Survival instincts

Leon King | 27 In a world as fucked up as this you can't let man be your downfall, not while monsters roam the Earth.

[kingly-leon]

Wayfaring Warriors || Leon & Elena

[elenaprice]

Ellie rolled her eyes. It was by far the worst feeling to know that she was powerless in this situation. She couldn’t do some magic trick and fix him up. She couldn’t drag him to see Gabriel because she had to be honest with herself, he was twice as strong as herself. She took a step back from him. “That’s bullshit. It’s nothing you have control of and you know that.” She wanted to kick something. His shinbone, optimally. Leon King was the most stubborn person she met in her whole life and she didn’t know how to deal with it. Neither did she know how to shut her anger down. “Jesus Christ, you’re such an asshole!” She stomped her foot and felt ridiculous the second right after. Now only pouting was missing and she would look like a 9 year old. But she wanted to slam her fists against his chest and knock some sense into him. Open wounds were the worst ones. They easily got infected and they killed you even faster. She blew out the air through her mouth to calm down a little bit. The last thing she needed was a group if stinking infected who would be yet another thing to annoy her. They were stupid like rocks but had ears like bats. Bastards. 

[kingly-leon]

Leon was losing his patience with her, how could she not see that he was trying to stay positive here? They were both just as stubborn as each other and this argument was going to go anywhere good. Throwing his hands up in frustration he turned away from her. "Well, shit, I'm just gonna go and die tomorrow then aren't I?" he turned to face her again. "Just cause I don't have control over it doesn't mean I give up hope." 

He buried his face in his hands for a few seconds, sighing heavily in frustration. "How am I an asshole? You fucking pulled down my shirt and found the thing. It's not like I wanted you to see it!" he yelled back at her now equally as angry as her, how could she be angry at him? He just didn't understand why, she wasn't injured and there was a good chance that he was going to survive this. Folding his arms he exhaled through his nose, closing his eyes and regretting yelling at her, she didn't need that from him. He didn't want this to happen, the worst possible scenario was happening right before his eyes and he hated it. The looming silence returned and he couldn't even look into her eyes anymore, he didn't know what to do apart from apologize, for everything.

[kingly-leon]

Chocolate scavengers || Stella & Leon

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

Stella raised her eyebrows. “Get to know them?” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she shook her head. She found it pretty hard to keep her tough and harsh reputation around Leon, since he was so friendly and funny. It wasn’t like her to smile and laugh this much, and she wasn’t used to it. Sure, when she was younger she was all smiles, but things change.

As they walked down a bone dry road, Stella watched her feet as she walked. She liked the cracks in the road, and dryness of the dirt, it reminded her of Utah and the Midwest. For a moment she forgot where they were now and it almost felt like everything was a dream, and that just maybe her dad was still here. When she looked up again and shook the hair out of her face, she noticed a beat up and trashed car, folded in the front due to crashing head on into a thick tree. Stella let out a long sigh as they walked over to it, not liking the look of the accident.

As Leon ducked halfway into the car, Stella stood behind him and glanced around. She inspected the accident, trying to make out whether the tragic event took place recently or long ago. If it just happened, there was the chance a zombie could’ve stuck around.

[kingly-leon]

"Yeah!" he gave her a nudge, she seemed like she hadn't smiled or laughed in years, he could tell there was almost a bit of reluctance behind her beaming smiles. "Go give 'em a hug. Have a bit of a chat." he wasn't really surprised when he found very few people let who he could crack a few jokes with ever since the god damn apocalypse, he got that it was a serious situation but there was no point in completely abandoning a chance of happiness.

She had fallen silent and he decided to leave her in her silence instead of asking about it. Rummaging through the front seat, reaching his hand under the chair and wherever people tried to hide things in their car... he thought he struck gold when he heard the distinct crackling of a wrapper, "Oh oh oh, I think we got a winner here!" he chuckled giving the thing a good tug only to look crest-fallen at the sight of the wrapper completely encased in hardened mud and dirt. "Fuck..." he sighed chucking the useless thing away and looking harder lying across the front two seats searching for anything of use.

After a good few minutes he retreated out from the car, having thoroughly searched through all the nooks and crannies, sighing and shaking his head disappointed in his fruitless search. "Right. Next one." he lead the way again, although not knowing where he was going, he guessed that he didn't really need to, if they headed in a straight line they couldn't get lost right? The started to walk through a street lined with wind tossed houses either side, Leon was hopeful again, there had to be something here. "There's gotta be something here...."

[kingly-leon]

...Wow.

[robin-greene-deactivated2014050]

My sister just told me I’d lack happiness and that I should smile more often. She thinks I forgot how to do that. So you better take a mental photograph.

[kingly-leon]

You should smile more! You look great.

It's like damn did the sun just come up or did you smile? Definitely got my mental camera on.

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

Agreed, that’s definitely where we’d have met in some alternate universe.

I think I’m going to have to pass, I’ll leave some room for other fans of yours to sign.

[kingly-leon]

Maaan, imagine having a job at Cadbury's... there'd just be chocolate everywhere...

*stomach rumbles like a chainsaw*

They don't get to sign my bra! You do!

[kingly-leon]

Chocolate scavengers || Stella & Leon

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

"Fine, maybe one or two. And not the fast ones either. I don’t like those," She wrinkled her nose and folded her arms over her chest. She chuckled at his boyish grin, and wondered if he was even afraid of anything. Everyday, Stella woke up with the thought that she might not live another day or two. And then there’s Leon, who wants to fight a couple zombies. Sure, it was fun sometimes, but only the easy ones. Not the old aggressive ones, or the ones that can easily catch up with you.

She stood a little ways ahead of the leader, as he shut the gates. Trying to remember where there was a store nearby, the only one that stuck out in her memory was pretty far. Hopefully they’d reach one sooner than that. Stella didn’t like traveling far to places she wasn’t very familiar with. She liked to be in control of everything which wasn’t exactly a good thing sometimes.

"Oh, so you’re married? Well, congratulations then!" She laughed. "It’s not everyday I meet guy married to an inanimate object." She grinned. "My weapon of choice?" She repeated and hesitated. "I have a bow back at home that I like to use. But I didn’t bring it, it’s pretty big. So I have this little baby," Stella pulled her pistol from her waistband and held it up for him to see. "Not much, but it can get the job done."

[kingly-leon]

Leon gave Stella questioning raise of the eyebrows, maybe Leon was going to have to show Stella the more light hearted side to this dismal world, "Ahh come on they're not that bad when you get to know 'em." he laughed at her expression and hearing her laughter lifted his spirits up. She didn't seem like the controlling type, at least from what Leon saw, Stella seemed like quite a happy person, she laughed and smiled and the smallest gestures made the biggest difference.

They both walked on down the long cracked dry road and while Leon didn't really know where they were going he had feeling that as long as they kept walking and kept track of where they were going they would find something eventually. Sure enough a broken down car had come into view, the front crushed and folded into a tree while the doors opened limply for the wind to blow through. Not a particularly positive sight.

"Well she has been looking after me so you know one thing to another..." he drifted off and couldn't help hiding his face a bit, embarrassed to be telling Stella about this, luckily he was kidding at least he thought he was kidding. He admired the pistol that she held up, it seemed like a perfectly good pistol, quick and efficient. "I quite like bow and arrows as well, we gotta have a training sesh together at some point." 

Once they reached the crumpled car, Leon immediately dived straight in to looking for anything useful on the old slightly rusty frame.

[kingly-leon]

Wayfaring Warriors || Leon & Elena

[elenaprice]

Her eyes widened. “Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out?” She raised her eyebrows and the sarcasm in her voice was like venom. She didn’t mean in a bad way. She was well aware that he didn’t shoot himself but the fact that he just walked around with a bullet wound like it would be a paper cut made her hysterical. How could anyone be that reckless? Ellie was about to start her bollocking when he took her hand into his. It was this little gesture which probably meant nothing and yet it made her tremble inside. No one ever held her hand but Leon and the realization of him being back just hit her again and again. While it was painful, it was a good type of pain. 

Ellie just lightly shook her head. “No. This is some kind of joke, right? I mean, this can get infected. It can get serious. It can kill you.” She tried to transfer everything she felt through her eyes because she was never good with words. But eye contact wasn’t her strength either. “You can’t come back, make me happy and then show me a wound that may or may not kill you. That isn’t fair. It’s idiotic and selfish and reckless and I want to dig my finger into that wound so you know how I feel right now.” She freed her hand out of his grip. At the same time she was angry and scared. She just wanted to tell him how much she missed him and that she would never ever want to go on without him again but she couldn’t say that. Not right now. 

[kingly-leon]

Watching her eyes widen he knew what was coming and he tensed the muscles in his jaw, biting his teeth together tightly. "Sh... shh.." he tried to shush her, especially when they could always potentially wake someone or call on a horde of the undead. His vague attempt of trying to calm her didn't really work, but the small moment of contact they had where everything just suddenly dropped into a sudden silence. Just before Ellie was about to completely throw a fit at him.

"Ellie..." he watched her rising panic and her hand had slipped out from his and she was saying so much more than she was before. Their previous gossipy banter was gone. "Ellie, Ellie!" he took a hold of her shoulders and leaned forward slightly, going to her level and looking directly into those familiar irises that he had spent so long wondering when he would see them again. "It won't get infected, Tara has been keeping an eye on it." he spoke quietly, trying his absolute hardest to get through to her and try and keep her calm. "It is not gonna kill me." he denied everything that she had suggested. He wasn't going to let a gunshot wound kill him, it wasn't even one that was fatal at least it wouldn't be unless... some things did happen to it. "Okay? I only just got here. I'm not leaving so soon." He slowly took his hands off from her shoulders and stood up straight again, pulling the bandage back up to cover it and then adjusting his shirt.

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

He did, haha.

This is true, chocolate is the perfect way to someone’s heart!

So, you are mister popular then, aren’t you? Heh, I wouldn’t know, no one asks me to sign anything, let alone their bras.

[kingly-leon]

I have a feeling that if we didn't meet now we would have met when we both got our jobs at Cadbury's.

You wanna sign my bra? 

[kingly-leon]

...Wow.

[elenaprice]

Clearly they were.  You’re always attractive. I don’t need you to pout to see that.

[kingly-leon]

Seriously boosting my ego there, Ellie. 

[kingly-leon]

Chocolate scavengers || Stella & Leon

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

"Whoa there, let’s hope we don’t run into any zombies,” She gave a laugh as she adjusted her grip on her bag. Stella found it a bit hard to see that Leon and Austin had been friends at one point. Leon was bouncing around, certainly funny, and very friendly. Meanwhile Austin was more reserved, and possibly intimidating to some people.

Pulling herself from her thoughts, she picked up her pace. She figured Leon had to be as hungry as she was, and she couldn’t wait to get that chocolate bar. The older leader asked her if she had everything, and in reply she nodded. “Yep.” She patted her bag and slide through the gates after him. She couldn’t suppress the chills she got from the cold air outside the safety of their camp. The leaves beneath her feet crunched as she felt around at her waistband to check that her gun was still there; and it was.

She watched him with a raised eyebrow pull out a wooden baseball bat that has probably seen better days. As he kissed it and swung it on his shoulder she asked, “I had no idea you were in a relationship. What’s her name?” She grinned, referring to Leon’s baseball bat.

[kingly-leon]

"Eh?" he questioned, a little action wouldn't hurt would it? Ever since he got here there hadn't been too much going on, he had tried to be as sociable as possible with everyone and to be fair the whole little community seemed friendly enough. Austin said that they were all good people and he certainly wasn't wrong. "Okay okay... maybe... two zombies?" he grinned at her shrugging a little.

"Awesome." he gave her a brief thumbs up before pushing the doors to a close once again with a small groan of effort. He also shivered from the autumnal breeze going through all the tiny holes in his jumper, he pulled the sleeves over his hands but kept a tight grip around the baseball bat while they set off into the wild unknown areas around Readville, he knew they were probably going to have to travel far for anything good and a bar of chocolate was definitely something good. 

"Aye." he laughed. "This is Bianca, my lovin' wife." he chuckled, the smaller things in life seemed to mean a lot more in times like these and his zombie slayer meant quite a lot to him. "What's your weapon of choice then?" he asked her back, having a feeling that Stella was not going to let him live down such a thing and it was probably going to be the talk of the town at some point. 

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

It’s fine… Austin trusts you, so I figured you were alright after talking to him. Plus you have an equally strong love for chocolate as I do.

Yeah, you’re alright. I’d be creeped out if someone asked me to sign one of their undergarments..

[kingly-leon]

Awww did Austin put in a good word for me?

See? Chocolate just brings people together.

Well fans go and do pretty much anything, so... bra signings aren't too surprising. 

[kingly-leon]

Wayfaring Warriors || Leon & Elena

[elenaprice]

"Yeah, no. It’s fine though. Blocking your door with a dresser is so much more fun anyway" It was actually a pain in the ass. It was fine when she was inside of the house but whenever she wanted to leave, she had to climb out of a window and then climb back inside. No matter how much it annoyed her, she would never ask for help anyway. "That’s sweet, thank you but I’m not going to force you into being my guardian. I’ll eventually fix that lock somehow." She returned his smile with the exact copy of it.

Ellie blinked a few times when Leon told her to get on his back and she didn’t know if she should laugh or roll her eyes. Instead she took one step closer to him and started to whisper into his ear. “Alright, I’ll tell you a secret right now. I screech like a little girl when I don’t have a solid ground under my feet.” She stood like this for a few seconds, enjoying his body heat. It felt like he was a sun for himself while she was an icicle. She almost let out a sigh when she took a step back, placed her forefinger on her lips and whispered “shhhh.”

"…means absolutely everything to me…" Her thoughts were holding on to that sentence while she tried to not burst out into tears of joy but her brain soon replaced all that with worry. She avoided looking him into the eyes when he just stood there, holding her wrist and a wave of different scenarios collapsed on her. “It’s nothing. It’s nothing? You knew about this.” It wasn’t a question. Of course he knew. It was a wound he was well aware of. Ellie was dumbfounded when he let go of her and started to walk again. “No.” She jumped in front of him and placed her hand on his chest to stop him from walking. “What happened? What is that?” She kept on looking back and forth between Leon’s eyes and the bloody spot on his shirt. Slowly her concern turned into anger. Why wouldn’t he tell her? It obviously wasn’t nothing. Nothing doesn’t start to bleed out of the blue.

Elena let out a huff and pulled his shirt down his shoulder, revealing the wound beneath it. First she just saw his blood-smeared skin. It was her fault, she did it while dragging the shirt down. And then she noticed the dark center of the mess. “Is that…” Ellie looked up. “Leon, is that a bullet wound?” Obvious panic crept into her voice.

[kingly-leon]

She had taken a step closer to him and he his fists clenched tightly beside him thinking that Ellie was bound to hear his pounding heart, watching her as she leaned in and whispered in his ear he couldn't help another smile hearing what she was saying. "I'd really like to see that." he whispered back to her, noticing how she didn't pull back right away. Turning slightly to get a closer look at her face, slightly subdued in his own shadow, she looked older, more mature and her expression seemed to carry more weight than it used to. She pulled away and everything turned colder again.

Her wrist felt so cold as he held onto her. Something he should have done to stop her from leaving all that time ago, she never made the eye contact as he stared at her and he just wished that she did. A frustrated sigh left his lips when she stopped him again, why didn't he notice the blood he could have completely stopped this from happening if he had been his usual alert-self. He stayed silent to her questions and didn't even look at her but stared straight forward. 

What came next though he never expected. Her tugging his shirt down caused a few shooting pains and he inhaled sharply through his teeth. "Ellie!" he growled warning her to at least be careful or drop the subject. Glancing at her expression and the wound he couldn't bear to see the gory mess and the bandage had clearly fallen away but Ellie's expression was even worse to look at.

"...Yeah... it is." he hated the fact that he had to tell her the truth and he couldn't hide it anymore, he couldn't hide the fact that things weren't fine. He pulled his shirt back up to cover it up again. "Don't... Don't freak out, okay? I'm not gonna die." he tried to reassure her and took her hand resting on his chest into his. 

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

Yep, if they don’t know you as Leon, you’re “That Guy”. To be honest, I was not happy when you showed up.

I can only imagine the pain of being famous.

[kingly-leon]

I am sorry for crashing the party. Hopefully I can make it up to you and well.. everyone.

Not had anyone ask me to sign their bra yet so I think I'm good.

[kingly-leon]

...Wow.

[elenaprice]

Don’t pout. It just happened that I’m a dick now.

[kingly-leon]

Ahh don't worry you're not a dick. There are worse people in the world. Someone told me I was attractive when I pouted.... clearly they were lying.

[kingly-leon]

Chocolate scavengers || Stella & Leon

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

Stella wandered around the building she made her home in, checking to see if she was forgetting anything. She had two water bottles in a small shoulder bag of hers, and she threw some extra bullets in there as well. You never know what to expect anymore out there, running to a grocery store was now risky. Now that she thought about it, she really could use a beer, or just something to make her feel better, even if it was just for a while. That was probably what the chocolate would be for. She shoved a pistol into the waistband of her pants before walking out of her deteriorating home.

Squinting up at the sky, she judged that it must’ve been only nine, or nine-thirty in the morning. She was a bit surprised at the cold breeze that blew by, and she zipped up her jacket for a bit of extra warmth. She made a mental list in her head of things she should try to pick up, when she remember Elena asked for batteries if she found any. She thought of some other little necessities, but for the most part, the groups had enough to keep them going, at least for a little while longer.

Stella didn’t smile much, but when she caught Leon jumping up and down at the front, she had to bite her lip to keep from chuckling. As she approached him, she called out, “Someone seems a bit eager to get that chocolate!”

[kingly-leon]

He had spent most of the half an hour just walking around aimlessly and trying to stay warm not to mention he was just brimming with excitement and the thought of finding some chocolate. After putting his bag down on the floor to ease his shoulders of the weight for a moment he turned around and saw Stella walking towards him, all ready to go. 

It looked like she had watched him 'warming up' and was trying very hard not to laugh. He chuckled at her expression and rubbed his hands together. "I am so ready! Let's go punch some zombies!" he practically bounced around as she came up to him. He was running on empty but it felt like he had been super charged, he was going to regret this at some point and he knew it. 

"Got everything?" he asked her while pushing the gate open to the outside world with the sharp blast of metallic cold wind flying through the gap. Once the gate was wide enough for the both of them, he slipped through and closed it after Stella had also came through. Pulling his baseball bat from his backpack, giving it a small cheeky kiss on the battered wood and swung it onto his shoulder as he started walking. 

[watsonstella-deactivated2013111]

I’m pretty sure everyone knows who you are at this point.

The feeling is mutual.

[kingly-leon]

Yeah, never felt so famous in my life. Everyone's always like 'hey aren't you that guy who's friends with Austin?' Some people hate me for bringing an extra four people...

It's hard being famous. 

[kingly-leon]

...Wow.

[elenaprice]

Leon, stop that. 

[kingly-leon]

Okay then...

[kingly-leon]

...Wow.

[elenaprice]

Yeah…like…what?

[kingly-leon]

Mwah.

Never stop being so adorable.