THE DOZEN

TIME.

Not that he'd admit it, but he only thought about her charismatic skill to avoid thinking of his own susceptible flaw.

He nodded in response and attempted a small smile, but all he had done was hardly twitched the lips that seemed to be permanently shaped into an anxious frown. He shot a glance over to the woman sleeping on the couch, letting his mouth fall open as he scoured his mind in search of the right words to say - but the only sound to be heard was that of the front door opening and thunderously slamming shut.

Carson paced past the living room and Jasper traipsed behind, with only the latter stopping when Adelaide asked, "Find anything?"

"Nope," Carson quickly called in response, already halfway to the kitchen by the time he answered.

Jasper, instead, stood directly beneath the doorway of the living room; his cheerful gaze remained upon Adelaide longer than it did Parker (not that it was any surprise, they still hadn't spoken since their argument yesterday) and, suddenly, he raised a dark bag into the air. He anticipated that they'd be just as delighted as he was, but they just blankly stared. "Okay," he breathed out, shoulders sinking, "not that either of you asked, but I got a bag. There's not much inside yet, just a bottle of water, but I have big plans for-"

"Give it to me," Parker strongly interjected - the first thing he'd uttered to his best friend since their argument. Jasper, blatantly taken aback, pulled his eyebrows together and tightened his grip on the bag in his hands. "Not the bag, Jas, the water bottle. Give me the water."

"Chill, Park," Jasper (almost condescendingly) replied with a small smirk. He reached inside of the blood-stained bag; the very moment the bottle was in view, Parker practically snatched it from his best friend's hand. Jasper expected him to chug the entire thing right there, judging by his neanderthal attitude towards a simple bottle of water, but all the younger man did was set it atop the table on the corner closest to Ellie. Jasper's eyebrows rose in surprise, but a look of amusement washed over his face and he spoke up, "I don't think she's the thirsty one out of the two of you."

And with that, he exited, leaving both Parker and Adelaide struggling to refrain themselves from smiling. Adelaide had expected Parker to be mad, but when he turned to face her, she saw that the corners of his mouth had curved up and shattered the frown she believed to be sempiternal.

∘∘∘∘

     "Gosh, this is gross," Clara grumbled, wiping her bloody hands across her pants and watching the crimson stain tarnish the denim. "Remind me again," she turned, "why we're doing this, because I'm on the verge of quitting."

"It's for the children, Clara," Nicholas half-jokingly replied, but with a face that she almost took seriously until he broke out into a childlike grin at the sight of her exasperated glare. His joyful beam vanished within a matter of seconds, and he solemnly added, "This is important. We can't just... not bury the dead. Especially when they're important to one of our own. And I don't expect the little girl to come out here and do this herself, seeing as she's obviously angry at them right now, so it's gonna be us."

"Well, yeah," she was quick to agree, "but why us? There are ten other people here, perfectly able."

"Eight, actually," he observed, "if you subtract Ellie and the little girl."

A tired groan burst from her mouth as she rested her hands on her hips. It wasn't that she was lazy - she just wasn't the most able-bodied person in their group. She seemed fit, but, in reality, she was just small. She couldn't lift her own weight or even half of it, running was almost torture, and nothing good could be mentioned about her stamina.