swain. 𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘥.

chapter seven.

Nila yawned into her palm, dragging her feet, which hurt a lot. it was early in the morning and she wanted to go back to bed but the fucking bugs were eating her alive on the ground.

Porco slept well, on the other hand. Nila suspects it's because she slept literally on top of him most of the night, supposedly it made him feel safe and secure, much differently than how he used to feel when they were younger.

ah, those were the days. she began recalling a very specific memory from the summer that they were training to become warriors.

"get off of me, you bitch!!" Porco thrashed his arms around, trying to get Nila off of him.

"i'm trying to go to sleep and you're taking up half of the bed! stop being a man and manspreading!!" Nila yelled, throwing her arms up in exasperation and turning over.

"what the fuck is manspreading?!" Porco sat up, eyebrows furrowed angrily.

Nila couldn't stop herself from bursting out laughing at the memory, she sounded absolutely out of her mind, maybe the bugs were getting to her.

Porco jumped at the sudden laughter and immediately whipped around with a concerned face.

"what the hell? what's wrong?" he asked, hurrying over to her, who was still just laughing it up.

"i'm-" she giggled, "i'm sorry i was just—" she held her stomach as she doubled over, "i was just thinking about how we used to act when we were forced to sleep in the same bed when we were kids. jesus christ, i haven't laughed like this in ages."

Pock's face dropped, he laughed to himself a bit at the thought. his simple chuckles quickly devolved into unbridled laughter, and soon the two of them were out of breath, laughing so hard they were wheezing.

a branch snapped to Nila's left, her laughter immediately ceased, fear taking over her expression. Porco noticed and looked where the noise came from, a figure emerging from the thick forest came into their sights.

it was Pieck Finger!

"jesus christ, Pieck! maybe announce yourself before you give me a heart attack!" Nila shouted, clutching her heart. Pieck shrugged, approaching the two warriors. Porco's jaw squared at the sight of her.

"sorry, Nila. i'm surprised no one else has found you, considering you both were just laughing so loud i could hear you from outside the forest." the noirette teased, but not in a usually teasing way.

"yeah, i'm not sorry." Nila laughed.

"so anyway, what're you guys doin' out here? where's the commander, or Zeke?" Pieck questioned, Porco froze.

"oh, we're trying to lurk through the forest until we get to the laboratory in the east side forest. what about you?" Nila answered innocently, dumbass! Porco thought, pulling Nila aside.

"hey, Nila. can i speak to you for a second?"

once on the sidelines, out of earshot, Porco whisper-shouted at Nila, "what the hell are you doing?! we don't know if we can trust her! she's been up Zeke's ass since day one!"

Nila scoffed, panic building up. "it's Pieck! what's she gonna do? crawl to the government and spill our secrets??"

"maybe!! i don't know! i just don't think we should go around telling everyone what we're doing." he crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrows furrowed.

Nila got an idea, just then. "look, i'll solve this right here and now, ok? just watch and learn, Pock." before he could answer, she walked back over to Pieck, who was waiting patiently.