Curls (10K fanfic) Z Nation

Chapter Seven: Song Bird

Dory's POV:
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I found that 10K was becoming more and more patient with me. I knew that I was putting him through hell with this, and I felt selfish because I damn well could have prevented this all. I could have hid my scars better. I could have just run away so he didn't see my panic attack. Every scenario in my head that seemed like a solution to the forever looming problems was playing on repeat and I was slowly being driven insane.

For ten whole days we've been driving, siphoning gas, driving, collecting cans, driving, raiding hotel rooms and minimarts, and then some more driving. We'd made okay time, seeing that we were currently camped outside an abondoned campsite in Greeley's Fort, Utah. Z's were all around us, but with the cold weather and our recently established skill set of somewhat stealth and agility had kept most unwanted attention away. On the outside, I've realistically given up hope of ever seeing Murphy or Cassandra again. Murphy was a dick, but I missed his sarcastic belittlement. I especially missed Doc and Roberta most of all. It was gutting me from the inside out not knowing whether or not they were alive or dead- or the horrifying combination of both.

Deep down, there was still the hope that we would see them again. But I'd buried this under all of my other bottled up emotions and ignored any pangs of guilt that might bubble to the surface. I needed to move on. We both did.

10K seemed to be handling it well. I honestly didn't expect him to give up on the others so easily- particularly not Doc. I never thought to bring it up because I was so caught up in my own dramatic fiasco of an existence that his feelings never really occured to me; I didn't think to consider how it must have felt to leave his only family behind.

"10K," I started from the other side of the campfire.

"What's up, Thea?" he responded, poking at the cooking meat with a stick. Thea was short for Dorothy, and he'd started calling me that as a nickname. He also called me his "Little Songbird" or his "Birdie" because I liked to sing.

"I miss them." my fat mouth blurted. Really, Dorothy? Did it even occur to you that anything even remotely more intelligent would have served a better purpose? You sound like a whiny little kid who only cares about your own damn feelings!

"I know." K's voice quieted my thoughts. "I think about them every second of every day. And I want to go back sometimes. I know it's stupid, but I miss Doc." He held no emotion in his gaze as he stared into the flames. It was just...blank. "Doc was a lot like my Uncle Eli. He was a crazy old dude who use string and beer bottle tops for fishing. But the thing about Uncle Eli was that he always caught the biggest fish." K prodded the fire again boredly. "Doc was a good man. Hippie stoner from the seventies turned zombie slaying Santa Claus, but a good man all the same. Sure, he liked to smoke pot every once in a while. But he's deserved at least that much."

I couldn't speak. It wouldn't be fair of me to speak. But again I repeat to you the words "fat mouth" mainly because of what sputtered out of it next.

"Maybe they're in California." SHUT. UP. YOU. INCONSIDERATE. LITTLE. BIGMOUTH.

10K scoffed. "Yeah, maybe." he looked up at me seriously for a moment before directly his attention back to the fire.

I decided to turn in without eating. My regret and the hatred towards myself killed my appetite, anyways. I'd run my mouth quite enough for one night.
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I woke up to see K breaking camp and loading up the car. "Morning," he greeted, stirring the ashen embers that lay as evidence someone had been near. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but in my exhausted morning state, I stood up (stumbling a little. I'm not the most graceful ballerina on the stage), rushed over to 10K and threw my arms around him. He froze for a second, looking down at me with confusion, but her then enclosed me in his own arms, pulling me up to his chest. "Are you okay, Birdie?" he asked.

I looked up at him and nodded, smiling with a closed mouth. "No. I'm not okay. I'm a giggling idiot in the middle of the apocalypse who can't seem to keep my mouth shut and who is stuck in the middle of Utah with perhaps the last good man on earth, hugging him, with the stupidest smile on my face." I laughed a little. "And this is as good as it's ever gonna get. But that's okay. Because you're not okay either. You just hide it from me so we don't both look like emotionally compromised idiots. So thank you."

He was stunned. Completely dumbfounded as I stared up at him from our embrace. He opened his mouth to talk a few times, but always closed it right after, speechless. I pulled away, leaving him stood there like a blind fool, as I continued to pack the last of our gear up.

God, what I would give to hear what was going through his mind.
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10K's POV:

 What the fuck. Just- what? I've never been this confused by a girl in my entire life. In eighth grade, Mindy Sanchez passed me a note telling me that she wanted to meet behind the lunch tables after school, but when I showed up, her friend Bethany was there and Bethany told me that Mindy just wanted to ask me out for her other friend Anna. And even that entire situation and its anarchy, especially after Anna told me that she didn't actually like me all that much, made more sense than whatever the hell was going on between Dory and me.

I wanted her. I wanted to be with her romantically, but she claimed she wasn't ready for that. Deep down I knew it, too, but she was leading me on in a few different ways. One second, she's pushing me away and sobbing her eyes out and then the next she's hugging me and telling me that she, "...couldn't be better."

 Either way, I collected myself and hopped in the driver's seat of the truck, starting it up and pulling out of the dusty campgrounds.

Dorothy started humming a little tune to herself, and I quickly found myself getting into the rythem of it sometime during the second verse. "What song is that?" I questioned. She looked at me for a second before answering.

"It's called Little Wing." Dory answered. "My mom used to sing it to me when I was little so I'd fall asleep."

"So my Songbird's favorite song is called Little Wing?" I breathed a laugh. "Kind of ironic, don't you think?"

"Maybe so, but that doesn't matter." she shrugged.

"Sing it for me." I told her.

"What?"

"Sing." I repeated myself. "Teach me the lyrics." Dory was hesitant at first, but she cleared her throat and started from the beginning. I couldn't keep the smile off my face as she carried the notes softly along the lyrics as if she'd done it a thousand times. For a little while, my mind was taken off of every other source of stress that surrounded us. All that mattered was her.
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Hey guys! No, you're not dreaming: A DOUBLE UPDATEEEE

I felt bad for keeping you so long, so here are two (incredibly) short, fluffy chapters so that you can all have your daily dosage of fangirl :3

I'll try to pick up the pace a little in the next chapter. But until then, my Birdies! (I've decided to call you all my Birdies)

xoxoxo