Pairing: 10K x Fem!Reader
Setting: Somewhere during season 2
Author: AikaKyomi
Notes: Alright, so Z Nation is my life, and I think there's not enough of representation about this fantastic TV Show on Wattpad, so here's a little fluffy one shot .3. Warning! Spoilers for season 2 episode 2 (just talks but you know, spoilers still), so make sure to have at least watched it.
⇯Song⇯
Troye Sivan ↮ Youth
'Cause we've no time for getting old, mortal bodies, timeless souls'
☀︎︎︎☀︎︎︎☀︎︎︎☀︎︎︎☀︎︎︎
When you woke up that morning, from another sleepless night, you were far from expecting what you had in front of you right now, a few miles away. Your group called that never-ending zombie horde a zunami apparently, expression stolen from some radio guy called Citizen Z or something. As much as the story was funny to hear, the millions of zombies approaching were far from being laughed at.
To add to that, you had the misfortune of entering a city when the horde came in view. The few undead left in the village, plus a couple of locals that took great pleasure shooting at everything that moved (welcome to the far west), caused enough panic and gunshots around that the chaos made you lose the rest of the group. Since you clearly didn't have the time to search them around with the planning threat of the horde, you promptly fled the city towards the north, hoping to find a safe place to hide when the Z's would hit your location.
You ran as fast your wounded feet let you, in the darkening woods that kept reminding you that the night would soon fall. You managed to silently take out a few Z's along the way, thanks to your trailing-point curved knife, but other than that, no traces of human life.
You brain calculated that something around 30 minutes had passed when you suddenly heard movement in the bushes nearby. Rapid agitation that made you fear for the worst; you lifted your gun to face the noise source, your index slightly brushing the trigger, ready to shoot.
But when the dark haired boy, a sniper on his shoulders exited the bushes, you immediately recognized him, despite the dark surroundings. A big smile formed on your lips.
"10k!" you exclaimed, rushing in his direction to engulf him into a hug.
At first, you thought he didn't know how to react, but you felt his arms awkwardly circling your shoulders as a reply to this sudden affection mark.
"Hey (Y/n), I'm so glad to see you." he declared as you stepped back to face him.
"I was scared I had lost everyone!" you admitted. "Where are the others?"
"I don't know, I lost sight of them in the city. Goddamn z's."
"Talking of Z's, we should probably get moving. Get out of that horde's way by going north."
"I had the same idea. Let's just hope that everyone is safe out there."
"I hope so too. Now let's go."
Without adding a word, the two of you turned towards the north and ran. As long as you could, faster than you even thought your weakened self could run. For what seemed like hours to your head, and days to your body, you coursed through the gloomy woods senselessly.
During this long time, you couldn't help but fall into your thoughts. What else could you do in this situation? Your mind wandered about nothing and everything, trying to think about anything else than the fact that an immense horde of Z's followed you, that the rest of your group were somewhere you didn't know about. Heck, you even tried to forget the apocalypse.
You turned to 10k, who hadn't said a word in a while too, and asked yourself a question, even as ridiculous as it sounded: did love still existed in times like this?
It was true, affection didn't have a place in a dying world, where survival was the obligatory criteria. Your goal was to get out of this alive, not fall in love. But as much as you tried contradicting yourself, that feeling inside you felt each time you talked to 10k, or even stood close to him was not made up by your imagination. Was it love? It was hard to conclude, but you definitely knew it was something.
It was stupid, thinking about this kind of stuff. Feelings, even if they were enjoyable, would never save you from the z's. But at the same time, if the world was ending, why not enjoy the time left? You'd heard stories from Addy, who kept telling you about her boyfriend Mack that died a while before you joined the group. That was another issue with this whole love thing: death was everywhere, and grieving the dead became usual. Grieving a lover was clearly a weight you didn't need.
As the hours fled by, you slowly started to feel weaker. Your feet were bruised and you barely managed to get air into your lungs to this point. You knew you couldn't hold on much longer, and stopped.
"What's wrong?" you heard 10k ask, stopping his run to rejoin you.
"I can't." you declared, hardly breathing. "We need to find some place to stay the night, because I can't go on anymore."
"What about the Z's?"
"Let's just hope that we're out of their way by now."
He nodded affirmatively.
"I saw a house a few miles back, maybe we could stay there?" he asked you.
"That'd be good yes." you agreed, before taking the path to the said house along with 10k.
It took a good 10 minutes of walking back on your tracks to reach your destination. It was a 2 floors lodge, on the edge of a road that had now disappeared under the weeds. The locked door and the unlighted windows seemed pretty much self-explanatory that no one lived there.
"How are we going to get in?" 10k whispered behind you. "We don't have a crowbar."
"Don't worry." you replied, reaching out your hand through your pockets to extirpate two small metal bars.
"Lockpicks." you explained with a smirk, approaching the doorknob in hope to unlock it.
A minute later, the door creaked open, revealing a long and dark hallway that seemed completely empty. Gun-armed and ready to shoot, with 10k in backup right behind, you cleared rooms after rooms to make sure no Z's were hidden in there. Luckily enough, there was no sign of life, human or Z.
"This place's empty." you declared, tucking away your gun into your belt.
"I'll check if there's food or water down here." 10k stated. "You go get some rest."
"No way, you're not going without me."
"You need sleep. Go."
Definitely not looking to argue, he gave you a small smile before turning around, descending the stairs to reach the kitchen.
You exhaled sharply in defeat, but you knew he was right: you needed a break. Roaming around on the second floor, you looked around for an acceptable bedroom, which you found at the end of the hallway.
The master's bedroom was surprisingly intact, even after three years in the apocalypse. Apart from the dust and spider webs recovering most of the furniture, it didn't seem too bad for an abandoned house. Honestly, you were surprised there weren't any bodies in there, and for the first time in a while, you couldn't smell the now familiar odor of death. That kind of luck was rare in those days.
Lifting your head up, you noticed the grubby skylight on the roof, half-opened from the inside. It wasn't too far from the floor, although you wouldn't be able to reach it from there. But you were curious, and the perspective of climbing on a roof seemed too nice to miss, so you ended up trying to find a way to get up there, even if the pain in your legs prevented you from doing sudden movements. You brought your choice on the low table next to the bed, which seemed high enough, then pushed it under the window without any regards for the empty glasses that fell on the floor by the same occasion.
Pushing yourself up with your arms, you managed to climb on the top of the house where a surprising show awaited you.
Stars. The sky was filled with them, without a single cloud in sight. The moon was clear too, slightly enlightening the top of the forest. It was so gorgeous, for you that hadn't taken the time to admire the stars in years. You sat there, on the roof, just enjoying the view. Even the z's couldn't steal that peaceful moment from you, except if they suddenly developed the ability to climb, which you pertinently knew they did not.
"(Y/n), you there?" you heard a voice ask behind you, which you immediately recognized as 10k's.
"Unless you see someone else here, yeah it's me." you mockingly replied with a laugh.
He chuckled lightly, before climbing too on the roof to sit right next to you, gaze towards the sky.
"It's been a while I haven't taken the time to watch the stars." he stated smoothly.
"Yeah, I miss those simple times too."
You turned to your friend, only to notice he had a saddened look into his eyes, an emotion he rarely showed to others.
"What's wrong?" you asked him worriedly.
"You know, my pa often took me stargazing, on beautiful nights like this. I mean, we would just look up and admire the sky, for hours." A sad smile formed on his lips. "And I kept wondering if there was life out there."
He marked a pause in his talk, noticing you still hadn't said a word.
"Sorry if I'm boring you."
"No, I swear you're not!" you retorted defensively. "I mean, there's so much stuff that I miss from before too."
"Like what?"
"My parents, my friends... Having a normal life that involves something else than surviving you know. And heck, how would I kill for a shower right now!"
You heard him chuckle at your answer, to which you replied by laughing too, hoping the night would hide your blushing cheeks. You never really had time to talk with him like this, without all the others around. It was just the two of you, there on the roof, talking like there was no apocalypse. And honestly, it felt great.
But the silence that followed felt oddly awkward, and the first question that crossed your head to break it was:
"Hey, ever had a girlfriend before?"
'Great, I definitely had to ruin this moment' you thought, mentally facepalming yourself.
10k appeared troubled by the question, like he was far from expecting it, but luckily he replied like it was nothing.
"No, I did not. Most people seem to think I should've though."
He paused, before turning to you, asking:
"What about you?"
"Well, no." you replied with a small laugh. "I had a boring life before. But I would take back that boring life over the one I've got today."
"Yeah, I get it. Although we never would've met if you did."
Alright, so this time you knew your cheeks were as red as tomatoes. You didn't even know if it was intended to be romantic or not, but in both cases, that one sentence really shook you up. That meant he had feelings for you, right? No, it couldn't be. You were tired, and your mind was playing tricks on you when you were. Yeah, exactly.
Still, you didn't even know what to answer him without blowing off your secret not so well hidden. You tried brushing off the thought and make it like nothing happened.
"Are you alright?" you heard 10k ask, as he got closer with a worried expression. "Your face is all red."
"Why yes, I'm just fine! It's just, you know, hot out here."
"(Y/n), it's freezing."
Preoccupied, he approached you and laid his hand on your forehead to check your temperature, in case you were sick. Which you weren't, of course, but he couldn't know. As you were about to tell him that nothing was wrong with you, that he didn't have to worry, you suddenly noticed how close you were to his face. Like, literally inches apart. He didn't seem to notice the big discomfort it caused you, but on this moment, only one thought got through your mind: it was the apocalypse, right? What did you have to lose?
And a few seconds later, you laid your lips on his.
It only lasted a second or two though, before you stepped back, somewhat regretting your decision. Having a look at 10k's face, he looked more troubled than anything else, like he didn't know how to react.
"I'm so sorry, it was impulsive, I shouldn't ha-"
If there was something you'd never expect at that moment, it was 10k's lips pressing against yours mid-sentence. You were shocked at the beginning, but soon enough you replied eagerly to the kiss, even if the both of you weren't really sure of what to do. But it didn't matter and honestly, it had been some of the best few seconds of your life.
When you laid back sometimes after, you couldn't even say a word, and you were sure 10k was speechless too. You just gazed at each other, not so sure of what to say about this.
But words didn't really matter: there wasn't really an exact thing to say wasn't it? You just laid your head against his shoulder, the biggest smile ever on your lips: for the first time in a while, you could have a bit of happiness in this shitty world that was now a reality.
For minutes, you both hadn't spoken even a word. You just laid there, watching the stars, like it was the most beautiful moment in your life.
10k was the one to break the silence, by suddenly asking:
"Hey, does that mean I'm your first boyfriend?"
You giggled at his question, before answering.
"It does yeah. And I'm your first girlfriend, so it's fair."
"True. Now let's go inside, before we both freeze to death."
You nodded, and you both walked towards the skylight, that remained open. As 10k was about to get back down in the house, you stopped him by calling out to him.
"Hey, 10k?"
"Yes?" he replied, lifting his gaze to face yours.
"I really do love you."
You saw a big smile forming itself on his lips, before he replied:
"Don't worry, I do too."