Vault Hunters [Borderlands, Zer0/Handsome Jack X OC]

Chapter 8 -

Eva felt Shifter reaching out to her in her sleep, touching not only her mind but every organ in her body. It was jump starting her conciousness, creating sparks through her nervous system. She could feel it suffer; it called out for her, begged for her to wake up. It jolted all of her nerves again, this time with a little more force.

Against her will, her eyes flickered open, and she could feel Shifter's happiness wash over her.

And then she heard a gunshot, and her heart dropped. She sat up, looking around the room in bewilderment.

"Welcome back/to the land of the living/unfortunately." Zer0 held a pistol in his hand, and he was aiming it at what was now a roast chicken in a pile of charred feathers.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eva ignored the fact he said unfortunately, blotting it out of her mind. It was unfortunate she had to deal with him. Also, hadn't she fainted?

The mask.

She stared at Zer0's mask as he picked the chicken up by the leg and dangled it in the air, shaking it up and down awkwardly as if he expected it to attack him and he was attempting to make it dizzy.

Eva could have sworn she saw the mask come off. There was no way that it wasn't him. What did he look like? What was the face in her mind, the one that she saw before her collapse?

Glowing features, for sure. Was what she saw actually a human, now that she could remember the face clearly?

Scar on the lip, with the eyes of a predator. Short, messy black hair. A lean, almost perfectly shaped face to go along with what seemed like the shape of Zer0's muscular body.

Why would Zer0 take off his mask? The face she remembered seemed so human, and yet... she knew it wasn't. The way the eyes glew, the way the worry seemed more like a predatory threat...

A shiver ran through Eva, and Shifter reached out to comfort her, the fabric stretching to her hand. It was warm and soft, guarding her from the light breeze that was coming from the open window.

Zer0 dropped the chicken, walking over to  Eva. She stared dejectedly at the dead (and freshly cooked) animal that was now just a waste of a good life.

You shouldn't kill something if you're not going to eat it, Eva thought.

As if Zer0 read her mind, he plopped down on the bed, staring at her. At least, she thought he was staring at her. Hard to tell when his face was nothing more than a black mask.

"I apologize." He said, and she swore he had exhaled. "I thought you could.../I didn't know that you.../I am sorry." Eva never expected this from him. He seemed to be the type who never apologized, but that was every vault hunter she'd ever met. Especially since she had been Jack's wife, and she experienced his mistakes without ever apologizing {Well, apologizing and meaning it} several times. It was always, 'sorry I missed it, babe, but I was busy mining eridium', 'Sorry I missed our anniversary, I was hunting vaults', 'I'm sorry I cheated on you, babe, but her boobs were just that big!'. 

Jack was the biggest scumbag in the world. 

Ugh, she could go on about Jack forever. She had several fun nicknames for him, too. Jackass, Jackawhore... There was no end to these. The bastard that had once risked his own life to protect her from a Rakk Hive was now gone. Lost in his own mind, with everyone who could have helped him out of it dead, unwilling, or... Eva.