Prolonged Entanglement

Chapter 2

     By the time you woke up, N had already been awake for a few minutes. You caught him staring up at your face while he laid on your chest. The moment he sees that he’s been caught, he begins to act very bashful, averting his gaze. So this is the dreaded ‘morning after’ people talk about. Lucky for you, the both of you were in a time crunch. Only being able to travel at night made things a little difficult, but that just meant that you could rest twice as long as you worked. Score. Speaking of scoring, N removed himself from you and went through the motions to dress himself. You decided to do the same, but you took longer due to the amount of clothing you wore.
     Something you didn’t expect is that N didn’t seem to act any different once the both of you were all dressed. He was his same chipper self, and he was eager to get back into action to hunt for food. Though he did also have to ‘hunt’ in a more literal sense too. Some numbnuts thought it’d be a good idea to make these kinds of drones cannibals. And here you thought that hiring Hannibal Lecter would be a PR nightmare for the company. Either way, the both of you set off on a, hopefully fruitful, adventure.

     It was not a fruitful adventure. You realized why it was so easy to get into the bunker that N had found. You’d been there before. Somehow you circled back into an area that you’d already mostly cleared out. It wasn’t all for nothing though, as you’ve actually been working on a map. It wasn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, but it served its purpose. Now you can at least avoid the area during your next excursion. Returning to the bunker empty handed never felt great, but what can you do? Go over to a friend's house to play video games for a few hours/days? Yeah, you could go for that.
     So that’s exactly what you did. There was this emo grape that you made friends with a while back. Well, you didn’t start out as friends, but after calling each other a few slurs, you realized she could hang. She didn’t really warm up to you, but she did learn to tolerate your presence. For an edgy weirdo, that’s about as good as it’s going to get probably. She started to actually smile when she saw you, so you guess you’re friends? Outcasts usually stick together, so it makes sense.
     “Can you pay attention to the frickin’ game? You’re K/D already sucks,” Uzi taunts you at your side.
     “Better than yours, twerp,” you give her a side eye for just a moment. Despite being feet from each other, you both insist on having a headset on. It’s part of the game.
     N was in the background laying on his stomach on Uzi’s bed, drawing while the two of you were playing your game. He would occasionally say something that you couldn’t quite make out, but Uzi would usually lift her headphones up to hear what he said. Most of the time it was just comments about the game, or him wanting to show you and Uzi what he drew while you waited for a match to start. He wasn’t great at drawing, but you couldn’t just tell him that. Everyone has to start somewhere, so you and Uzi encouraged him. It was worth it to see him smile, though that smile had begun to look different to you after ‘the incident.’
     You hadn’t talked to anyone about it yet, and you weren’t sure if you wanted to. It was kinda private, and N hadn’t said anything about it first, so you didn’t want to be the one to talk about it. You could see N being really embarrassed if his sex life became public information.
     A knock at Uzi’s door rang out before it shunted open. Uzi’s dad leans in and addresses his daughter, “Hey, buddy. More of your friends showed up to your party.” He left the room immediately after.
     Uzi yells as he leaves, “Not a party! And who-?”
     She goes silent as V walks in, “Sup losers?”
     After V makes her way deeper into the room, Lizzy follows behind her. Lizzy doesn’t enter the room, but rather stands in the doorway and gives all her attention to her phone.
     Uzi grits her teeth before giving a reply, “What do you want? Come here just to taunt me again?”
     “You’re overestimating how much I actually care about you. I just came to see N since he came back from his, um… Trip,” V turns from Uzi to N.
     He put down his pencil and gave V a big smile, “It was great! We didn’t find anything, and actually covered less ground than we thought, but it was great!”
     V shakes her head, “Only you can find the upside to failure.”
     N gives a salute, “I try my best.”
     V, having almost succumbed to N’s infectious joy but not wanting to show it, turns to you, “So, no luck finding food?”
     You breathe a deep sigh and pull your headset down to rest around your neck, “Nope. We didn’t cover a lot of new ground like he said, but we did find a couple of bunkers while we were out that can serve as rest stops.”
     V walks over to you, “Let me see.”
     You narrow your eyes at V’s sudden interest in your maps, but comply. You take out the map you’ve been working on out of your backpack and hand it to V, “We’ve gone pretty far east already so we tried to head north this time. Ended up looping into some places we’ve already been, so we know what turns not to take.”
     V takes it and looks it over intently. She doesn’t seem to be listening to you, only making generic agreeing noises as you talk.
     “Why?,” you ask, curious as to why she cares about your map.
     V holds up the map, “Mind if I take this for a few days? I’m going to go hunting soon, and I’m not sure there’s much left close to the bunker.”
     You think about her request for a moment before coming up with an answer, “I’d prefer to keep the original, actually. I can print you off a copy and mark the bunkers we found, so you can find them easier if you want.”
     V mulls over the compromise, “Fine. I’m leaving tonight, so if you don’t get me that copy, I’m just taking this one.” V hand you the map which you take and shove back in your backpack.
     N speaks up, “V, don’t you think you should be a little nicer? He IS helping us after all.”
     “I AM nice to him. I asked if I could have it, didn’t I?,” V defends.
     “Yeah,” Lizzy chimes in from the doorway, “What’s the problem? Trying to protect your boyfriend?” She snickers to herself.
     “Y-yeah,” N says nervously before changing his demeanor to one of faux confidence, “So what if I am?”
     You thought N was being a bit more defensive than usual, but you didn’t expect that. The whole ‘boyfriend’ thing is a label you two definitely haven’t discussed. You did totally bone the other day though. Oh, you might be a fuckboy. That’s a thing fuckboy’s say. Regardless, that’s a talk you’re going to have to have now that other people have heard it. Speaking of the other people in the room, you careen your head to get a feel for their reactions.
     V and Uzi both looked shocked, Uzi more so. Poor girl looked like she’d seen a ghost, though you don’t know why that elicited that strong of a reaction. V was more caught off guard if anything, being at a loss for words. Lizzy looked indifferent, though a bit annoyed her insult didn’t hit its mark.
     Lizza, in fact, was the first to speak, “What? It’s not that big a deal. No need to be such drama queens.” She rolled her eyes and moved out of sight of the doorway.
     V snaps out of her stupor a few seconds after Lizzy leaves, “When did this happen?”
     “Well…,” N looked around the room to not look V in the eye, “While we were out. We got to know each other a lot better while we were hiding from the sun.”
     You take note that he’s being vague, which you appreciate.
     V sees how happy N is and after a few seconds of deliberation, moves over to him and pulls the brim of his hat down to cover his vision, “I’m happy for you, N.”
     “Hey!,” N scrambles to remove his hat and return it to its rightful place.
     Before he can though, V turns one of her hands into claws, looks you in the eye with hollow LEDs, and does the ‘I’m watching you’ hand motion. By the time N regains his vision, V’s hand is back to normal and she has that smile that you always felt was fake back on her face. She stepped back a few steps, but still addressed N, “So, I take it you’re NOT coming hunting with me?”
     “Are we out of oil already?!,” N pushes himself up to a sitting position with a worried look on his face.
     “Relax. We still have plenty from that Doll freak’s place. I’m just tired of stagnant oil. I swear I can still taste sour,” V sticks her tongue out in disgust. “I want the fresh stuff, so I’m getting it. It’ll probably take a few days to drink our fill, so I wanted to see if you two had found good shelter from the sun.”
     “Oh, phew,” N wipes an imaginary sweat from his brow, “You had me going there for a second. Uh…” He turns to you like a dog asking permission.
     “What?,” you ask, unsure why he’s looking at you like that.
     “Is it fine with you if I'm gone for a few days?,” he asks.
     “You don’t need permission to go hunting. You need to eat. I’m not going on any expedition alone,” you reassure.
     A blush makes its way onto N face, “You sure you’re not going to, uh, need me for anything?”
     Oh. You fight away the redness trying to spread across your face, “I’ll be good for a while, so go have fun. Don’t let me hold you up.”
     V looks at you like you’ve achieved the bare minimum and walks out of Uzi’s room, “See you at the doors tonight. Bring the map, or I’ll come get it.”
     You take the opportunity to test a theory that you’ve had in your head since ‘the incident’ with N. Hm… Yep… Definitely. Taking a good look at V’s hips as she walks away, you certainly like women. So you’re not gay. Good to know for the future, you guess. Speaking of drones with bodies that won’t stop, N notices you staring at V, but misunderstands the reason.
     Once V’s gone, N gives you a smile, “She’s great once she gets comfortable around you, I promise.”
     You look at him, “If you say so…” You look at Uzi, who’s been remarkably quiet during the majority of the exchange, “Hey. You still in there?”
     No response.
     “Uzi?,” N asks.
     That seemed to knock her out of whatever was going on in her head as she pulled down her headset to match yours. After rapidly blinking a few times, she regains the ability to speak, “Huh? What did you say?” She turns her body to face N.
     “(Y/N) asked if you were alright,” he says.
     “Oh,” Uzi’s face drops like a deep disappointment had hit her, “Yeah, I’m great. Just great.” Uzi puts on a clearly forced smile.
     You get an idea, “Hey, N? Can you do me a favor?”
     His attention turns from Uzi to you, “Of course. What do you need?”
     You take the map out of your backpack again and toss it onto Uzi’s bed, “Can you find a printer and make a copy- No two copies. One for you and one for V.”
     N takes the map and stands, giving you a salute. This salute was special just for you however, you get a wink, “On it. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” N walks to the doorway, but stops. He looks back at Uzi, his face showing worry. You get his attention and just give him a thumbs up. This seems to ease his mind, and he gives you a soft smile before leaving.
     You’re left in the room with Uzi, not sure what’s going on with her. You don’t want to pry, but she’s not acting like herself. “So,” you pause, trying to think of the right words, “What’s up with you?” Smooth.
     “What’s that supposed to mean?,” Uzi says with a bit of edge to her tone, and not the normal kind for her.
     You put your hands up placatingly, “You just seemed off. I was just making sure you were ok.”
     “I’m fine,” Uzi slams her headphones back into place, “Let’s just keep going. I don’t want to do my homework yet.”
     You pick up your controller, and place your headset in its rightful place. Just before you join the game you pause, horror overtaking you, “We had homework?”