After Harley finished with the Commander she turned around looking for Grayson. There were people everywhere, most of them she at least knew their names. She caught sight of him and relief spread across her body like a heatwave. She went to him and smiled at him. The commander had healed his leg.
"Thank God for Commander Cody's ability to heal."Grayson glanced warily at Cody and then at his leg. Up until this point, he had been unaware of most of the bunker's inhabitants' powers. He had either been too sick or recovering to interact with most of them, and the strange sensation of his leg mending itself back together threw him off. But he wasn't going to let that keep him down.
He broke into a broad smile and laughed enthusiastically, nodding his head towards Cody in thanks.
"Yeah, I'd be screwed without it. Thank you so much, man- er, Commander."The smoke billowing out of the bunker put Grayson in a state of disease, however for the time being, they were in the eye of the storm. The eerie peace that encompassed them provided respite, albeit temporary.
Harley looked around and it seemed to have quieted down. Was the fighting stopping or were they just lulling them into a false security? Taking Grayson's hand she spoke quickly to the guards on duty and she followed the commander inside. She could hear Cody speaking to Casey to the left so she pulled Gray to the right.
"There are fans in the cafeteria walls that we can pull down and use to help clear this place out. I think there are others too I'm just not sure where." She said while pulling the storage openings open in the walls in the cafeteria.
"I remember seeing them, I just can't remember where..." She glanced at him.
"Can you yank that side open, it's a little stuck."Gray nodded and moved over to the other side of the panel, gripping it with both hands and pulling as hard as he could. His arms flexed as the metal became stuck, forcing him to plant his foot against the wall. After a powerful heave, the grate came loose, revealing the fans.
"Well, that looks suspiciously like a fan to me." Grayson fumbled around them, searching for an on switch, however nothing appeared to be what he sought after.
"Uh, Har, where's the power? " Harley was already pulling the fan out of the wall and setting it up. The cord was wrapped up and still in the storage in the wall.
"You have to plug the cords into the fan and the wall." Harley tugged the second one free and set it up. She stumbled slightly and tripped over the foot of the large fan and landed on her backside with a thump.
"Ouch!" Harley got to her feet and rubbed her left hip a little and frowned at the fan as if it had done it on purpose.
"Damn fans!"Grayson chucked to himself as Harley glared that the fans, admiring her fighting spirit. After all of the pain and trials of the last couple weeks, Harley was still ingenuitive, invigorating, and rough-and-tumble as ever.
Grayson returned his attention, righting the fallen fans before pulling the final fan out of the wall with much greater ease than Harley. Frankly, the idea of a plug had escaped his mind all together. It had been so long since he had used technology like this...
Harley turned around and saw Grayson finishing up and she turned on the high powered fans. She was glad her hair wasn't sucked into it. She could have come up bald on that one.
"We should go look for the other fans and see about getting deeper into the bunker so that at least some of us can get some sleep tonight." She said this as she yawned. It dawned on her that she hadn't seen her dog in a while. Quickly moving around the fans she whistled loudly and yelled
"RYDER!"It was only a moment before the large boxer appeared and jumped on her slamming her into the wall.
"Ugh, Ahh!" She blocked her face as the slurpy wet tongue tried to bathe her face.
"Down boy! I missed you too now stop!"Grayson laughed as the dog attempted to slurp Harley's face into oblivion. At its first appearance, he had been prepared for a fight; he was incredibly on edge with recent events. He knelt down and began scratching the dog's back, rubbing his hands through its bristly fur.
"Y'know, I guess I never really realized that you have a dog."Grayson stood and flicked on the other two fans, moving them towards the doorways to improve ventilation.
"It's a pity we don't have anyone with wind powers. They'd make quick work of a situation like this."Gray paused and turned to Harley, frowning.
"Do we have anyone with wind powers?""I have no idea. We might?" She shrugged wishing that they had thought to write down who had what powers. It had all happened so fast that there wasn't time.
"Ryder was not my dog til today. He was a neighborhood dog that I would see almost every day. He belonged to one of my neighbors who was elderly and forgot to feed him...alot. I recognized him and asked the commander to heal him so I could give him a real life. So, can you handle big dogs? You aren't one of these cat people who run from dogs now are you?" She teased him with a huge grin on her lips.
Grayson feigned mock hurt and placed his hand on his chest, giving an over-exaggerated gasp.
"Why, I never!' Grayson's face broke into a smile and he pulled Harley into a bit of a rough hug, taking a moment to breathe in her scent before pulling back every so slightly.
"It's been one shitstorm of a week, hasn't it?" He sighed heavily, unwilling to let her go and be forced to face the real world again. He could've sat there for hours, just him and Harley, alone in a windy room with smog swirling above their heads. A small voice in the back of Grayson's brain disapproved of him becoming attached to Harley in such a small amount of time, however he shoved it aside and burried his face in her shoulder, enjoying the coarse feel of her dirty hair press against his skin.
Harley smiled at his antics and when he pulled her to him she slid her arms up his back and pressed herself to him. She couldn't believe she had gotten herself captured by a bunch of crazy people. She could have never seen him again and that thought terrified her. She buried her face into his chest and wiped a few tears that had appeared out of the blue with her hand.
"I'm not sure if the bunker doors will lock down the way they did before. When we go to sleep will you stay in my room with me?" Harley realized what she was asking could sound really forward of her but she really didn't care about that at the moment. Harley was more concerned with them getting killed in their sleep.
"Ryder will be there too but I do have a larger room and ... well, I feel safer with you than anyone else." She was glad he couldn't see her blush. His face was still in her hair.
Grayson's heart rate spiked at her question, and he could only hope that she couldn't feel his heartbeat through her chest. Part of him attempted to rationalize her request as strictly strategical. The buddy system was pratically the most reliable mode of survival that existed, and their romantic affiliation and tension probably had little to do with it. Besdies, it was just a bedroom. He'd probably be sleeping on the floor with Ryder.
Steadying his breathing, Gray nodded, keeping Harley close so she couldn't see the heat in his face. "Yeah, I can do that."
Damn, has it really been that long since you flirted with somebody? Keep it together, Gray. Grayson shifted his weight, pulling Harley to his chest so that he was looking down at her, their noses a few inches away. A stray thought about the quality of his breath ran through his head, however he pushed it aside. They both smelled like smoke, blood, and sweat. He doubted a little bad breath would make her retract her offer.
"I can absolutely do that."Harley hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath waiting for his answer til she let it out. Her heartbeat had picked up too and she couldn't tell where his had ended and hers had begun. She pulled her face back just enough to be able to look him in the eye and she reached up and kissed him slowly.
Ryder decided he wanted in on the closeness and he stuck his nose in her stomach and tried to pry them apart.
"Ryder! Quit it!" Harley giggled softly as she petted the dog's head. She looked back up at Grayson with a soft smile.
One of these days, Gray, you're gonna kiss her, and not the other way around. Gray gave a soft smile and looked down at Ryder, who sat by them patiently, tail wagging.
"I guess he didn't like being left out, huh?"Gray rubbed the top of his head and turned back to Harley, placing his hands on the small of her back, preventing her escape.
"What do you say? Play with the dog or keep kissing me?"The sputtering of a fan grabbed Gray's attention as he was pulled back to reality. As much as he hated it, he had to let go of her. Reluctantly, Gray let his hands slide down her back and to his sides, craning his neck to see over his shoulder. A deep sigh issued forth from his chest as he looked at the smog.
"We should probably get back to work."Harley had grinned playfully when he had mentioned her kissing him. She wondered why she was so forward with him now when she hadn't been for so long. The thought came about the same time he realized something was wrong with one of the fans. She groaned and dropped her head against his chest. Her voice slightly muffled she sid,
"I'd rather kiss you." Raising her head, she dropped her shoulders and they went back to look at the fan.
