A Daughter?

Separated

It was well into the night when Nick woke up. His immediate reaction was to check on the others, so he panicked when he didn't see them. He scrambled to his feet. He glanced around for his gun, cursing when he realized he only had his axe on him and couldn't for the life of him remember what happened to his primary. He slowly crept his way through the...auto shop?... that he was in and headed toward the sounds coming from the back. His cognitive ability was lacking from whatever was causing his head to hurt, and he just wanted to sleep, but he couldn't until he knew his team was safe because god he definitely got attached but he was not soft for anyone other than Millie and damn he hoped she was okay..he couldn't find his phone... No. Team. sound. Garage?

He opened the door to a garage,readying his axe and peered inside. He was prepared for a few things: His team hanging out in here so they didn't disturb him, zombies of any kind, random survivors -friend or foe-, etc.... He was not ready to see only Ellis with no shirt, sweating with car oil on his hands and forearms, and a smear on his forehead where he probably tried to wipe off sweat. That was hot... Damn. Were Ellis' arms always that muscular? Nick wondered to himself as he gazed at the flexing of his arm muscles while he appeared to be unscrewing something under the hood. Just when Nick thought it couldn't get any better, whatever Ellis was unscrewing suddenly began releasing a large amount of steam so strongly it blew Ellis's hat off. But to Nick it was all in slow motion. He gawked, letting his eyes rake over the younger man in front of him. (pretend cars work this way. We're here for Nellis and Dad Nick, not accuracy.)

Ellis turned to grab some water he found, his heart stopping for a second when he noticed Nick, "gee, Nick, ya gave me a scare there. Thought ya were a zombie!"
"Sorry, Ace, Whatcha fixing?" Nick replied, shaking his gay panic off.

"Oh I found this girl here in the garage. 'Figured we could ride her outta here. Yer head probably hurts a lot. Need some pills?'' The younger asked, moving to the older to fuss over him.

Nick felt his gay panic rise 12 levels at the sight of Ellis with no shirt and sweating coming closer and oh shit he was dizzy again.
Ellis managed to steady Nick and guide him to the ground, "Nick? Are you okay?"

"Fine, kid. Just a little dizzy." He mumbled, allowing himself to lean on Ellis and take in their closeness.
Ellis shifted to check Nick's head, finding it kind of amusing how the man refused to admit he needed any sort of help ever. Even when he was charged by a charger and thrown by a tank. Must be the California in him showing. City boys are real stubborn. He didn't realize he was spacing out and kind of just holding the other's head and staring at the back of it.

"You okay there, sharp shooter? Am I dying or something?'

Ellis' face flushed and he moved away, "you just gotta take it easy for a while, Nick."

"That's kind of hard for the end of the world, kid." Nick sighed out, "we should head out soon to find the others. Don't wanna be separated for too long, ya know?"
"Yeah, yer right. Lemme just finish up this beauty and we can take 'er with us."

"Make it quick. We don't have all day." Nick relented, gently shoving Ellis toward the car and watching as he moved over to start working on it again. His gay thoughts weren't holding back today and he'd really appreciate it if they calmed down. He just leaned against the wall he was sitting in front of to watch the younger man. It's always attractive watching someone you like do something they're good at. Something about that just gives you warm and fuzzy feelings and he found he didn't mind if those were reserved for Millie and Ellis.

About an hour later, Ellis deemed that that was all that could be done on the car and moved to replace his shirt, noticing Nick was spacing out in the doorway, "She's all ready, Nick!" He proudly proclaimed, stretching out the kinks in his back from leaning over the hood for so long. It's a good thing he and Keith used to work out to keep their back muscles strong or else he would have the worst posture ever.

"Where are the other two?" Nick asked, slowly managing to get off of the ground and meander his way toward the car, wincing as the movement was making his head continue to spin. He'd love to be sleeping right now, but they couldn't stay in one place too long. They had to keep going if he wanted to get to Millie soon. Especially since he has no idea where his phone went.

"We got separated when that tank threw ya, Nick," Ellis replied cautiously, worried that the man's head wound was worse than he thought. He moved closer to the man so he could catch him if he got too unsteady on his feet again.

"Pretty sure I wasn't awake after the hit he gave me, Ace," Nick muttered, finally making his way into the passenger seat. He needed a nap, "Let's get out of here."