Basil narrowed his eyes, scowling as he said, "Yeah, you could definitely save them when you barely know what a G.E.C.K. even is. And yeah, you could definitely save them when the Brotherhood inevitably slaughters everyone in the town or takes them under martial law in retaliation." He walked past him, clenching his fists. He then paused and turned back around. "Look, I don't care if you like me or not, Jace. I asked you to come with me because you were the only person in my life that ever even cared enough to so much as listen to me. But if you really think that I don't know what I'm doing anymore, then please, enlighten me on how to do better. Because if we're to stay together on this, then we need to agree on something. Otherwise, I'm going on my own. I'll just hire someone. Hell, Leith would probably even do it if I offered enough caps, and he'd complain less than you do to boot."
Every day, I'm becoming less and less of the person that he remembers. He's coming to hate me. Perhaps it'd be best if we'd part ways, that way I could at least preserve what remains of him.

Leith sighed, "You don't want to patch up that wound before you eat?" He shrugged, reaching into his bag. He then pulled out a half-empty bottle of water and a bag of old potato chips. "Here. It's all that I have on me at the moment. But come on, kid. Just put the gun down. If I was going to hurt you, then I would have done it already; after all, I'm a ghoul. We don't even need guns."

Jace winced at that, feeling as if he'd physically punched him. "You would like that, wouldn't you? At least you finally found your match, someone as smart as yourself. And hey, at least he can spell his own name, right?" He turned away from him and fell into a long silence, trying to hide the hurt that he felt. "The only reason I agreed to come along was so I could watch after you. That's what I've always done since the day I met you. You're the only person that ever looked at me like I was more than a street urchin and the bastard child of the town's drunk. But I think you're starting to think that of me, too."

The raider stared at Leith for a long moment in contemplation. He really did seem sincere in what he said, but then again a lot of them always did. Finally, he slowly lowered the gun and let it clang to the ground. Hesitantly, he walked towards him and carefully took the chips from his hand, feeling as if the ghoul would attack at any moment. After taking the offered food and water, he quickly shrunk away from him.
"Why...are you so nice to me?"
"I am wondering the same thing," Kaye mumbled.

Basil was silent for a long time before he finally asked, "Why is it that you only allow jealousy to be your motivation? I've known Leith for not even two days, yet you keep insinuating that I'm interested in him. That's just ridiculous!" He shook his head, clearly exasperated. "And I don't give a damn about your father or him being a drunk or anything. What I care about is accomplishing our objective in the most rational manner, yet you're making that harder and harder every day. This isn't about me, it isn't about you, it's about something far more important than either of us. So stop being a selfish child!"
He huffed, turning around and walking towards the exit once more.
He came here to protect me? Well, I'm the wrong person; that's likely why he feels so cheated now.

Leith sighed, relieved that he had finally abandoned the weapon. "I don't kill children, alright? If I have an option, that'll be my last resort. And I could tell that you were just scared, so..." He shrugged.

Jace watched as he made his way to the exit, feeling as if Basil had thoroughly destroyed him and sown his remains in the dirt for fertilizer. This was a side he'd never seen him show before and it just seemed to him that it only began when they met Leith and Kaye. Perhaps he'd only begun to notice it then, but he felt like he was being pushed out of the picture. Perhaps it was selfish for him to think that way, but he couldn't help how he felt.
Ever since he'd met Basil, he'd always felt inferior in his presence but always tried hiding it from him. He knew he wasn't smart like him, but he thought they complimented each other well, with him being the brawns and Basil the brains. It seemed with each passing day, though, he was growing less tolerable to Jace and he was beginning to think he hated him now.
'He seems so different from the boy I first met. I think he really is growing tired of me being around. I'm just slowing him down, like he said.'

"I'm not a child!" the raider said, glaring. "I'm sixteen years-old! And I wasn't scared. Just..." he didn't know what to say. Without another word, he opened the bottle of water and drank half of it in one gulp. He'd gone two days without water while being trapped in the basement and if these two hadn't come along, he probably would have died of thirst.
Kaye watched him drink the water before turning to look at Leith. "What are we going to do with it?"

Leith rolled his eyes, and replied, "When you get to be my age, even an elderly smoothskin is a kid to you." He smirked just a little, then looked back at Kaye. "One, he's not an 'it.' And two, he's his own person. Unless he wants to come with us, we're not doing anything with him."

"You mean we're just going to let him go?!" Kaye said, staring at him wide-eyed. "What if he goes to warn the rest of his buddies and have them come take all of our things. And Bessie and Bob?!"
"I am the last one alive in my group," he said softly, looking off to the side. He looked sad, but it wasn't because he particularly missed his friends. It was mostly because he felt guilty for not feeling as much remorse over their deaths as he should. "Most of them were killed in the basements and the ones that weren't down there, ya'll killed off when you got here."

"Oh..." Leith murmured. He pursed his lips. "Well, in our defense, it was the Brotherhood soldier who did the job." He folded his arms over his chest. "But what do you plan on doing now? It's dangerous to be on your own, even if you did have supplies."

Raider stared at the ghoul for a long moment, not knowing how to respond to that. "The last time someone asked me to join them, I had to kill to earn enough food to keep me alive. Before that I did just fine on my own."
Before that, there had also been his big brother as well, but he'd been killed by the very same group that 'asked,' him to join them. In other words, he hadn't had much of a choice in the matter as they needed their own personal errand boy between them and the chem dealers. A kid was too innocent-looking to be a bother to anyone.
"We are scavengers, kid. the very definition of a scavenger is someone who doesn't kill and picks over the leftovers."
"To me, that doesn't sound too appetizing..." Raider mumbled.
Kaye rolled his eyes. "Now I remember why I hated my childhood. Because I hated being a brat like you."
Raider glared at her. "I think I will risk being eaten by the yao guai's instead of putting up with her."

"What are you talking about, Kaye? I don't think you've changed at all since then," Leith said, unable to refrain his laughter. Though the situation was tense, considering that there was this raider kid and that Brotherhood soldier, it was relieving to have something, anything, to alieve the tension.

Finally, after days of seemingly endless walking, Leith had located a town; his only hope was that this one would be friendly towards ghouls, as, unsurprisingly, there were few that would even allow them through their gates. There had been occasions that he had even been shot at. Sometimes, if he just yelled at them, they hesitated and just told him to get lost, but there had been times when they just reloaded and kept going at it until he got far enough away. He understood. He looked like a walking corpse. If he wasn't a ghoul himself, he'd probably be terrified of the sight, as well. There weren't any hard feelings. For the most part, at least. He avoided mirrors and puddles for a reason, after all.
But if he was lucky today, then this one wouldn't have guards prepared to blow his brains out on sight; he'd be able to slip in, purchase what he needed, and then he'd be out of their hair once more. As nice as it'd be to just settle down somewhere, he knew that there were limited options for his kind. And he wasn't too keen on finding those abandoned metro tunnels and calling them "home." Their structural integrity was about as trustworthy as a raider with a syringe full of psycho in one hand and a gun in the other, the ferals often dwelled in there, as well, and even he had his standards for company, and they were just hard to navigate and depressing, in general. He wasn't a mole to be forced underground, out of sight and even further out of mind. There were communities of ghouls that he had heard about in passing, but he hadn't been able to find a trustworthy method of tracking them down. He wasn't about to go chasing after idle fantasies, either, so the road it was.

"Ow," Leith said, though his reaction to the pebble hitting him was delayed by several seconds. He rubbed the back of his head, looking around to see what the source of the projectile was; usually, people were shooting at him, not trying to pelt him with rocks. He then heard the noise, and looked over to see a little girl; her red hair was a tangled mess, her cheeks flushed and splotched in dirt. She looked mean, but also terrified. He then smiled softly and said, "Look, I'm just a ghoul. A nice one, I mean, not feral or anything. So just put down the slingshot, okay? I'd rather not have the whole town think I'm a threat as soon as I get here."

Leith sighed softly, and tried again, "If I was a bad ghoul, then wouldn't I have just charged in here and started chewing people's faces off? Besides, would I even be able to talk to you right now?"

Leith sighed softly, relieved that the girl appeared to no longer be so alarmed. "I'm just a traveler, here to gather more supplies. I may spend a night here, depending on if there is any sort of inn or bar here?"

Leith just stared for a moment, then cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "So the bar sounds nice. I'll...I'll head there. Thank you, um, little person. Child." He reached into his pocket, plucking a couple of caps out of it. He then offered them to her. "No job without a reward, don't you agree? Thanks for not...pelting me with more rocks. And for the information. That's the most polite someone's been to me in a long while now."

Temporarily taken aback by her clumsy attempt at a cuss, Leith chuckled and said, "I'll keep that in mind, kid. Thanks again." Giving her a little wave, he started to head deeper into the town, but then gave pause and turned back to her. "And get home soon, you hear? It'll be getting dark soon. Even surrounded by walls and protected by guards, you never know what could happen."