Guilt (A Zero Spin-Off)

FortyNine - Ella

Hunter returned not long after that. He hadn't seen anything but set up some traps so we would hopefully have rabbit or some other tiny forest creature for breakfast. Rabbit.

I was really, really trying to be okay with all of this. But I hadn't really thought about food. The whole trip we'd had canned food and protein bars or MREs. I'd never eaten a rabbit before and at the moment, on a still satisfied stomached - I'd gotten to eat some lunch and never did well with food under stress - it didn't sound appetizing. That didn't mean I wouldn't be joining in the rodent-eating festivities in the morning when I woke up hungry.

Really, I should just be grateful no one was asking me to kill it. Or skin it. God, I really hoped they wouldn't ask me to skin it.

When the fire was smothered out, everyone split off, not separating too far, just enough to find a somewhat comfortable spot to sleep. I started to move, thinking that Kyle would be more comfortable if he had room to lie down rather than sit in a propped up position, but his hand flexed, gripping my shoulder.

"Where're you goin'?"

"You should be asleep."

He sighed. "Can't sleep."

I frowned and shifted to better look at him. I couldn't make out his expression well enough, but I knew he had to be in pain if he couldn't sleep.

"You can have something stronger if the Motrin isn't cutting it."

Kyle had been on a steady diet of Motrin for the pain, not that it was doing a whole hell of a lot, but he needed to stay aware and anything that might have actually helped would have made him... not aware. Now that he could sleep though, I didn't see any harm. Stubbornly, the boy shook his head.

"Something could happen."

"Then I'll protect you." My lips split into a smile. "I'm not that helpless girl you met."

I was still kind of helpless in a lot of ways, but I could kill a zombie now. Apparently I could kill people too.

I dug through my backpack and found the bottle of pills I'd swiped from the clinic. I forced one into his hand along with a bottle of water. Kyle looked at the pill for a second like it was an enemy and I rolled my eyes.

"Taking it doesn't make you a pussy," I said to him in words I thought would get through and a soft chuckle rumbled through his chest. Probably at how awkward that word sounded coming out of my mouth. "It just means you'll be able to get rest and heal." Finally he popped the pill into his mouth and took a swig of the water. I looked away to hide the victory smile on my lips.

"Hey," he whispered catching my attention. My head whipped back toward Kyle who leaned down capturing my lips with his own. The desperate intensity of our last kiss, when he showed up in his room on the verge of passing out and scared I was dead, was replaced by something sweeter. His lips pressed down softly onto mine, but there was nothing chaste about it when his tongue swept across my lips, dipping into my mouth.

Kyle's hand came up to my face, cupping my cheek with his palm as his fingers combed into my hair. His tongue stroked mine and slid along the roof of my mouth. His teeth nipped gently at my bottom lip as he pulled away and rested his forehead against mine, our lips a feathers width apart, as we breathed each other in. I straightened, just the slightest, it didn't take much for our lips to meet again.

When we pulled apart, our quiet breaths were ragged.

"I meant it," he said, our lips brushing with every whispered word.

"Hm?"

Kyle pulled back, just the slightest so that I could see the moonlight reflecting off his eyes.