Dawn of the End ||6||

15. Scabbing Wounds

This time will be different. This time will be better. We haven't had proper us time for some time. We need to get back to fitting in time for us.

At Todd's insistence, he'd convinced Steve and me to hand off Gracie to him so we could have a date night. I could count on one hand how many times we'd had quality time since she'd been born four years ago.

It felt really strange, to be out in public. If anyone knew who we really were, they didn't speak up about it. I kept a tight arm around Steve's as we walked in the city. He and I both had our phones on standby in case Todd had a question or—Gods forbid—an emergency.

We'd settled for a nice, quiet restaurant. It'd been a while since I had dressed nicely and didn't have my clothes food-stained from a child tossing it at me at the dinner table. We were still working with her on that habit. We still weren't sure who taught her that.

We sat mostly in silence, allowing the soft instrumental tunes to play above our heads. My eyes scanned the booths, the tables, the bars. The bar was fairly packed, with the occasional loud laughter and chatter. There were elderly couples, younger couples. Singles at tables.

Perhaps the worst was watching the singles order food for someone who wasn't opposite them. Or they would suddenly burst into quiet tears even though I noticed.

"Kiara."

Steve's voice pulled me back to our table. "Yes?"

"I know." His blue eyes went soft.

I exhaled. "It's not fair, right? That we lucked out and have our lives together whereas others...we completely ruined them."

"Hey, hey. We try not to talk about that."

"I know." I inhaled through my nose. "It's hard to not think about it, I mean...the world is like this." Because of us. I feel like we didn't get enough punishment for it. "People are walking reminders of our failure, Steve."

"How about we don't focus on that? We've got a night to ourselves. Todd has Gracie. Let's enjoy us."

I nodded. "Right. Us."

Considering we lived together, there wasn't anything new to really talk about over dinner. We'd discussed potential schools for Gracie when she was old enough to start. That was a scary thought; she was almost old enough to start an education.

My thoughts spiraled to Gracie's older years. Somewhere in that, knowing her genetics, she'd end up with some sort of power. It didn't necessarily have to copy my abilities, she could just be more durable like her father. There were still a lot of question marks about her future, and those were speculation only. We wouldn't know until things came to pass.

Conversation was scarce during our time in the restaurant. No matter how many times Steve pulled me away from snooping, I couldn't help it. I knew I wasn't the most observant of people, but considering I knew why the world was how it was...