Hello and thank you for the prompt, it was fun! Simon is an asshole, and this is what he’s walking around with like a weapon. Maybe not in the spirit of kindly gift-giving........... but yeah I did it anyway!
Hope you enjoy @whirly-wind :)
”… and of course, I came to think of no one other than sweet Sam Yao and the mysterious yet very studly Runner Five. From me to you, friend.”
His voice is unnecessarily loud, enough to disturb every single person trying to eat their rationed meal in the mess hall.
The worst thing about it is how absolutely full of himself Simon looks as he hands over the small package. A grin so wide it turns his sharp cheekbones into needles, impossibly white teeth sparkling like in a toothpaste commercial, eyes dancing with glee.
Bits and pieces of stubborn broccoli roll around in Five’s mouth as she attempts to process the situation. The blue logo amidst the white sparkles stand out against the grey colour of the rectangular package set down at the table in front of her. It appears to be a box of twelve, and mercifully, none of her neighbours at the table have decided to chime in with any comments at the sight of it.
Durex Invisible Extra Thin Extra Sensitive.
Looking down at her half-eaten tray of food, Five is almost sure Simon timed this to make sure he had the largest audience possible to witness him playing whatever humiliation game he has decided to pass the time with.
While most people at other tables are too far away to actually make out what it is Simon is actually handing to her, the illusion of privacy is shattered by the very same only moments later.
”While I do hope you’ll be almost incoherently enjoying my gift to you for as long as they last, I hope that amongst the ecstasy you won’t forget your dear old friend Simon’s sacrifice and remember to snag something darling for him on your next rec run. Three out!” Simon gives a two-finger salute walking backwards, winking and wagging his eyebrows for a good few meters before he actually turns to leave.
compliment: oh my goooddd I am IN LOVE with your fics, I haven’t read all of them bc I’m only on season 4 and I’m like making a half hearted attempt to avoid spoilers even though I’m pretty sure I’ve read most big spoilers already because I have no self control LOL but oh my god those two fics were amazing???? like if you read my tags on your an axe to grind chapters you posted to tumblr you already know I was SO INVESTED you’re writing is amazing just the way you write all the characters is so SPOT ON I can hear their voices when I read it and like idk I’m bad at describing it but like I actually feel like I’m there when I’m reading it your writing is so good and mission status unknown just had me like emotionally floored I think I’ve read it like five times at this point, and the one with sara during the moonchild arc just end me oh my god just like thank u for blessing this fandom with your fics
send me a 🏃 (and/or a zr headcanon) for a compliment!
For the prompt thing: How would Abel treat your Five on her birthday?
This is such a genuinely sweet prompt and since I’m in late Season 3 I almost went very dark with it but then…
This fluffy thing happened. There’s a little bit of angst but it’s mainly sickly sweet domestic nonsense. I’m sorry it took so long to respond to this, life happened, then it kept happening. What a nuisance, right? Real life, ugh.
(Also, for the record, when I said my Five is an arsehole, this is kind of what I mean.)
It was raining over Abel Township, a heavy, constant rainwhich had been there all day and showed no signs of stopping. It being an English November, this wasn’texactly unusual.
Sometimes they had dry Novembers, with crispy leaves slowlygiving way to sweet rot, but this was not that kind of November. It had beenraining when Runner Five had woken up that morning, it had been raining whenthey’d gone out for their decoy run, their supply run, their liaison with NewCanton. And it was raining now, still heavy, still constant.
It was almost enough to make Runner Five feel sorry forEugene and the couple of other Abel residents who had originally come fromoverseas. When people described England as ‘wet’ they didn’t always explainproperly, she thought. Saying that a place saw a lot of rain didn’t prepare aperson for this. Not for the solid weeks of downpours interspersed with periodsof light, cloying drizzle. Not for the burst riverbanks or mud splashing overyour wellies.
But she didn’t. Feel sorry, that is, for anyone.
Despite how the water seeped into trainers and sometimes gavethe runners horrible blisters, Runner Five loved it. The feel of the rain onher bare shoulders, in the tangles of her hair, running down her face then downher neck. It was cold and so very clean. One of the few things that hadn’tchanged.
On this day, a couple of years ago, there had been a massivestorm over where Five had lived at the time. No warning, no trace of it in theforecast. Just sudden, heavy clouds that fell into the dip her town sat in onthe coast to unload an orchestra of thunder and pounding rain and forklightening.
Five remembered laughing that day, hysterically, almost. Shewasn’t laughing now but nor could she control the silly smile on her face.
She had made it through the day without anything going wrong.It was near enough a miracle, given her track record of birthdays.
They tended to start off well, and then go horribly wrong asif to mock her for daring to enjoy the day. Sometimes they began badly and onlygot worse as the hours ticked by.
Come the end of the world, no one knew her birth date anymore, so Five had allowed it to slip away from her, uncelebrated, unacknowledged.Sam had asked, once, and Five had shrugged. He hadn’t pressed. There were somethings now that people wouldn’t pursue. They were all far more aware of eachother’s open wounds than they used to be, which worked just fine for Five.There was already enough attention on her as it was these days.
The sound of someone striding through the deep puddle that hadgathered on the quad, the ground too saturated to absorb any more, ousted Fivefrom her thoughts. She opened her eyes and blinked the rain out of them.
“Runner Five, is that you?” Even through the rain, Janine’s voicewas clear and clipped. She was dressed for the weather, decked out in longwellington boots and a leather bushman hat atop a heavy raincoat. It made her silhouettesolid against the slanted rain, unlike Five who stood barefoot in her just her runningshorts and vest top. “You look like a drowned rat.”
“Thanks, Janine. You look like a sensible and well-dressed individual.”Five replied, turning around to face her and splashing more than necessary,just because she could.
“Um,” Janine started, thrown off. “Yes, well, the last thingwe need is one of our runners coming down with pneumonia so I have been sent tocollect you.”
“I don’t get sick,” Five said and she wasn’t exactly lying. “Wait,someone sent you?”
“Yes,” Janine sighed, casting unsubtle glances back at thefarmhouse.
“No one sends you, you send people.” Five said and the peaceof the evening began to wane from her mind. If it was something serious enoughto force Janine out into the rain it was probably unpleasant.
“Sara requested that I retrieve you,” Janine said. She crossed her arms with a squeak of wet fabric. “And Iagreed that I would have been in remiss of my duties as leader of the Township hadI allowed you to carry on with whatever it is you are doing. And you canexplain what you were in fact doing on the way to the house.”
The tension that was climbing up Five’s throat receded. IfSara was involved this increased the likelihood that nothing was wrong or, ifit was, then at least Five wouldn’t be facing it alone. That was the true calamity.“I was standing about,” she said, starting off towards the house. “I thoughtthat was kind of obvious.”
“Five.” Janine ground out in what some of the runners likedto quietly call her ‘authority voice’ as she fell into step beside Five.
“I was just enjoying the rain, Janine.”
“If I’m not mistaken it’s no higher than two degrees out,Five. I’m not sure there’s much enjoyable about this.”
“It’s relaxing.”
“It’s awful.”
Five threw her hands up, flicking water into the air. “Janine,you can genuinely find it within yourself to play FIFA, and even enjoy it. I’mnot sure you’re allowed to talk about awful.”
“Video games are, by definition, supposed to be enjoyable.”
“So are romcoms, and yet they remain the worst thing to everhave existed. Any yes, before you ask, I am including zombies in this analogy.”
“You have a point,” Janine said after a pause that was a fewseconds too long not to be suspicious. Five peered up into her face, eyesquesting for some kind of tell. Janine stared forward, her focus fixed on the glowfrom the farmhouse’s windows.
“Oh my God. Oh my entire God,” Five laughed and skipped forwardso she could walk backwards, facing Janine. “You like romcoms. Janine De Luca, fearlessleader of Abel Township, enjoys horrible, cringeworthy romcoms.”
Janine’s face turned thunderous and Five couldn’t help her snickering,imagining Janine curled up in a pair of fluffy slippers and a bath robe,sobbing into a bowl of popcorn at the predictable climax of a big-name,low-effort chick flick. Her laughter lasted until her back hit the door to thehouse and Janine closed in on her, looming over Five with her broad rimmed hat blockingout all else.
Behind tangled strands of hair, Five looked up into thetight-lipped, stony expression of one of the most dangerous women she knew. Theintimidation lasted until Five’s imagination conjured up the image of Janine devouringicecream straight from the tub as she watched some housewife heartthrob beg hissweetheart to take him back.
She could barely stifle giggles trying to bubble up.
“Listen,” Janine started, and whether she was about to denyor threaten Five wasn’t sure, but then the door opened behind Five and she stumbledbackwards into the dry, airy boot room of the farmhouse. Someone caught her bythe shoulders and whirled her around, the heat and light and movement dizzying.
“Five’s here!” Evan called over his shoulder, towards thekitchen, where someone repeated his message and the quiet murmur of conversationrose to a chatter. “God,” he said, running his hands down to Five’s elbows. “Yourskin is like ice, what were you doing, going for a dip in the pond?”
“Nah,” Five smiled from under the mess of her fringe. “I only go skinny-dipping on Tuesdays.”
Evan sighed and stepped back, dropping a towel over Five’shead that he’d apparently been carrying for just this purpose. Strong hands,Janine’s, Five realised, rubbed the towel over her head quickly and efficientlywiping away the worst of the water. What Five had told Janine was true, she wasenjoying the rain, but being suddenly in the warm had made her realise how thecold had snuck into her bones. Her skin was so pale it was practicallytranslucent in the electric lighting, blue veins stark as if they were drawn onto her with marker.
“Here.” Evan said when Janine deemed Five dry enough to passinto her home, holding out the jumper he’d been wearing a moment ago.
“Are you sure?” Five asked, humour dampened suddenly. Shewanted to take it and maybe not give it back, but didn’t want for it to begiven unwillingly. Or out of some sense of duty. Whether that was as Head of Runners,or because someone knew what today was and Evan felt pressured. Birthdays didthat to people.
“Five, your lips are blue. I’m far more attached to you,still breathing, than I am this jumper.”
“You might not want to say that in front of Runner Four,” Janineremarked as she passed them and vanished into the house, pushing the damp towelinto Five’s arms as she passed. “It took her a while to repair all those holes.”
“Then, thanks,” Five said, taking the jumper carefully as ifit would break should she drop it. There was a running joke amongst part ofAbel about Five’s propensity to wear (and steal) other people’s clothes, butshe never took without knowing the owner was actually comfortable with her borrowingways. Even if they didn’t see it the same way, to Five it wasn’t just clothing. It was personal, something she approached with caution when it was someonenaturally reticent and private, like Evan.
Turning her back on Evan, Five wiggled out of her soaked topand wrung it out over the doormat before hanging it up on a coat hook to beretrieved later. She briefly considered taking off her soaked bra, but thatmight have come off a bit weird. Not to mention that the jumper was woollen andFive did not need that level of discomfort in her life.
Scratchiness aside, it was warm from body heat and wonderfullydry when Five pulled it on. She remembered anew, as she always did, how thesecond-best part of rainy days was getting warm afterwards.
When Five turned back, Evan had put a hand over his eyes outof some peculiar respect for her modesty. Peculiar, because on various occasionspost-runs they’d showered in the same containment block with only a thin partitionseparating the halves of the building.
“Done,” she announced, waving with one sleeve-engulfed hand.Comfy as it was, the sweater was made for someone Evan’s size. That was,someone about twice Five’s size.
Evan removed his hand and scanned her briefly. With such animpassive face it was impossible to tell whether she’d annoyed him or not. Fivedecided to believe ‘not’ until otherwise proven since he hadn’t actuallycomplained.
“I know it’s a bit large, but it’ll do until you warm up.Come on through, everyone’s in the kitchen.”
“Everyone?” Five asked, following him through the corridor.Her stomach dropped. This was obviously not an urgent situation butsome kind of social occasion. Five just hoped it had nothing to do with her,not on this day. Any good was always followed with so much more bad.
“Mhmm,” Evan agreed unhelpfully, and then they were throughthe heavy oak door and in the kitchen’s stifling heat.
As they entered Five saw Janine, attempting to oust Sam fromthe carver chair that was her favourite, and Sam, holding his ground the besthe could under her glower. At the table also sat Jody, hands working away atsomething as they so often were, and Maxine who watched her with a mug claspedbetween her hands and sleepy eyes.
At the huge stove there was a general clattering as Sara beatsomething fiercely in a large ceramic bowl and to her right Simon, someone Fivenever expected anyone to let near the antique cooker, was ladling somethingfragrant and steaming into a chipped mug.
“Five!” He called, brushing past Sara to push the mug intoher hands. “There you are. We were starting to worry you’d been washed away.Gone to the great puddle in the sky.”
“No, well.” Five shrugged and the jumper slipped down one ofher shoulders. “Not yet I haven’t. Give it time.” Simon grinned and flickedsome of Five’s fringe out of her face.
“Come sit down, Five.” Sam called from the table gesturingto the empty seat to his left, ignoring Janine’s sour stare as he continued tooccupy her chair.
“What’s the occasion?” Five asked as she manoeuvred her wayaround the table, careful not to spill her drink. It was something that smeltsuspiciously similar to a hot toddy and therefore was too precious to waste. Samsmiled genuinely at her as she sat, but Five saw concern in his face, too. Forher generally dishevelled condition, or for other reasons?
It could have been just paranoia, but if so it was justifiedparanoia. Over the years correlation had resolved itself into something thatfelt too much like causation and Five was not in the market for anothercalamity any time soon.
She had good reason to keep this date unmarked anduncelebrated.
“No occasion,” Sara said as she poured some of the battershe had been making into a hot pan with a sizzle. “We just thought, well, it’sbeen a week of rain so everybody’s feeling a bit dour. Then, on my run today Ifound a few things I haven’t seen since the early days of the outbreak. Thoughtwe could all do with some downtime.”
“The grog was my idea,” Simon said as he flopped into thechair opposite Five and Sam, leaning as far as he could across the tablewithout crawling onto it. “I’m not sure it’s proper grog without cinnamon, butI think you’ll find I’ve done a pretty bang-up job. Even if I do say so myself.”
“It’s not like we have much in the way of options,” Evansighed as he slid into the chair between Jody and Five. “Especially not withall the strong stuff vanishing straight into the hospital.”
“Hey,” Maxine perked up from where she was half dozing overher mug. “Those are vital medical supplies. I didn’t hear you complaining when Istitched up that gash in your arm last week.”
“No, no, I’m very grateful. It just seems like a lot,especially since it’s not everyday someone has a run in with a zombie wrappedin razor wire.” Evan rested his forearms on the table and Five glanced overthem, having not noticed a cut of any kind before. His shirt sleeves obscured anywound, but five did note his empty hands. He was the only one at the table withouta mug of something spiked and steaming. It was, Five supposed, the price ofcriticising Simon’s brewing skills.
Or just the price of being Evan around Simon. She wasn’tsure what Simon’s issue was there, but she supposed it was equally possibleEvan just wasn’t drinking. Five wasn’t about to make it awkward by asking.
“Yeah, and didn’t Five and Sara find eight bottles of whiskeythe other day? Really nice, old stuff.” Jody chimed in.
“Would have been worth a fortune,” Sara said without turningaround, still working at the stove. “If money still meant anything.”
“Eight?” Maxine asked, looking a little more awake all of asudden. “I’m pretty sure it was only five bottles they found.” She frowned and,seeing as Sara’s back was to her, she focused on Runner Five who was suddenlyvery invested in the swirling mist of her grog.
“Um,” said Jody. Her knitting slowed to a near stop.
“Five? Were there eight bottles? What happened to the otherthree?” Maxine asked. All of her drowsiness had vanished as if blown away by aquick breeze. Five wondered if it was too late to go back out into the rain.
A clatter of crockery saved her as Sara deposited a stack ofplates on the table in front of Maxine and dumped a handful of cutlery in thecentre of the table.
“Be a dear and pass those around, would you,” she said as shepicked up the large serving plate she’d set beside the stove and brandished afish slice. “Pancakes are ready.”
“Pancakes?” Five sat up ramrod straight and felt the anxietyshe had been dousing with grog be completely turned over by hunger. The hungerfor pancakes, as everyone knew, trumped all else.
Sara laughed as she doled out thin, crispy miracles onto theplates Maxine was passing around to those at the table. “While I was rootingthrough an abandoned shelter I found a few cartons of almond milk which, luckyfor us, doesn’t ever really go off. The chickens are laying well, and what elseshould I find in my search but this.” Sara held up a small green bottle with ayellow cap and Five’s heart jumped.
“Sara,” she said and could not find it within herself to feelthe least bit embarrassed by the near-religious reverence in her voice over asmall bottle of lemon juice. “You are the light of my life.”
Winking, Sara turned back to the stove to put on another batchand from there the evening lulled into a comfortable rhythm of sticky sweetnessand laughter. At one point Sam got up to refill everyone’s cups and Janinestole back her chair while pretending not to be smug about it at all, and as ifshe hadn’t been waiting over an hour to do just that.
The spell remained unbroken throughout. No one mentionedanything about birthdays, though Five was sure Sara knew, or knew something wasup at least. There was little of substance Five could keep secret from her, butshe had her own tells. A particular way she smiled when she knew something sheshouldn’t, for instance.
Evidenced perfectly by the warm smirk she was currentlywearing as she bustled around, as at home here as when she was crushing heads.
But she didn’t say anything. Not when she joined them at thetable, defending the virtues of banana pancakes against the united front ofJody, Five, and Simon. Not when she straightened Five’s slipping neckline andmussed her hair to say goodnight before slipping out into the rain.
She never said anything and Five didn’t cry, but she almostwanted to. Midnight came and nothing was ruined. There was no cliff at the endof this incline.
When Five curled up to sleep on one of Janine’s sofas thatnight, wedged between Simon and Jody, she did so still in Evan’s jumper. Shereasoned she wasn’t invoking birthday privileges, not really. Not if she didn’tgive it back the next day, either.
6: how they deal with grief
Ren tends to carry their grief quite heavily, and for a long time. It’s usually something they tend to be quite private with, and prefer to deal with it on their own. However they have a strong tendency to try to comfort and care for others a lot, and be there for others. They’re very sympathetic and empathetic to the pain of other people
whirly-wind replied to your post “motherfucker I accidentally booked a room at a haunted FUCKING hotel”
Out haunt the ghosts. Be your OWN ghost. Or, yeah, cancel and rebook at one where you don't have to fight the ghost of a Victorian child while brushing your teeth.
Unfortunately I’m too much of a little bitch to haunt anyone, but also too stingy of a bitch to deal with rebooking fees ://
