Finding Ever After

Memories Are Ghosts, And We Are The Houses They Haunt

Based on the Happily Ever After playthrough by DragonSkullGaming 

Diego often had a hard time admitting he was wrong. In this world being wrong got you killed, being wrong got you betrayed. He had to rely on his judgment alone for two years after he was abandoned. He simply couldn't afford to be wrong. 

One misstep could cost Diego his life. Whether it was to a human or alien threat, the Hispanic boy would be no more if he trusted too easily or took an unnecessary risk. Being wrong had almost done just that when he was 16.

At that time, all he had was the knife on his back. The ravenette couldn't remember how he survived. A great deal of luck went into it, and a whole lot of strategy. If hard pressed, Diego didn't think he could do it again. Not now. 

No, Diego couldn't afford to be wrong, but when it came to Ted, he was glad he was.

Ted. 

Even thinking the blond's name brought a smile to the ravenette's face. The taller boy was naive, yes, and trusting, but he was warm and capable too. It was uncomfortable for Diego at first, seeing the same fresh-faced innocence he once held on someone else. It was a face that wasn't marred by betrayal and hurt. Well, there was hurt in those blue eyes, but it wasn't the same kind. Ted hadn't been hurt like Diego, but he had lost everything he'd known. Diego left his home, Ted's was taken from him.

Diego was jaded. The only person he cared about left him to die. It had hardened him. So when he was presented with someone who was just like he used to be, the walls went up. The Hispanic boy wouldn't and couldn't allow himself to open up completely.

However, it did feel good to have someone to talk to. Someone his age no less. He could tell stories and jokes, and against his better judgement, he found himself bonding with Ted. He tried so hard to shut it down, but every reason Diego came up with came back to the fact he wasn't over his shit, and he wasn't being fair. 

Ted wasn't the person who left him. His eyes were too kind, his smile was too easy. Ted wasn't that person, and he wasn't Diego either.

The blond was an entity all his own, and Diego was wrong to project his experiences and pain onto someone who grew up so vastly different. For as much as he thought of Ted as a himbo with the personality of a golden retriever, Diego had to admit that didn't define the other boy.

Ted could drive, which was a skill not many people had because of the lack of vehicles around. He wondered briefly if Ted could fly an aircraft; the military had them and taught the boy to drive, so it wasn't too farfetched. He could forage, he could hunt. 

Diego was beyond shocked and thoroughly impressed that Ted had caught a bird for them to eat. He even de-feathered the thing, which made it easier for Diego to cut. Everything the blond bought back was edible, even though he wasn't from the area, and he expertly started the fire. 

Ted was smarter than he believed him to be as well. He figured out the generator without any help. Diego honestly thought he would need it, but he proved him wrong again. 

The thing that shocked him the most though, was the fact that Ted had killed people. Yes, he had said he only killed bad people, but Diego didn't know how many or what he had to go through to do it. Ted, who stared down the barrel of his gun and ended lives, showed compassion to the girls at Furniture Valley. He didn't see them as bad; he didn't want to kill them, because he recognized their desperation. Ted still had compassion. 

When Ted laid his head on Diego's shoulder, the ravenette had realized then, just how wrong he had been. People had sides to them, and the Hispanic boy was having a hard time reconciling the sweet, clumsy boy with the glimpses of the capable, fearless, and deadly person he could be.