Growing closer
Chapter 33
"We almost thought you'd kicked the bucket," Sasha said, greeting the boys as they stepped inside.
"Well, we had a little errand to run," Leo answered, awkward, forcing a thin smile.
"Must've been a tough one," Sasha said, eyeing the two of them — covered in blood, smelling like something that had crawled out of the mall itself. "Bathroom's upstairs. Lucky for you, Alex got the power back, so take your time." She didn't need to say twice that they needed it.
"While you two do that, let me put something together to eat," Amy said. She couldn't help feeling for them — none of them owed each other anything, not really, no blood, no history before all this. And yet here they all were, still choosing to stay. It gave her something to hold onto, a reason to keep going instead of letting herself fall apart.
"Don't forget this," Duncan said, holding up the basket of fruit as he came through the door.
"What, is this a housewarming party now?" Sasha joked, she and Alex arriving just in time to help usher Duncan and the basket inside.
---
*Later that night.*
"Hey, has anyone seen Kaito?" Amy asked, setting plates down as everyone gathered for dinner.
"Last I saw him, he was just staring at his reflection in a car mirror," Sasha offered when no one else answered. "Figured it was a little weird, but I didn't want to interrupt whatever that was, so I left him to it."
"Probably wandered off and got lost," Brad joked — and immediately regretted it, met with a wall of silence.
"What?" he said, catching the looks aimed his way.
It was already dark out — too dark to risk going looking for him, not with everything that could be drawn out by the noise of a search party. Nobody wanted to take that risk.
Leo exchanged a worried glance with Duncan. Just as they started to get up anyway, a loud thud sounded from outside, pulling everyone's attention to the open window across from the table. They rushed over to look — and there was Kaito, picking himself up off the ground, awkwardly checking around to see if anyone had caught the fall. When he realized every pair of eyes in the room was already on him, he spun to check behind himself, then pointed at his own chest as if to ask, *me?* The whole table nodded, and he climbed in through the window and took his seat at the table like nothing had happened.
No one pushed the subject further. They ate, praising Amy's cooking despite the thin pantry it had come from. Leo and Duncan gave a loose account of the job for Alejandro — leaving out the part where they'd nearly died twice, and skipping the parking lot entirely. Most of the evening drifted into stories, memories, pieces of their lives traded back and forth, until it started to feel less like a group of strangers and more like something closer to family.
---
*The next day.*
"Hey, Sasha — let the others know I'm heading out to scavenge with Kaito and Alex for the day. Not sure when we'll be back," Jane said.
"Wait, what — shouldn't we talk about this first?" Sasha said, but Jane was already gone.
"She could've at least asked if I needed anything," Sasha muttered, frustration creeping in. Out of all of them, she and Amy were the two who always stayed behind to hold things together.
"Hey, Alex — mind coming along to scavenge? Your eye for this stuff could help. You seen Kaito around?" Jane asked, tying her hair back into a ponytail.
"I — I — I—" he stammered, caught off guard by how she looked — tech-wear pants, running shoes, a tight black vest layered under a long sleeve, dressed like she was heading out for a jog rather than a supply run. "Where exactly are we going?" he managed, while she dug through the apartment looking for something to carry gear in. All she turned up were tote bags and a scattering of convenience-store eco-bags.
"For people who love the planet so much, they sure don't know how to actually take care of one," she said, tossing the useless bags aside.
"Seriously, what is going on in his head," she said, half to herself. "Either of you ever had an actual conversation with him?"
"I — who, me? I — I don't think I've ever really talked to him. Same as everyone else, I guess," Alex said, trailing a step behind her. He wasn't used to long conversations with people he barely knew — and talking to a woman he barely knew made it worse, nerves creeping up on him without permission.
"That man is a mystery. I can never get a read on him," she said, laughing it off.
"Don't worry, I don't bite," she added, catching how uncomfortable he was and trying, in her own blunt way, to put him at ease. She'd always figured the idea of guys getting nervous around women was some overused trope — but standing here now, she couldn't exactly argue with the evidence in front of her.
"I'm not some new kid in the neighborhood," he said, the line landing harder than he meant it to. The last time he'd heard something like that was back when he'd moved in with his grandmother, and every kid in middle school had taken turns bombarding him with questions until it was too much to handle.
"Sure, sure — I know, I was just teasing," she said, laughing, right as the man they'd been looking for stepped out of a building down the street, maybe fifteen feet off.
"Hey — Kaito, stay right there!" she shouted.
He turned, confused, scanning for the voice — and the second he spotted the two of them heading his way, he let out a strangled "*Nooooo—*" and bolted down the street.
They finally caught up to him, both gasping, only for Kaito to stop and look around in genuine confusion.
"Wait, I don't get it — what were we even running from?" he asked, staring at the two of them, who were barely managing to stay upright after what hadn't even been that long a chase. It was obvious, painfully so, that neither of them had the stamina this new world demanded.
Neither of them could manage much of a response. Looking around for anywhere to catch their breath, Kaito spotted a neon sign shaped like a cowboy boot, marking a bar down the block.
He pointed it out, suggesting they regroup there first.
