luna mortimer-smith had long learned not to trust anyone, staying in the middle of the woods as to avoid any contact with the dead or any other humans.
one evening, she'd gone out to check her hunting traps like usual. little did she realize, thoug...
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Luna moved around the small kitchen, doing her best to push all the cans they'd accumulated into the cupboards. Carl had gone out to reset the hunting traps around the cabin, leaving her to unpack the food and guns. The guns had been easy, as the closet in the living room was already empty and the perfect place to store them all. The food, however, was proving more difficult. They'd definitely have more than enough food for the winter, but they didn't really have any place to put it all. She sighed, shutting the final, now full, cupboard, turning to see three bags still sitting just inside the doorway. Walking out to the closet, she figured that she could stuff them down in the corner until there was room in the kitchen. After that was done, she leaned against the now shut closet door and sighed again.
Her eyes fixed on Carl's makeshift bed, the old couch that had been there for who knows how long. She felt bad that he still slept on it, but it's not like they had another bed around. Though, it was a far cry better than the ground or the car that they'd slept in on the way back from the prison. Her mind wandered back to that day, following him around the ruins of his old home. She felt terrible that she hadn't gotten him there in time to find his family, though he didn't really seem to care all that much anymore. She couldn't help but worry about him, about how he really felt.
Her fingers twisted around the ends of her hair as she pushed off the door and moved over, standing in front of the window. It had just begun to rain, though the sun was still shining bright. It made her think to back when she was a kid, right when she'd first moved to Virginia, and how confused she was by how much it rained. A light, sad smile had come to her face as her thoughts wandered. She was too busy thinking to hear Carl come inside, now soaking wet.
"Luna, hey you okay?" It was only Carl's voice that shook her out of her thoughts. She jumped lightly, turning around just in time to see the door shut as Carl hung up his wet hat.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine." She nodded. "Just spaced a little. Hey, all the food couldn't fit in the kitchen so I put the rest in the closet." She moved away from the window, watching him hang up his wet flannel as well. "But we should have enough for the winter."
"Good." He nodded. "I didn't see too many animals while I was out, so I'm not sure how much we'll catch." He kicked off his muddy shoes before picking them up and taking them out to the back porch that was slightly covered. When he'd turned back around and shut the door, he noticed the far away look in her eyes, making him frown. She'd had that a lot recently.
"Hey, I have an idea." Her focus suddenly came back, and she looked at him intently. "You can totally shoot it down if you want to, I don't care."
"Alright." He nodded, plopping down on the couch. "What is it?"
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A nice, cool breeze floated through the window as Luna pulled the curtains closed, the bedroom falling into slightly more darkness. Her room never got totally dark, but she liked it that way. Total darkness was too overwhelming for her. She slipped under the covers, eyes trained on the door. Carl had, surprisingly, agreed to share the bed with her. She figured it was because he was too uncomfortable sleeping out there anymore, but she didn't bother to ask. She heard the locks click on the front and back doors, before Carl finally entered the room. She turned, looking up at the ceiling, and after a few seconds the bed dipped down next to her. It took him a minute of fidgeting, but soon Carl was comfortably settled in next to her.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked, his voice soft. Her eyes flashed over at him to see him also staring up at the ceiling.
"You." She blurted out, feeling his eyes on her almost immediately. It wasn't a lie, in the past few weeks nearly all she'd been thinking about was him. It was hard to explain, she herself didn't really understand why. "Just like, you know, you're probably a lot more comfortable in here than on that ratty couch." She hoped to sound convincing in her cover, but she wasn't sure if it had worked.
"Oh, yeah." The slight hint of disappointment in his voice confused her. "The couch wasn't terrible, but I'm not gonna say I'm not glad to be sleeping in a real bed again. Been a long time, honestly. Longer if you don't count the prison bunk beds." She couldn't help the short, breathy chuckle that escaped her mouth.
"Yeah." She nodded lightly, letting a few moments of silence stretch between them. "What about you?"
"Everything, I guess." She felt him shrug. "My group, the past, the upcoming winter...us..." He shrugged again.
"Us?" She looked over at him. "What do you mean us?"
"I dunno." His shrug was slightly lighter this time, and he turned to look at her. "Just...us. What we're gonna do, what we're doing, how things are gonna go for us in the future. You know, just...us."
"Well, how do you want things to go for us in the future?" She asked, now turning onto her side fully.
"Well, for starters, I want things to be safe." He said. "Safe enough to where we wouldn't have to worry, you know? About walkers or people. A-and I want us to have a nice house, too. Maybe another cabin by a lake somewhere, maybe a little bigger or something. I wanna live somewhere where the summers are nice, and the winters are pretty, but the weather isn't too extreme. Maybe we could have a little boat, go out fishing or just go have a picnic out on the lake. I just...I want things to be nice for us. Good. Non-stressful, you know? I don't wanna fear that I'll never see you again when either one of us walks out the front door."
"But you want there to be an us?" She asked, her breath in her throat as she spoke. "For a long time, at least."
"Forever, if we can manage it." He nodded. There was another stretch of silence. "What about you? How much us do you want?" She chuckled again.
"The same, I think. Forever." She confirmed. "And I like the idea of a little boat picnic. It'd be wonderful."
"I know, right?" He sounded excited, and it made her smile. "Warm summer afternoon, some fresh cooked food. You know, we had a farm going back at the prison, maybe we could start growing fruit and veggies or something in the spring?"
"That'd mean we'd be staying." She said.
"Oh, right." He sighed, and she frowned. Her feelings were less extreme now that she'd been in the house for a while, and she was starting to get used to it all. She was starting to not want to leave. "Well, wherever we settle, we'll do it there." A loud banging on the front door made both of them jump. "Stay here." Before she could argue, he was out of bed-picking up his knife and gun from the nightstand before leaving the room. She scrambled out of bed, grabbing her gun and moving into the living room. He'd gone out the back door, the banging still coming from the front door. It abruptly stopped, and a few seconds later Carl was walking around the back of the house. She stepped out onto the back porch as he moved towards the lake, and she noticed the blood on his hands. "Walker." He spoke as he dropped his gun and knife in the grass as he kneeled down at the waters edge.
"Just one?" She asked, watching him clean his hands off quickly. He nodded as he picked up his things and began moving back towards the house.
"I'll burn it in the morning." He said as they moved back inside, not forgetting to lock the door before both going back into the bedroom. They settled back into bed, but the conversation from before was over. "Night, Luna."
