Resurrected Bond - a ZNation 10K/Tommy fanfiction

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - part 1

He helped her finish making dinner and all the while they kept asking each other questions back and forth. After she moved had she liked her new school? Did she make a lot of new friends? What had living in California been like before the outbreak? Was it as nice as everyone thought? She had just as many questions for him too and they ended up talking all through dinner and long into the night. They both laid together in the one bed, Ellie resting her head on his shoulder with his arm around her while they talked. He couldn't remember the last time he'd talked this much, even in the group he was always the shy quiet one, but now his jaw was actually starting to hurt from grinning which oddly enough made him smile more. Neither one of their smiles had faltered for a minute while they'd caught up on how each other's lives had gone. It wasn't until she'd asked him for more details on his trip across the country did he make up an excuse, saying they needed to get some sleep, to avoid the subject. Luckily, Ellie didn't seem suspicious as she yawned at the mention of sleep and he chuckled. She nestled into his side and he carefully pulled the blanket over both of them.

"Ellie?" he said softly and she hummed against him, "Thanks for not leaving me on the beach to bleed to death."

She gave a small chuckle before whispering, "You're welcome." A moment later she was out like a light, he only stayed up a minute or two later hoping she'd forget her question by morning.

.

.

The next few days passed by in a blur as he and Ellie continued to catch up. She told him about her life after she'd left New York, how she hadn't really tried to make new friends since she missed her old one so much. He told her that he wasn't that special even though her statement made him blush at the compliment. She didn't disagree with him but he could see in her eyes she still thought differently. It was the way she saw him that he'd liked most as kids, he'd always been the outsider but with Ellie she made him feel important over the things that usually made him self-conscious.

She told him that after a while she did make a few close friends but it always seemed like her parents wanted her to make more. Like they thought she was so great everyone should know her. She had been a part of some sports teams and clubs in school, she participated and knew a lot of the other students but she never felt like hanging out with any of them after school. She felt like even with everything she did her parents still wanted her to be miss popularity, captain of the cheer team, prom queen type. He wished he'd had a way to visit her Pre-Z, he could tell he made her feel accepted as much as she made him, even if she was nowhere near as shy as he was and wasn't bullied like he'd been.

Neither one of them asked about their families, he knew hers would be with her if they were alive and she must have assumed the same about him. He was grateful she didn't bring up his mom or pa and instead asked him things like, did he ever get a new slingshot after he'd given her his? When had his dad finally let him learn to shoot? What had he wanted to do after high school, go to college or become a park ranger like his pa? He thought his answers were boring, yeah he'd gotten a new sling, he'd only been shooting for a year or two before the outbreak happened, and no he'd had no clue what he'd wanted to do with his future. But even with his dull responses Ellie looked at him with bright eyes as she took in every word like he was telling her some epic adventure. She kept smiling at him and he found it contagious and smiled back.

They spent the next few days walking along the beach looking for anything useful to scavenge, sometimes they went back to the farm for more food and in their down time Ellie would draw and he'd scout the perimeter for Z's to add to his kill count. Sometimes they'd read together, either the same book or different ones but either way they'd curl up next to each other under the blanket on the bed and stay that way until they fell asleep. He woke up almost every morning with Ellie either curled up on him or he'd have his arm around her. He was embarrassed at first that he'd held onto her at some point in the night but after a while he got used to their closeness and actually enjoyed having someone to wake up with.