Survive Together -- Z Nation [Virginia & Traveler]

[Virginia Greene]

Even optimistic June was unsure about this. At best, she thought, there would be information? Some partial thing. Wasn't Murphy supposed to have the cure in him? Because he didn't look all that cured to her. Of course the petite redhead believed in the possibility of a cure for whatever was in their brains, bringing every dead back to life, she was just unsure of what that was going to need, and how that was going to happen. She wasn't a scientist.

When the truck stopped, she got out as fast as she could. She didn't head immediately for 10k for once, because she needed to take a moment and get her quiver onto her belt, tying the sewn on addition around her leg to keep it from bouncing. And then he was there in front of her, and she smiled at him, carefully putting in arrows before actually giving the young man her attention.

"So?" June echoed, slightly prompting. She wasn't sure what he was starting with, so June just gave him most of her attention, hands distractedly moving through her red hair to pull it up again. It had come down because she wanted to be able to hide behind it from the ridiculousness of the whole car ride, but it was time for what she and her mother had jokingly called 'safety fashion'. "There are way too many potential things to end that sentence," she said once he'd trailed off. "But probably yes? Unless it's bad, in which case no, but then there's also some stuff that might be maybe." She was trying to be lighthearted about it, because it seemed like it was unlikely that whatever he was going to say was negative, he didn't really look like he was coming with negative thoughts.

She reached out for his glove-covered hand, hoping to get a moment of the simple affection with him before everything inevitably started. Vasquez and Roberta were thinking and planning, that gave them a few minutes before everything kicked off and any thoughts would have to be held onto until later or worked out while in the middle of the unknown.

 

[Traveler]

How did he go from being the guy who never talked to being the guy who couldn't find his tongue? He opened and closed his mouth a few times, feeling the dryness inside. "He said, that there was things I needed to learn."

He almost told her about sex and romance. He almost told her that Doc said she'd been 'after' him since the beginning, but somehow he managed to wisely not tell her those things. "I really like you. I want to tell you that, in case we don't get another chance."

Murphy walked by and bumped his shoulder against the young man's back. "Oh wah, wah... just fuck her and get it over with." He glanced back, grinning, as he twirled a hat on his index finger. Behind him Cassandra shambled after, her dead, glaring eyes turned on the pair as she grunted her reply to Murph's witty comment.

10k waited for them to get a good distance away before he took his eyes off them and looked back at June. "I hope that's okay to say."

 

[Virginia Greene]

Was she supposed to confirm or deny that? "Yes?" June said a little hesitantly, voice questioning. "Both of us, probably." And everyone, but she had the feeling that it was in reference to relationships or romance or something specifically.

He said he really liked her, and she looked a little bit surprised. Not as much because of the confession, but because she'd kinda figured that was the case already. Still, she smiled at him and squeezed his hand, trying to figure out the best way to say what was on her mind now.

Aaand there was the blue man, ruining everything. "Well thank you for joining in the conversation." It was somehow perfectly polite and a pretty solid attempt to just verbally slam the door in his face, though it still needed work. "Always such a pleasure." Murphy smirked at her, but June very pointedly just smiled at him with what her mother would have said was proper young lady manners. Hide the disgust. If he knew she was disgusted, he won.

When he was gone, she relaxed a tiny bit. "Yes. That's super okay to say. I'm having a hard time figuring out stuff with you, so saying things is good." She realized that was vague, and tried to clarify "I'm just afraid we're gonna be sending signals in languages the other person can't read." What was interest, what was friendliness? "You're saying you really like me like I might have a problem with it, but I had already assumed that because... because we kissed. And that's what that meant to me." But maybe not the same message to him. She could try to be pragmatic about the relationship.

((I think June might just end up with that polite seeming backhanded sass. "Bless your heart" and "it sure takes self confidence to say something like that!" for miles.))

 

[Traveler]

He frowned slightly at June's assessment that she had assumed that he liked her because they had kissed. "There's 'like', and there's 'like'," he began to explain. "I mean that, even if there were other people around who were our age, I'll still pick you to be with. I don't just like you as a friend who I happen to kiss." He struggled for the words for a moment. His fingers itched to do something that he understood, like stripping down an M-16 or disassembling a Glock for cleaning. He understood how to maintain weapons. He had no clue how to maintain a 'girlfriend'.

He reached out to take her hands, then he brought them to his heart. "When I'm around you I want to touch you, and when you smile at me I feel like I've done something right. Kissing you is better than any meal I've ever eaten. I want to be with you all the time. When I can't see you I'm worried that you'll disappear, and I'd never see you again." 10k shifted his weight on his feet slightly as he go to the meat of the matter. "What I'm saying is - I don't want to be just your friend who you kiss. I want to be your boyfriend, and I want you to be my girlfriend, so there's no guessing what this is. Let's just make it clear to everyone. We're together."

Roberta waved at the two and then pointed to her eyes, then extended two fingers towards 10k and then to the green houses. She wanted him to recon. He nodded, but then he turned his attention back to June. "You don't have to give me an answer right away, just soon. I'm not sure, if someone else came into our group, I'm not sure how I would handle it if you kissed him too, so I need to know if this is okay with you that it's just you and me. If it's going to be you and anyone else you like, then I'm not really..."

"10k, get a move on," Roberta's voice wasn't a shout but it was loud enough that he could hear the urgency in her voice.

"I just..." he finally let her hands go. "Let me know what you think."

 

[Virginia Greene]

Same communication issue. Did he really think she needed that explained to her? June would have interrupted because this was a lot when they had very little time, but she thought this might be the most she ever heard him talk at once, and it was important to know how he was thinking. And if he was going to explain it, that was good. It would help her get it.

He took her hands, and his words made her blush. Why was she tongue tied now? Maybe it was the fact that she already put weight on his words. 10k said so little at a time that if he was speaking this much, it had to be important to him. She wanted to make sure that he was done talking before she started, but that meant that the redhead waited almost too long. Roberta spoke and he let go of her hands, and June shifted a little so she was blocking his path to their leader.

"You can't just keep walking off when important stuff is happening." This would be the second time. It was stressful for her, having to sit on feelings and try to figure everything out and be unsure of it all. "I don't want to just be kissing friends. That was never what I wanted." Come on Roberta, just give them a minute more, that was all she needed. "I want to be your girlfriend. Or... whatever the apocalypse version is." If he was willing to bare his soul a little and tell her what he thought, she could too. "Being around you makes all the bad stuff feel okay, and surmountable. And I feel all tingly and warm and that's never happened before but I know it's because of you." An awkward pause, and then, "just you."

Roberta was starting to get a little irritated and took a step towards them, making a very pointed gesture. "We gotta go." June frowned a tiny bit and then kissed him, light and brief, before stepping back. "Stay safe." She wasn't sure how she was going to handle it if she lost him too. She wanted to go with, but she needed more time on that whole stealth thing. Nobody could do it like 10k, she'd been told.