― ╰ ⋆ * &. ― @gldheart sent :
“ give me a hand boarding up the windows, will you? “ from zuko >:)
SO FAR, SO GOOD IN A WORLD GONE SO TERRIBLY WRONG. jet’s cruising around the home-abandoned , where all doors are officially kicked open and all entryways are given pause. unfortunately, he finds himself dragging out a mercy-kill that had been locked up in the bathroom. there had been a note, scribbled out by a family that could either be seen as cowards or a family who just simply had too much heart to put their loved one out of their misery.
❛❛ Don’t look. ❜❜ he bothers announcing with gritted teeth grinding against the wheatgrass in his mouth, crushing the plant so the stench doesn’t pollute his senses. it’s a courtesy warning. a habit, even though it’s nothing new. shit, it’s not like they haven’t seen a swarm of them. still. he continues to drag the body until he slumps it and he has to call it “it” because it’s easier; he has to call it “it” because that has to be the reminder louder than the reminder that it was once a her. and he knows her name now from the note. he knows HER NAME, and he doesn’t know the boy who he’s taken over her house with. Thanks, and now she it’s just a way to keep their ALIVE-smell at bay a little better.
he locks the door, sets his weapons aside but near, and wipes his hands on his pants. they don’t get much cleaner. he keeps trying anyway.
the stranger’s request delivered in such a demanding tone registers belatedly. he blinks and nods his head, setting aside the weapons not too far away before joining the other. the risky trip to the hardware store shouldn’t go in vain afterall. ❛❛ I’m telling you, ❜❜ he starts before taking the stem out of his mouth and puts it back in his pocket for safe-keeping. ❛❛ the set up we’re going to is a hell of a lot less stressful. I got it all figured out. ❜❜ he twists around to open his backpack to find his trusty hammer and rummages around a bit more to find what else he needed. ❛❛ that was fun though, back there. We make a good team. ❜❜ he gets out the nails at last and readies himself to work at the board.
zuko is miserable, in every sense of the word. exhausted doesn’t quite cover the way his legs threaten to give out on him, the way his heart hammers against his chest with each corner he turns only to dim back into a faint but persistent sense of trepidation. worried doesn’t fully encapsulate the anxiety caught in his chest at his separation from the world as he knew it –– his family, his friends, his home. what’s happened to them ? and he’s hungry, hasn’t eaten since he found a can of pineapple chunks in the glove compartment of a car yesterday.
so yeah, zuko’s pretty damn miserable, and even more so when his new friend ( because his definition of a friend has gotten a lot less stringent these days ) decides to scope out the rooms of their shelter instead of helping him secure the area first. it’s a necessary precaution, really, but that doesn’t help comfort him as he struggles to keep the plank in his arms from drooping on one end while nailing down the other. his box of nails, which carries tacks and half a roll of tape too, has been partially emptied.
don’t look, he’s told. zuko turns anyway, and feels his gut twist. the smell hits him before the sight does, and he jerks back to his work with a hasty demand so this other boy doesn’t see how pale his face has gotten.
“ i don’t trust you, ” he replies, and it’s the truth. there are certain things that two people cannot go through without a fledgling bond forming, like saving someone from a particularly large mass of zombies while on a supply run, but CYNICISM is a necessity for survival. “ ... fun. uh huh. ” he’s not so sure he agrees, but the other boy is helping him at the window now, so he doesn’t push it.