraid, feels a need to capture you, feels the need to prove she can do good, will—
Her power? Yes! Of course, how the fuck did I forget that? I swallow thickly and force myself to meet her eyes.
“None of us will be going anywhere unless we leave now” I stress, thankful that some of my fear starts to wash away as her grip lessens. Her eyes dart away from mine, a pensive look on her face as she mumbles something under her breath.
Is thinking of someone, is thinking of someone she brought, is thinking of that someone being trapped, is thinking of Panacea, is thinking—
“You brought your sister here?” I ask, incredulous as can be as she drops me to the floor. I fall on my ass and wince at the pain in my tailbone as I stare up at her. Victoria’s head turns on a swivel, eyes darting around her as panic starts to set in. I’m slowly getting up on my feet, an assurance on the tip of my tongue when she whirls back to face me.
“You’re not getting out of my sight,” she tells me and I can’t help but gulp as the beautiful, perfect girl in front of— No.
“Look,” I grit, trying to keep my mind steady. “Now’s really not the fucking time for this, we—”
I’m cut off as the building shudders, the hanging lights above us flicker and start to sway, capturing both of our attentions as my power speaks to me.
Process is accelerating, unknown time until escape becomes unlikely, time is getting shorter.
“Fuck,” Victoria says my setiments exactly and with the back and forth settled for now, both of us immediately start to head back the way we came, back to warehouse part of the store. I shake my head as I resist the urge to run, knowing the Brute next to me, she’ll probably take it as resisting arrest and clobber me over the head.
Why the fuck couldn’t we bring Shatterbird? If Coil would just let Regent have his thrall full time, things would’ve gone so much easier. But no, the boss is keeping her as ‘trump card, to be used only when needed’.
As if we didn’t fucking need her an hour ago.
My frustrated thoughts keep me warm even as more and more ice starts to climb around the building, the light fixtures swaying under the weighty additions. My power tries to repeat its urgings, that Ymir’s only getting quicker and pretty soon we’ll be stuck in this ice box. I shut it off before it can make my migraine any worse and thankfully, Glory Girl starts to pick up her pace, flying just quick enough that we’re not quite jogging yet.
Despite living here for who knows how long, Ymir has only knocked down so many walls and with this place basically designed like a tunnel with all of it’s display areas, Victoria Dallon leads the way through the mock bedrooms and kitchens.
The yawning turns and cramped walkways eventually (read: almost immediately) become too much of a pain to go through silently and Victoria cups her hands together as he shouts.
“Amy!” She bellows, flying a bit closer to the ceiling, “Amy, we have to go!”
I shake my head, it’s one thing for me to put together she brought her pacifist of a sister along, but why the hell would she broadcast that to a whole building of mostly villains?! I almost tell her to pipe down lest Rune or god forbid Alabaster hear there’s a high profile hostage they can use as a bargaining chip but I bite my tongue as quickly as the thought comes.
Again, knowing the Brute beside me, she’d take the suggestion as an insult to her intelligence and I’d spend the next however long unconscious. I try to block out her calls and the environment gives me the perfect thing to fixate on. It’s getting colder.
It’s not bad yet, not even bad enough that I feel shivery but the building’s definitely dropped five or so degrees in the past five minutes. Maybe that’s why she’s doing it? She’s realized she’s on a pretty big time crunch and she has to throw out subtlety if she wants to make it out of here in time?
The thought makes me pause a bit, it might be hypocritical of me given my own hair color but like a lot of PHO, I assumed Victoria Dallon didn’t have a lot going on up there. That she earned the name ‘collateral damage barbie’ because she genuinely didn’t have the forethought to control her strength.
And while that might still be the case, the lack of impulse control isn’t necessarily the same thing as being a ditz. The temperature keeps dropping and I’m lifting up my hands to shout for my own teammates when someone moves at the far end of the kitchen displays.
Grue flinches at the sight of Glory Girl and darkness leaks out of his palms for just moment before his helmet turns to me. The inky clouds on the floor puff out into nothing without their master’s support and Brian scatters them as he heads for the both of us, his helmet turning the slightest bit every second to stare at Glory Girl.
I can’t blame his hesitancy, especially given that Victoria’s still sporting the bruise Brian gave her about an hour ago on her left cheek. The flying girl keeps her feet well off the ground, with her arms crossed and blue eyes glaring.
Neither of them speak, even when Grue has no more space to advance. His helmet turns to me and I withhold a sigh, I almost miss the days when they’d tell me to be quiet, now I’m the unofficial voice for The Undersiders.
“It’s okay,” I ease Grue, putting a hand on his shoulder and gesturing to Victoria with a tilt of my head, “We’ve got a bit of a truce going on, at least until we get out of here. Do you know where the others are?”
Brian doesn’t answer me right away, his focus lagging to be pulled away from the biggest threat in the room. But his professionalism and experience gets him to speak up after a moment or two.
“Bitch and I separated a bit ago, we were fighting Rune but she got away, I said I’d look this way and she went the other.” His answer is short and concise but it also illuminates a pretty big problem. If he went down one end of the tunnel and didn’t find anyone but us, then that means the others, all of the others have to be closer to the end.
Victoria Dallon reinforces my idea that she isn’t a bimbo and rockets down the way Grue came from. The small accessories on the shelves around her shake as she passes them by, the wind she’s kicked up ghosts over the skin of my neck and this time I can’t help the shiver that racks my body.
Brian and I start to jog after her but we’re no match for her speed, by the time we’ve turned one corner, she’s probably made the next half dozen. After a minute or so of running, the adrenaline in my system finally flushes itself out and I take long gasping breaths as Brian slows down beside me.
He doesn’t say a word as I try steady myself, the air’s cold enough now that I can just barely feel a sting of rawness when it slides down my throat. Once my breathes come a bit easier, he helps me to stand, one hand on my forearm and pulling me up.
I can’t help but lean into his side as we start following after the New Wave brick at a far more sedated pace. We’re barely ten steps ahead when the shaking finally stops, the building coming to a standstill as I groan.
Ymir has finished layering his power, Ice has fully enveloped the building
I think of a middle finger and hope that my power can parse it as Grue asks me what’s wrong.
“Well,” I sigh, “What’s wrong is that we’re boxed in for a bit.”
Grue sighs with me, the sound echoing in his helmet.
“For how long?” He asks, walking with me.
“At least until the Protectorate realizes their ‘get out of the hospital’ free card is in here.”
“Wait, Panacea’s here?” Brian asks, just as incredulous as I was when I learned it.
"Yep, ten outta ten odds she was picking her up from the hospital when she spotted us heading in."
"So she brought her inside?" Brian continues, confusion layering itself over. "Why the hell would she do that?"
I shake my head in lieu of answer, you'd think, given Leviathan and the Nine and all the shit that's brought that Glory Girl would be a bit less gun ho about getting into to fights but if anything, the opposite is more likely.
Brian doesn't pursue the line of questioning any further and we walk in silence until we reach the end of the displays, an enormous warehouse greeting us… along with some distant yelling.
"Fucking lay off!" Rachel shouts as we start to run, "Flight's over stupid!"
Brian and I are surprised by who we find, I expected Rachel to be in a screaming match with Victoria but instead of yelling at the Brute, our teammate's got Rune in a headlock.
Guess she didn't get away after all.
"Fucking—" the littlest Nazi growls, "l-l-let go of me you l-lesbo c-c-cunt! I'm not trying to f-fight you!"
"You were trying to touch the shelf, I know how your fucking powers work!" Rachel pulls the nazi and her around, both of them pausing as they turn to face us. “Got her,” Bitch says, heaving Rune off to one side and throwing her away from the shelf. “She was trying to fight.”
“F-f-f-for f-f-fuck sakes, I was—” Rune flips herself around to stare at us, a scowl on her face as she scrambles back on her elbows and knees. She’s breathing heavy and whatever protest she had at the ready falls to the wayside as she gulps.
Realized she’s outnumbered, realized she’s outmatched, eyes fixed on Grue, is wary of Grue, is terrified of Grue
I almost roll my eyes at the whispers, sure Sabrina the teenage Nazi has drank the kool aid and earnestly believes the Empire’s rhetoric when my power keeps going.
Isn’t terrified because of skin tone, isn’t terrified because of ethnicity, has heard rumors, rumors he killed Burnscar, that he killed Shatterbird, that he tore Bonesaw’s head off
I tilt my head back as I digest what my power’s just fed me. She isn’t afraid because of who Brian is, but what he’s done to protect us— to protect the city. Kinda funny actually, it’s literally the exact opposite reason most racists are scared of people.
“Grue,” I reach over and grab at his forearm, pressing into the leather with my thumb and forefinger in our symbol for: ‘follow my lead’. “Do you think Rune’s going to be a problem while we’re stuck here? Do you think you’ll have to deal with her?”
“No,” Brian hisses out, power staining his voice and making him sound like a freshly risen corpse, “Not unless she makes me.”
Grue plays up his persona without question, immediately understanding exactly what I wanted him to do. The drama works and Rune shakes her head fast enough that her hood falls back, medium-length platinum blonde hair spilling out as she stutters a confirmation.
“N-n-n-n-no I-I w-won’t be a-any trouble, o-okay, I-I swear.” Her reply catches my interest, not because she agreed so forthrightly, that was always expected but rather because of her stutter. I’ll admit, it’s gotten cold enough that my arms are running up and down my shoulders but I don’t think anyone should be stuttering this much in such a minor chill.
It could just be because she’s terrified but that doesn’t make sense either, she was stuttering only a little less when it was just her and Rachel. It could just be that she… just has a stutter, as anticlimactic as that is.
“Good,” Brian eases her much like Rachel would one of her hounds, “Bitch, watch her, if she tries to tag anything, yell for me.”
Rachel nods silently, not taking her eyes of Rune when I notice something. SHe only has one of her dogs with her.
“Bitch?” I ask, getting her attention, “Where’s Brutas and Bentley?”
Rachel grunts and juts her chin forward, gesturing to the checkout lines in front of us and the frozen over bathroom against one wall. And more importantly, to our last two teammates. Alec and Taylor are holding themselves tightly and shivering violently enough that I can see it from here.
I start to walk towards them when Rachel speaks up, halting me as I turn to her.
“Glory bitch just flew by, didn’t stop or nothing.”
“We know,” Brian answers for me, “We’ve got… a truce going, for now.”
Rachel nods but I can hear a snarl under the latex of her mask, she does not like this idea one bit. I withhold heading to our other members and step closer to her, one hand on her shoulder as I speak.
“I don’t like it either, but Ymir’s froze this place completely, we’re not getting out for at least for a day or so and I’d rather not have to kill her.”
Of course, I don’t think killing a competent Alexandria package is something we can just do, but the casualness by which I bring it up soothes Rachel’s nerves and her shoulders relax. Merely presenting the option, the idea that it’s doable and on the table makes her calm and she nods before reaching down and grabbing Rune by her elbow.
The former Empire’s main Mover is a lot less confrontational than she was earlier, now she’s letting us lead her to the others with both of her hands by her side, showing us her obedience in not causing any trouble.
It’s a nice change of pace and makes the short walk to the bathroom almost calming as we near our missing teammates. That calm quickly turns into dread when I realize the both of them are soaked to the bone.
Taylor turns her head to me, her shivering is a lot more violent than Alec’s but both of them are drenched, their clothes held down by maybe a gallon of water each.
“What the hell happened?” I ask, rushing over to both of them and falling on my knees in front of Taylor.
“W–w-w-w-we…” Taylor trails off in a frustrated growl before raising a shaking finger behind her, right to an enormous spike of ice coming from the wall. The bathrooms, Taylor was probably hiding out in there when we started our siege, hoping to be out of the way enough to use her bugs but close enough to provide manual assistance if needed. I look away from it and to Brian, with a nod, the SHaker tells me that he’ll watch over them while I investigate.
My knee’s pop as I stand, the cold already seeping into my bones as I head for the wall of ice. I stop cold when I see the figure frozen inside.
Alabaster’s eyes follow me, even in the ice. His form resetting every 4.4 seconds but still just as equally trapped as he was earlier.
Found Skitter, found Skitter and Regent, tried to dispatch Skitter and Regent, the pipes burst, pipes burst in response to Ymir’s power, drenched everyone present first before the Ice over took the water, Skitter and Regent were not the only ones drenched
At the last whisper I turn my eyes down, spotting what my power was trying to tell me. A trail of water leads a clear bath behind one of the self checkouts and there I find Glory Girl holding Panacea up in a bridal carry, the blonde Dallon thankful that her sister isn’t dead because of her stupidity.
But the flying girl’s exuberance can only do so much for what ails Amy, her big, frumpy white robes are gray with water. I look away from them to my own teammates, Rachel is still holding Rune by her elbow and Grue is kneeling in front of Taylor and Regent. I groan, we’re trapped and if I don’t take control of things now, either Taylor or Victoria will.
Neither of them are good options for what has to be done here and with a loud clap, I gain everyone’s attention.
“Okay!” I shout, stepping away from the bathrooms and beckoning both Victoria and her sister to get closer to me. “We’re locked in, I don’t know for how long but smart money says it’ll be at least a day or two.”
I look over at New Wave when I tell them this, watching as their boiling distrust actively gets worse before my very eyes. I withhold a sigh, I’ll need to nip that as soon as possible, Taylor will meet their distrust with bees and the last thing we need here is more bees.
“I’m sure you’ve all noticed that it’s getting colder in here by the minute, the power isn’t going to be on forever and Ymir’s ice has some kind of enhanced freezing effect. So there’s some things we’re going to need if we want to be alive when rescue shows up. “
I raise up one finger and meet everyone’s eyes before I continue, sure they’re all focused on me instead of each other.
“One, food. Thankfully, this won’t be too much of a problem—” I point to the restaurant behind the self checkouts. “The employees might have cleared out of here a month ago but I’m sure they left something given that Ymir doesn’t have any takeout lying around.”
Everyone is silent at my words, finding no problem in what I said.
“Two, we’re gonna need a fire so—”
“A fire?!” Panacea cuts me off, her voice trembling. “You want to start a fire when we have no ventilation?!”
I turn my eyes to her and try to level the most withering look possible as I pause, letting her shiver for a few moments before I reply, pointing up at the high warehouse ceiling.
“There’s a lot of space in here, it might smell a bit smoky but I doubt it’ll get worse than a barbecue. We’ve got plenty of wood to get us started.”
Amy tries to speak but then her body is racked with a violent shiver, both of her arms trying to rub at her shoulders through her robe. I cringe, the wet clothes… fuck, I’m gonna have to address that.
“T-third—” I stutter, clearing my throat. “We need a shelter, something to keep the cold out but the heat in. Again, we’ve got plenty of material to work with.”
“I d-doubt there’s a ‘build your own house’ set here Tats,” Alec mocks, “Besides, s-shouldn’t PRT or New Wave be here in an hour at most? I mean, we’ve literally got Panacea here, people have rescued people less than her far quicker.”
“That would make sense,” I deadpan, “If someone had told the PRT or her parents where she was going.”
I look over at Victoria when I say this and the confident brute wilts a bit, sheepish as she rubs at the back of her neck. I turn away from her and back to my drenched teammate as I shake my head.
“The city’s a mess, they won’t notice Panacea’s gone until the wounded start piling high. And with all of us trapped in here, I doubt Ymir is going to tell everyone where we are.” Rune and Amy pale at my words and I try to ease them before panic can set in. “Rescue will come and even if it doesn’t, we’ll be okay so long as we play this smart.”
Their worries ease a little but I know Amy especially won’t like what I have to say next.
“That said, hypothermia is a faster killer than people realize so if… you three—” I gesture at Alec, Taylor, and Amy— “want to survive…”
I trail off but there’s barely a beat before Alec starts to cackle, the sound loud and boisterous as he falls backward, his drenched shirt making a loud plap as it hits the floor. He rolls on to his front, still giggling as the girl besides him fidgets, one part because of the cold and one part because of what I’m asking her to do.
She’s running out of bugs to shove her emotions into, the cold killing them all and leaving her with the embarrassment she has to feel for herself.
“There’s no other clothes in here!” Amy squawks for the three of them, her face red as can be as she looks at me, her brown eyes disbelieving. “You… you can’t just expect us to—”
“Strip,” I cut her off, “or you die, those are the options.”
“No!” Amy whines, looking at her sister and finding no support. “There has to be a better way, there… there just has to be!”
Fuck, this is so fucking cliche. I rub at my temples, trying to come up with another solution when Alec stands, his right hand drifting down to his tucked in shirt before he lifts it out.
“Jeez Tats, y’know if you wanted to see me naked, there’s easier ways.” Even with his face hidden, I know for a fact he is smirking like the devil himself when I look up at the ceiling, exasperated and… blushing at the implication.
“Hold on,” I order, one hand held out to him and the index finger raised. “First things first, fire. Once we’re sure we’re safe, then we can deal with the hypothermia. So—”
“You just said—” Amy cuts me off, the beginnings of a grin on her face. She just smelled blood in the water and she’s quick to pay me back. “‘Hypothermia’s a faster killer than people realize,’ but now you want to hold off?”
I meet her eyes with an intensity that makes her flinch, she doesn’t know the hell I can unleash when someone tries to use my own words against me.
“Alright,” I concede, “If you want to get naked with your sister then go right ahead. Make sure she strips too, skin contact’s really the best thing for it.”
Both of them blush at my words but other than a quick glance to each other… Neither of them have the disgust my jab should’ve caused. I tilt my head at the two of them, about to let my power off the leash when Rachel speaks up.
“Okay,” she says, walking towards a bed by the self checkout, the display meant to entice people into turning around and buying just a few more things. The brutish girl yanks the comforter off of it, uncaring of the pillows she makes fly as she turns back to us. “Skitter and Regent will get their clothes off, then I’ll get under too.”
“WHAT—” Taylor stands up suddenly, her posture rigid and her head darting between Rachel and Alec. She stutters past a garble of meaningless consonants and vowels, whatever bugs she has left not nearly enough to douse her mortification. She tries to regain her composure but what little she gathers is swept away when Alec pulls his shirt over his head.
Even clammy from the water, I can't blame Taylor for quieting. For someone so apathetic, Alec takes remarkably good care of himself, his lanky physique accentuated by a little musculature.
Taylor eventually wrenches my attention back when she clears her throat, shifting on one foot and the lenses of her mask tilted down. Even with her face completely hidden, I can tell by how she stands and how her shoulders are hiked that her eyes are shit tight, unwilling to open.
"Why would Rachel join us?" She asks, voice one part frustrated to two parts flustered.
"Skin contact," Rachel answers, "S'what Lisa said, that means I got to get naked too if I'm s’pose to hold you."
I'm about to tell her that won't be necessary that I was only messing with Amy when I said that, when again, the Striker speaks up.
"Yep," she says, somehow still managing to pop the p even when she's shivering to death. "It's the best way to share body heat, no… layers in between."
She peters off, knowing she's just damned herself when Brian claps his hands.
"Okay," he says, "Tattletale, Rune and I are going to get some wood, you all, focus on getting warm."
And with that, he awkwardly turns, grabs for Rune's elbow and walks off. I quickly follow his command, both because it's starting to get so cold I can see my breath and because I really don't want to be here when the stripping starts.
Granted, we don't really go all that far, Brian just whistles for Bentley and the big mutant bulldog tears open enough boxes and splinters enough wood in the process that we've got enough for a good sized bonfire.
Brian orders Bentley to scoop as much wood into his maw as possible and with his payload secured, Bentley bounds back the way we came.
Brian isn't done though, Rune shudders and I don't need my powers to tell me why when Brian heads for the largest box, a whole dining room set, table, chairs, and all hidden behind the cardboard.
Operating off stolen instinct and with the hand around Rune bathed in darkness, Brian writes odd sigils and glyphs into the box before it suddenly lifts up.
The box floats up in the air, maybe half of Brian's height and twice as heavy but stable an inch off the ground.
"What are we doing with it?" Rune asks as Brian turns around, back to the others.
"It's gonna be a wall for whatever the fuck we're building." He answers and my eyes follow him.
Victoria has already made one wall, two sofas stacked on top of each other like interlocking bricks. She pushes against one side of it and after the structure refuses to fall apart, she floats up, dusts off her hands and soars off to get something else.
The three of us head back to the group and Brian uses Rune’s power to set the large box at an angle besides Victoria’s wall. He pivots it on a corner a few times, trying to decide how to position it before eventually letting it drop at an obtuse angle.
Angle is set at 108 degrees, angle was subconsciously chosen, the resultant structure will likely be pentagonal
And, as a rarity for my power, it’s hit the exact middle ground between useful and useless. I don’t think I need the structure’s exact dimensions but I guess it might be useful in some way.
“Go get us more,” I tell Grue, brushing him off as I step towards the loose pile of tinder Bentley placed between my other three teammates and Amy. The Trump walks off with Rune obediently dragged behind him as I kneel in front of the lumber, thankful for my thick gloves as I grab the two longest bits.
“S-s-shouldn’t start,” Taylor stutters and I look up from my task to stare at her. She’s done as she was instructed, her costume off save for her mask and her body hidden entirely under the thick comforter wrapped around her shoulders. Even fully hidden, her left arm wrenches the blanket around her tighter, almost making a gap in the middle and nearly revealing the girl on her left.
Rachel has done as she promised as well, everything including her dog mask is on the pile of wet clothes to their right. She looks mostly unbothered by her arrangement, the comforter straining around her back as both of our teammates try to pull it around themselves.
Alec only has his mask to the name on the right of their half circle, somehow still looking mostly bored even as his shivering gets worse. I’m about to tell them to stop being squeamish and actually cuddle under the damn blanket when Taylor continues, another shiver making her words falter.
“F-f-fire will be uncontrolled, n-need something inflammable around it first, s-something like rocks.”
“O-oh,” Amy says, somehow managing to convey sarcasm in just one word. “R-rocks, th-that’s brilliant.”
I turn my head to look at her, my own barb ready to be shot when I actually look at her. She’s still wearing her robes, the white of them still gray with water that’s on the cusp of frosting. I let the wood fall from my hands as I stand and take the two steps to loom over her.
The Striker looks up at me, glaring harshly as I start to speak.
“In about ten minutes, the temperature’s gonna drop to below freezing, that water is gonna make it feel a lot colder but I think by then you’ll stop shaking. Hypothermia should kick in pretty soon.”
“I—” Amy shivers so violently her robes flutter like an angered hen, “—k-k-know that.”
“Oh, really,” I reply, cocking my hip to the side. “If you ‘k-k-know that,’ why are you still in those wet clothes?”
I meant that to be more mocking but the shivers at the end probably didn’t convey that point, what they did convey though is that I’m right, it’s getting colder by the second and I’ll be damned if I’m labelled as a cape that let fucking Panacea die.
Of course, just as I ask this question, Victoria comes back, another sofa over her head and her blue eyes darting between me and her sister. The Brute clearly heard every word but all she does is set the sofa down on the other side of Brian’s dining set, giving us part of the third wall before flying off.
Without Victoria giving voice to any option, I place my hand on my other hip as I stare down at Amy, my glare sharpening enough that she looks away.
“Okay…” I sigh, “There’s two ways this is going to go, either you can grab that blanket—” I point to another display bed, a gaudy pink comforter on top of it. “—and get your clothes off yourself or I can take them off for you.”
My ultimatum makes her flush and this time I know it’s purely out of embarrassment as she shakily stands up, water dripping off her as she walks around the walls of our structure. She grabs at the blanket at the same time Brian comes back, an identical dining room set making our fourth wall.
He takes a second to just stand there, overlooking our ramshackle shelter when he speaks.
“Tattletale,” he says, addressing me. “Do you know where there might be some metal rods? Something I can drive into the ground?”
Rune proves herself not to be completely spineless as her head jerks up, her eyes fixed on Grue when she speaks.
“Why?” She immediately clamps her jaw shut as soon as the words come but Grue doesn’t even look at her as he points his hand to the pile of wood.
“I figure I can get a support up, something to hang a few sheets off of and make a roof, probably something like a teepee.” He looks up from the lumber and back to me, “Do you think we can do it?”
Amy passes me by as I put a hand up to my chin, the logistics of Brian’s idea flashing in my mind as the healer behind me sits back on the same spot, the comforter around her as she gets her clothes off.
There’s a lot of metal in a place like this and with Rune’s power if we needed to, we could just rip it out of the warehouse shelves.
“I think it could work, and there should be something like what you’re looking for over there—” I point behind them to a shelf on the far end of the warehouse, near some faux waterfalls and shrubbery. “—gardening should have plenty.”
Grue nods and starts to head that way, both him and his charge starting to shiver as the cold gets even worse. They might have thick costumes but we’re rapidly approaching a harsh indoor winter.
I rub at my arms, trying to get myself warm as I try to shift my focus, I can’t think about the cold, that’s only gonna make it worse. I shuffle from foot to foot and that’s when Taylor catches my attention, one of her feet briefly leaving the blanket before she pulls herself back in. She wrenches on the blanket again and I sigh.
The three of them might be under the blanket together but for all that Amy spoke about skin on skin contact, my teammates are actually doing their best at the opposite.
“O-okay,” I fall to my knees in front of the wood, my shaking hands grabbing at it once more as I look into the lenses of Taylor’s mask. “It’s already cold as hell and though it might be less b-bad now, you three n-need to just get it over with.”
“I-I’ll have you know…” Alec starts, “I’m trying to keep theses ladies innocence, now I don’t know what you’re implying but—”
He stops talking as the blanket shifts, the girl in the middle actually taking initiative and wrapping her arms around her teammates’ waists. Taylor yelps and though it’s probably more because of the sudden jostling than anything else, Alec squeaks as the both of them are practically put in Rachel’s lap, all three of them now more snug than ever.
On the one hand, I know the situation must be a hundred times more awkward for them than it is for me but on the other hand, it’s so fucking cold that when I hear Amy’s robes plop on the ground behind me, I’m tempted to get under the covers with her.
Thankfully, just as my mind starts making some pretty convincing arguments, Victoria, Brian, and Rune return. Victoria come back with an armful of bagged chips and cans she must’ve scavenged from the kitchen, Brian’s got another big ass box to serve as the last wall and both he and Rune are physically carrying maybe two dozen metal rods.
“Okay,” Brian says as he drops the last wall into place. “First things first—” he let’s go of Rune but there’s enough darkness spilling out from his body that her feet are still within his smog. With both of his hands free, Brian lets the rods he’s carrying go but none of them drop to the floor.
Instead, they float in mid air, a few of them clanking loudly as they move towards the fire, maybe eight of them bending into crescents to form a ring around the wood. With the circle established, two of the two foot long things float just above the fire before they start twisting in on themselves.
They bend into pretzels and knots and then they straighten out and repeat the process in the other direction. It only takes maybe twenty seconds of their groaning before they start to glow a dull red, hot enough that when he lowers them into the wood, the tinder immediately starts to smoke.
Alec claps underneath the blanket as the fire starts to crackle and it looks like the timing is perfect because as soon as the smoke starts to rise, the lights give a final flicker before dying, plunging the whole building into a pitch black dark.
“Alright…” I say, putting both my hands up to the fire just as Brian takes the leftover rods from Rune. “Nothing left to do now but wait…” I barely hold back a yawn as the newfound safety drains out all of my adrenaline, a sigh escaping my lips as I look up and over the wall behind Amy. “Glory Ho—” I stop myself as Victoria glares at me. I clear my throat and try again, “Victoria, would you please get us two or three of those mattresses out there? We should have enough room.”
The Brute nods as she floats over the wall, leaving us all in silence save for Brian slamming a quartet of rods into the ground around the fire. They dig into the concrete and after a few minutes of hammering into the floor, the ends of them can only wiggle as the fronts are lodged in securely.
Satisfied they won’t come loose, Brian takes the last eight rods to tie around those until he makes a spire about six feet tall, with a circle at the top connecting all four pillows together. Victoria comes back with one mattress that she plops down by her sister first and right as she tries to get over the wall again, Brian asks for some more sheets and blankets, something he can use to connect the walls to the spire in the middle.
She does as she’s told and with pretty much all the work done by those two, our she;ter’s finally complete, with five walls, a low but insulating roof, and a fire that rapidly drives the cold out. And with it all done… a tension starts to fill the air.
The truce we have was built out of necessity but now that we’re safe, we each slowly move, a clear divide becoming apparent as I make my way over to my four teammates, Rune splits as far away from us as Brian allows her, and Amy and Victoria finally get closer on their own mattress on the other side of us.
Even with the fire and having stripped off her wet clothes a while ago, Amy still shakes violently under her blanket and I can’t help but tilt my head. I understand it would be weird and awkward in the moment but I don't get why her sister hasn’t bit the bullet yet. Don’t get me wrong, I know no one sane would be psyched to cuddle up naked with their sibling but I feel like this should be a no brainer.
Don’t consider each other sisters
I jolt up a little at what my power’s told me and my eyes squint as I push it further, uncaring of the headache I’m agitating.
Don’t consider each other sisters, never have, meeting was forced, didn’t acclimate as sisters, called each other that in public, never in private, felt forced, closer as friends, closer than friends, different kind of lo—
The spike of information gets to become too much but I can infer what else it was going to say. The new data certainly changes things, I’d thought I had it nailed at the bank but clearly I was way far off.
I mean, Amy still has her crush but I suppose if they don’t really see each other like that and they aren’t blood related then… nope, it’s still weird to me. I mean, I’m not going to say anything but that’s more because I’d rather not tick off the human wrecking ball.
That said, it still doesn’t line up as neatly as it should, if anything the lack of familial ties should make this whole thing easier for the two of them. I can see Amy being reluctant but it’s not her that’s being apathetic to the whole thing, it’s Victoria.
My eyes turn to the other Dallon and she meets my gaze like a wolf glaring down another. She knows what I’m trying to do and she isn’t happy about it.
I tell myself it’s her aura making me back down, that it isn’t the promise in her eyes that if I try the same shit I did at the bank, she’ll have to do something very unkind. Awkwardly, I wave and look away from her, just barely catching her expression morph into something a bit more lighthearted.
I’m sure she’s about to start talking when I just barely hear something under the crackling fire, the sound of chattering teeth. I follow the sound with my eyes and nearly sigh when I look at Taylor.
Her mask is still on, with half of junior New Wave and the only Hitler youth the bay has to offer in the tent, it makes sense she’d try to keep her identity hidden even if she isn’t wearing anything else.
That said, her mask is just as soaked as the rest of her costume and though the fire is making this little tent halfway cozy, the water seeping into the silk had already frozen over. If she doesn’t want frostbite, there’s really only one choice.
“Okay,” I clap my hands together and feel the tense atmosphere get pushed back slightly, all eyes turning to me. “So, this is going to suck and I’m sorry in advance but Skitter’s about to get frostbite on her nose if I don’t do something so—”
Before anyone can speak up or argue with me, I reach up and grab at the corners of my domino mask, the contours of it clicking away as I peel it off my face. I let the almost useless shield fall into my lap and take in the expressions around me, even given that half of them are completely obscured.
Amy and Victoria’s eyes are blown wide, even given that their identities are public knowledge, they’re well aware of the taboo I’ve just committed. Amy’s eyes dart between my face and the little purple mask on my thigh, her head shaking the tiniest bit, like she can’t believe I’d give something like this away.
She’s right of course, if I had another option I’d do it but—
“I…” Amy starts, her voice disbelieving, “I could’ve just made that not happen.”
Her words freeze me better than the cold outside and her eyes rise up back to meet mine, the brow furrowed and lips flapping open like she can’t believe someone could be so stupid. I just blink back at her, the thought of her using her powers didn’t come to mind once and just as I start to speak up, Alec starts to cackle, loud and stuttery and gasping.
“Oh my—” he sucks in another breath as heat blooms up my face, “Oh my fucking god!”
He keeps on laughing even as I put my head in my hands, the mortification crawling up my spine as I groan. I’m so fucking stupid, I’m so fucking tired, Jesus Christ why didn’t I—
A giggle
I look up and catch Victoria Dallon doing her best to keep her snickers contained, her lips bulging out like the doors of a castle under siege. Her piecemeal attempt to keep her snickers under control falls apart and she starts laughing hysterically, actually floating up in the air and clutching at her stomach.
The laughter kicks off a domino effect and I have to sit there, my own lips slowly quirking up as I put my hand on my mouth.
“In my defense,” I start just as the laughter starts to die down. “I’m really fucking tired.”
The giggles slowly peter out and with the ice broken, Rune leans back, her hands rising up to shove the heels of her palms into her eyes.
“For fucks sake,” she whines. “You just had to fucking do that, didn’t you?”
And just like what the Protectorate proposed when Taylor saw Shadow Stalker unmasked, Rune repays the favor by letting her hood fall back and grabbing at the half mask that covers everything from the nose up.
The molded plastic clatters to the floor as she reveals a soft but subtly angular face, with a hard but narrow chin, shallow cheeks, a slightly upturned nose, and bright blue eyes, all framed by shoulder length platinum blonde hair.
“Don’t expect me to tell any of you my name,” she says, some of her earlier spite jumping back into her words.
“Not like I couldn’t look it up,” Amy replies, calling back to the fact that all Empire capes prior to Leviathan are out on PHO.
The newly unmasked girl bristles at the reminder and I can almost remember what her actual name is, something beginning with a C I think but—
Grue scoots closer to me before I can turn my power on her, his arm wrapping around my shoulders and gently moving me back and forth as his other hand moves up to his helmet.
The atmosphere gets tense again but no one speaks up to stop him as he slowly unclasps the few buckles connecting his helmet to his jacket. The heavy clicks are the only sound in the tent before all four straps fall back to his jacket, leaving his helmet unbound as he grabs for the chin of it.
He awkwardly gets it off with the one hand and sets it on his free side, unveiling his face to the others present.
His dreads spill onto his shoulders and back in long thick ropes and Brian squints a bit as his eyes adjust to the lack of lenses. Once they’re adjusted, he stares at the three capes opposite of us until they meet his eyes. With a small nod from New Wave, he turns his gaze to Rune, giving her a long and cold look until she turns her head away.
And with his mask off, the last two fall as well.
Regent’s ceramic smirk falls between the mattress and the wall, the edge of it lightly plinking against the linoleum as Skitter’s mask deftly falls onto the pile of clothes. The two noirettes meet everyone’s eyes just as Brian did and I don’t imagine the fact that they scoot just a bit closer to each other.
The atmosphere refuses to get anywhere close to friendly but before it can reassert its earlier oppression, Victoria speaks up, the social butterfly of New Wave refusing to be cooped up in the silence any further.
“So, this is probably a bad time and probably way too personal given… well, everything but I’ve been wanting to know for months and I don’t really see a better time to ask.”
“Vick—” Amy tries to cut off her sis— her not really a sister but Victoria just keeps on going.
“Who’s dating who in there?” She gestures to the five of us with one pointed finger, the digit darting between all of us as I lean back, Brian’s arm holding me steady.
None of us can reply to her, all of us stunned by the verbal flashbang she’s thrown into the tent. But somehow, the Brute just keeps talking.
“Like I said, now might be a bit too chummy but I have to know, the Wards actually have their own pool going on and—”
“Isn’t it obvious?” The question stops the Brutish Barbie and we all turn our eyes to Rune, her expression just a little disbelieving. “I didn’t think anyone hadn’t figured it out already.”
My eyes narrow at the Nazi and I can just barely pick up Rachel growling behind me, probably about to warn her not to say anything typical with her regime when Rune continues.
“They’re all dating each other, it’s pretty fucking obvious, like, water wet obvious.”
And for the second time in as many minutes, the rest of the Undersiders and I are struck speechless. It was one thing to suggest any of us might’ve been dating another but to suggest so ludicrous so casually, to say that such an impossible thing is obvious… it takes the brain a minute to untangle that thought.
Victoria sputters for an instant, indignation on her face and for a moment, I’m thankful somebody’s about to point out the absurdity while my mind reboots, but then she actually speaks.
“There’s no fucking way Clockblocker of all people got it right, I refuse to believe it!”
Rune rolls her eyes and turns her head away.
“This is why there are dumb blonde stereotypes, because of girls like you that can’t put the simplest puzzle pieces together.”
Again, Rune just keeps blasting my mind with these nonsensical ideas, the idea that all of us together is a simple puzzle? What the fuck is she going on about?! My mouth opens but then I spy Panacea lifting up her shoulders, tilting her head to the side, and thinning her lips, like she can’t help but agree.
“Oh fuck you,” Victoria says, a surprising lack of heat in her curse. “It’s not obvious okay, they’re—”
“It totally is!” Rune cuts her off, lifting up her hand to start counting off her fingers. “They’re always together, literally always, you will not find a picture on PHO of any one of them by themselves. They’re joined at the hip and you saw the shit they did to the fucking Nine when they went after Regent, I’ve never seen a team more protective.”
Is that what she’s basing it off of? That her team is just so bad at actually wanting to keep each other alive that what we do seems alien?
“And for that shit,” Rune continues, somehow reading my mind, “that makes sense but it’s the little things y’know? Bitch punched out a Merchant when he tried his shit on Skitter and—” she points up to us, actually using what we’re doing to make a point. “Like, fucking look at them!”
My mind is so fried that I actually follow her order, looking down at myself when she tells me just what I should be looking at.
“Grue just put his jacket on her, the three of them—” she points passed us to our other teammates, “practically couldn’t wait to get naked with each other and—”
“Okay, hold on,” Victoria butts in, continuing the trend of talking around us. “Sharing clothes does not make people a couple, it might be a couple thing, but doing it won’t—”
“There’s literally hundreds of pictures of them wearing each others clothes, at first people just thought Regent was the cold friend but now there’s just as many examples of Tattletale or Skitter wearing Bitch’s jacket as any of the others, I’m telling you—”
“Okay hold on,” Victoria interrupts again, “What about Imp? That’s pretty fucking massive hole in your theory.”
Thankfully, the thought of Aisha being anywhere as close as we— as people imagine we are, doesn’t just make my skin crawl. Brian shivers in disgust with his arm around my shoulders and I’m surprised that I didn’t notice when he draped his jacket over me.
Amy and Cassie both shake their heads at Victoria’s counterpoint and surprisingly, it’s her sister that explains why Victoria is off base.
“Imp’s definitely got her own thing going on, there’s a lot of shippers out there for her and Kid Win and even a few for Rune—” the girl in question sputters and I can’t help but agree, Imp is factually a black girl and Rune is the whitest Naz— “And she wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near these five.”
“I resent that,” Alec speaks up. “I mean, sure, we can be a bit much at times but what’s a matter with us?”
“You’re saying you want her in whatever weird poly thing you’ve got going on?” Amy fires back and I make sure to turn around and watch Alec’s expression. The blue eyed boy is normally the most reserved of us, well, actually ‘reserved’ isn’t the strongest word for it.
Most of the time, his face is slack, only really smiling when he’s laughing and… well that’s kind of it as far as expressions go. Occasionally he’ll roll his eyes or maybe even glare but usually it’s almost lifeless. Except for right now.
He gags loudly and shakes his head as quickly as he can, his nose wrinkling up at the thought.
“Okay, first off—” he clears his throat and gestures to everyone on our mattress, “None of us are like that alright and two, even if we were, we sure as fuck wouldn’t let Grue’s sister in on it.”
“Regent!” Brian hisses out at our French teammate through clenched teeth, “Why don’t you just give out our address for crying out loud.”
“Sorry man,” Alec replies, sounding like he just actually threw up in his mouth. “I know we’re supposed to be all sneaky with the identity shit but c’mon, that’s just nasty. I had to say whatever the fuck would clear it up.”
“Yikes,” Victoria says and then pauses as she tilts her head. “Wait a minute, so Imp isn’t apart of it but—”
“There is no ‘it’ to be a part of!” Taylor shouts, her voice shrill with indignation. “We’re not dating, okay, like, none of us we haven’t even thought about—”
“I dunno,” Amy cuts her off, a bit of a teasing lilt to her voice. “You three were awful quick to get naked with each other.”
Taylor bristles like a porcupine, her spine stiffening and her hair almost flaring up as she lashes an arm out of her cover, the finger pointed right at the healer.
“You’re in the same boat!” Taylor points out, “Just as naked as us!”
I barely resist the urge to snicker at my flustered teammate’s words but Alec isn’t as strong willed, giggling behind his cover as Amy’s face turns as red as the cross on her cloak.
“But I’m not cuddling with anyone, am I?”
Taylor wilts a bit but I rally and with a particularly unmerciful thought, I turn my head to look at Victoria.
“You should probably get on that,” I tell the Brute and smile as she freezes up, “Hypothermia does this horrible thing where people suffering from it think they’re safe… but there’s been plenty of people that were too cold to realize the fire wasn’t enough. A lot of people die just in front of a campfire.”
Victoria gets paler and when my eyes dart over to look at her… teammate, Amy’s face is wearing a matching complexion.
“We—”
“Plus—” I interrupt her middling protest, “You’ve got a fair bit of water on your clothes from hugging her. Wouldn’t it be best to just… not leave it to chance?”
Wants to hold her
It is only because of years worth of practice that I don’t grin wider at the information.
Wants to be held by her, loves her, loves her romantically, is conflicted by that love, knows how people see them, feels she should see Amy as a sister, never has, never will
Victoria gulps but with one look at the healer, they share a small nod and she floats over to Amy’s blanket. She’s got part of the comforter over her form when Rune groans, exasperation overflowing out of her voice.
“So, I know I have no real power here but please, if everyone’s getting naked, can you try to keep me out of it? Or at the very least, try to keep it quiet?”
Her innuendo is obvious but before anyone can deny anything, she flops over onto her mattress, with her own blanket wrapped around her as she faces the wall.
With Rune’s declaration, the day finally hits me, my eyes drooping a bit as the arm around my shoulders feels like the most comforting weight I’ve ever felt.
I blink up at Brian slowly, the Shaker staring back at me with a matching expression of confusion, confliction, and consternation.
Apparently a large chunk of the bay assumes the five of us are together and… there’s only so many reasons I can deny that claim, especially when I look at the actual evidence for it. I didn’t think the Undersiders were especially close but… I guess we somehow found a way into being so.
Learned behavior, my power informs, Lisa Wilbourn has learned to seek comfort from her teammates, her teammates have learned to provide comfort, they have learned the same, closeness created during strife, was created to cope with stress, became deeper, became—
I cut it off with a gulp and look into Brian’s eyes, hoping that I’ll find some answer in the warm brown that turns gold in the fire light. My hand reaches up to his face and he leans into my touch as he places his own hand on top of my one.
“...should we talk?” I ask, knowing that he’ll put together exactly what I want to talk about. He gulps and turns his eyes to the other three behind us. He’s just as lost as I am.
“Yeah…” he answers, “Not here, not tonight but… when we can.”
That’s all the answer he can give right now and as the other three people in our tent start to drift off, he and I scoot our way to our teammates.
It’s a little snug under the blanket together and Brian and I’s costumes were a bit too uncomfortable to sleep in. No one points out that we didn’t need to take everything off and no one says anything about how the clothes are definitely dry by now.
The only things I’m aware of as I start to slip into sleep is the feel of the arms wrapping around me and the almost unsettling amount of confusion running through my head. What are we? I mean, what are we really? Friends, best friends, partners… lovers? Is it wrong to feel hopeful that it’s the last thing? Is it even possible? How will we—
Rachel pulls me closer, my back snug against her front at the same time Alec presses himself against me. Brian’s hand is warm on my hip and Taylor’s is so soft between me and the blue eyed boy.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the weeks to come but it’s comforting to know it won’t be a journey I have to take alone.