The Second Coming: The Walking Dead: Season Six.

Chain Of Events - Part Three: Problem (with) Child.

*

There was no telling for sure what time she'd awoken in Violets arms.

The bunker had been built completely devoid of any natural light source and the timed generator had ceased functioning a week or so prior to their arrival, at least according to Nate.

There were some tell-tale signs though, like the fact that Clementine had always found herself rising before anybody else without fail since AJ had come into her life. When she hadn't been up half the night keeping watch anyway.

She found the notion cemented again as she pulled herself past the blocks containing still sleeping bodies on her way to the cafeteria.

It was the strangest feeling to be living out of cupboards and eating regularly from bowls again when she had survived for so long by the bag on her back.

Though without gas or working electricity most of their food had been rendered inedible indefinitely, as starting fires in the bunker seemed a little too much like tempting fate to Clementine.

She pulled two bowls from the cupboard anyway, positioning a chair beneath her so she would be tall enough to do so as Nate insisted on putting them on the top most shelf possible.

It was an inconvenience but if that was the extent of his antagonistic deeds, Clementine would gladly continue to suffer in silence.

She'd barely touched terra-firma again when she heard the tail-end of a yawn from behind her. AJ entered, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes, his afro looking unkempt from his stint in bed.

"Morning, Goofball" Clementine smiled, pulling a chair out from under one of the many lines of tables in the room.

"Morning, Clem." He replied groggily, taking up her offer and climbing slowly onto the seat; using the tables edge to prop up his elbows as she pushed him back in. He yawned again.

"I was about to come wake you..." She informed, thankful she hadn't actually needed to. AJ had proven himself to be quite the heavy sleeper. His early rise put down to his similarly early fall the previous evening. "Do you want breakfast?" She asked.

"What do we got?" He replied, lazily.

"Have" Clementine corrected. She looked over their consumables, quickly realising that she would have been stumped even choosing on his behalf. "Well there's not a lot. Nothing hot without the stove..."

She lamented its loss during the show down on the bridge for a second before going on. "How about some Oatmeal?" Clementine suggested knowing it was hardly a desirable start to the day.

Alvin Jr. pulled his face a little before complaining. "Cold Oatmeal? Anymore Twinkies?" He asked instead hopefully. Clementine laughed and ruffled his springy hair in response.

"Sorry, Kiddo. You and Tenn finished them off together." The words had left her mouth before she'd been able to prevent herself, the forlorn look AJ had perpetually worn since his death returning near instantaneously.

Clementine cursed herself silently. This wasn't the way she'd planned to address his behaviour yesterday. She certainly hadn't wanted to lead into it with Tenn's name. She passed over the Oatmeal to instead grab a couple bars of Pemmican, setting them down upon the table and then rounding it to sit opposite her boy.

Clementine then nudged one of the bars in his direction and thankfully after a moment or two AJ picked it up, though the wounded demeanor remained. She opened a bar of her own and allowed silence to continue as they ate.

She spent the time wishing she knew the right thing to say to him. Loss had shadowed most of her life, and yet it had never come with quite the same dynamic that AJ had found with Tenn. Sure, she had lost people similar in age - Sarah, Gabe, even Duck... but she had to admit, she'd never looked up to them.