1 World, 2 of Us [Nellis]

I'll stand by ya

Authors note: trigger warning: F slur

He didn't know how long he had been out, but when Nick woke up, he felt a weird warmness on the side of his neck. It was a bit rough too, but...not too rough, and not uncomfortable. He grabbed at the weird object holding onto the side of his neck and jumped at the realization at what it was, standing up quickly and pulling his Desert Eagle out, pointing it at Ellis. "Woah there! I don't do that faggot shit." He was mad!

Ellis was jolted awake by Nick yanking away so suddenly and the clicking noise of Nick loading his gun to shoot. "Where're the zombies at?!" He thought Nick was trying to shoot at a zombie that had gotten in his house, but the realization sunk in...Nick was trying to shoot him!

The young mechanic eased up from the seat, his hands up in front of his chest in defense and his eyes wide with horror. "Nick...don't kill me, please...!" Still he had no clue as to why Nick was doing this. All he knew was that he had fallen asleep with his hands resting on Nick, and now Nick was trying to kill him! What in the hell was going on?!

Nick slowly put his gun away and sighed, running his hand through his hair and dropping his arms to his sides. "Just...don't fucking touch me. Ever. Scared me to death." With a shake of his head, Nick pushed Ellis' hands down so they weren't held up infront of Ellis' chest anymore in defense, the "okay" signal. "How long uh...do you think we were sleepin'?" Nick avoiding eye contact with Ellis now, ashamed of having slept with Ellis touching him so fondly?

Ellis looked out of the window and whistled. "Till dark! Musta been alllllll day Nick. Waita minute...Coach? Ro? Where ya at?" Ellis got his axe ready and searched the house, Nick doing the same. No Coach or Rochelle anywhere. This was not good...

Nick ran into Ellis in the kitchen, having come from the family room, and Ellis having come from the dining room. "God dammit Ellis! You scared me. Don't fucking do that!" Nick gave him another shove and sighed, running his hand through his hair once more. "They probably just went out to Coach's home. After all, you did say you lived near each other, didn't you?"

Ellis nodded and lowered his axe, worry in his eyes. "They wouldn'ta gone without us. That's too risky. Nick...I think they're dead..." Ellis looked down and wiped at his eyes so Nick couldn't see the tears of fear and shock gathering in his eyes. His best friends...were they really dead?

"Ellis, quit crying." Nick put his hand on Ellis' back reassuringly, unsure of himself and everything else at this point. "Let's just keep looking. They haven't gone far...oh! I know! They went to the safe house in this town! We just have to find it now, like they did." Nick felt proud of himself for being optimistic. It wasn't that easy for him to be optimistic in a world like this, at a time like this.

They both agreed to look and walked together, alone, along the streets of Savannah and checked every house along the way. It took the rest of the night for them to find the safe house, and when they did, they sadly found no one.

"This ain't funny no more Nick. They're dead." Ellis looked at the ground and walked slowly, watching his feet, then looking at Nick's feet. What would they do now that Rochelle and Coach were dead? They didn't find their bodies, so they must have been eaten while they were sleeping. Nick couldn't help but blame himself, remembering how he had fallen asleep so easily between Ellis' legs as Ellis mothered him so tenderly over something as small as a nose bleed. It was sweet of Overalls.

"I know. I don't want to think of what happened to them...it's scary. But, we'll just say that because of us, they're dead. I hate living with that on my shoulders Ellis. We can't give up this campagne..we're so close to safety—for good. Will you promise you won't give up as long as I don't give up?" Nick furrowed his eyebrows together as he took two health-kits this time instead of one. Why waste what was there when you could easily carry two instead of one?

The day went smoothly because they had decided to stay in the safe house to plan out where they would go on the map. They had decided to take a different route, because everywhere that Rochelle had marked down was filled with zombies, no matter how small the town was. Nick crossed out the red circles Rochelle had made with a blue pen and re-circled the new places they would be headed.

Dinner went by silently, Ellis being more quiet than usual. Eventually, Nick just had to ask Ellis if he was okay. He was worried a bit now because it was only Ellis and him. Who wouldn't be worried?

"Uh...Ellis? Y'okay?" He noticed that he had begun to pick up phrases from Ellis since they had been getting along more these past few days, and even more-so now that Coach and Rochelle were gone. It was weird, but...he didn't mind it. He sort of wished it would go away at the same time to, but it just didn't make sense. His feelings and thoughts had gone off-balance, and he was just trying to cope, being silent for the sake of Ellis and his poor, soft heart.

As for Ellis...Ellis was just being quiet for Nick, not wanting to anger him or anything. He figured Nick was trying to mourn in silence, so he mocked his actions and tried to honor his wishes that he had assumed.

"Nick? You think we gonna make it out alive? We have to fight harder now...be more careful. I'm gonna be honest, alright?" He looked up from his plate of ravioli that he had found at the abandoned store a few towns back and watched Nick, waiting for a response. He got none. So he looked back down at his plate and continued eating, more slowly, sort of playing with his food now.

Nick looked at him finally and sighed, putting his plate on the wooden table he had been leaning against and clapped Ellis on the shoulder gently. "Ellis, we're going to be fine. You doubt me too much, Kid." He tried to smile nicely, but it turned out pained and forced.

Ellis looked up at him from the ground, finding it more comfortable to be sitting on the ground and eating over your lap than standing and balancing your plate unsurely. He didn't think Nick could smile ever again, but when Ellis saw the pained, forced smile, he couldn't stand to look at him anymore. "Nick, I like it when you call me Kid n' stuff. It gives me a secur'ty that you ain't gonn' leave me. I mean, once ya name somethin', ya can't just leave it. Right? Too bad I ain't got a name for you. But, just so y'know...I ain't leavin' ya. Ever. I'll stand by ya."