[Vivid]
Never let it be said that Churchill Gunner was a sector leader without reason – not only was he one hell of a Runner, but he had one hell of a knack for giving pep talks. Eva couldn’t think of a time where he hadn’t managed to lift her spirits when they were at their lowest. She generally believed in “there’s a first time for everything”, but this was a very special exception. A team didn’t work like a well-oiled machine just because its members were skilled; even if each individual part was the best of its kind, a machine didn’t work without a power source. It took a very special kind of person to be a leader, a good leader, one that could pull everything together and make the team function like a well-oiled machine.
Eva had always liked to think that she had the foundation of good leadership skills. She knew how to connect, how to keep an eye on everyone, how to take charge of a situation when it had gotten out of hand…but she didn’t have what it took to actually be a leader. If someone were to die out on the field, so to speak, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to compose herself and pull everyone else to safety. She knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be able to pull them through the bitter pain of loss, because she wasn’t even able to pull herself out of that horrible grayness, that void that came with losing someone special.
But Church was different. He knew how to completely set his own needs aside for others, how to push himself to the limit, and then past it, simply because someone else needed him. Every time she had needed him, he had been there with a cocky smile and a witty comment on hand, even if he was crumbling apart on the inside. That was what made him a good leader. That was what made her a good second-in command. It was his ability to give her a firm tug in the right direction that allowed her to do the same with others. She’d never admit it to anyone, but without him by her side, she’d be a miserable failure of a teammate.
They each had their respective roles. His job was to lead, to pull, to guide them to victory time and time again. Hers was to push, to get behind them and act as a support in case anybody fell or got left behind, to drive them towards victory.
And everyone in between the two of them had their roles as well. Serving as a tightly-knit, impenetrable force of nature, all of them were vital to the word ‘team’. If Church and Eva were to waver or fall, that force of nature would be there to pick them back up again – in order to push and pull, something needed to be there to provide an equal and opposite reaction, otherwise both of them would fall flat on their faces. The others gave them balance, stability, support…they were all there to support one another; that was a fact that Church often seemed to forget, and one that Eva forgot with even more regularity. She was so busy mothering them all the time that she forgot it was safe to rely on them every once in a while.
They weren’t just a team.
They were her family.
“Heh,” Eva chuckled as Church delivered another flawless pep talk in record time. Finally, she removed her hands from her pockets and cracked her knuckles with an air of confidence that people had come to expect of her, and her forced grin slid aside to make room for a genuine one. “I never thought we’d be taking ‘let’s hit the road’ so literally.”
As he led them towards their destination, she waited a beat for the others to file after him before taking her designated position in the rear, falling in step behind Melanie, Kenna, and Acacia. She was trying to come up with something to say that would successfully give off a tone of, “I’ve totally got all my shit together right now”, but ended up simply gawking as she caught sight of Maggie up ahead. Evidently, the only part of the phrase that successfully made it out of her mouth was a tiny little “Oh, shit…”, uttered in the meekest voice possible.
When it came to Maggie, Eva never knew whether to expect a pat or a punch, though it was usually the latter. The woman believed in tough love, and while Eva held nothing but respect for the fact, it was a respect born out of fear. She loved the woman, of course, but she had definitely learned to fear Maggie before she had learned to love her.
To her surprise, though, Maggie seemed to be on her best behavior – which didn’t really say much, considering this was Maggie they were talking about – but at least she wasn’t hitting anybody or yelling at them in that way where she did more spitting than actual talking, if only for the excuse to spit on someone. No, she was actually…hugging Church.
Eva could suddenly feel a lump forming in her throat entirely too quickly (and without her permission, which was unacceptable). Maggie wasn’t the touchy-feely type, and Eva could count all of Maggie-hugs she had ever witnessed in her entire lifetime on just one hand. All of them could be considered bittersweet memories, with an emphasis on the ‘bitter’. Frankly, Maggie hated mushy stuff like that, it didn’t fit in with her character…but she hated regret even more. If there was a likelihood of someone not making it on a mission, she didn’t want to be stuck in that endless cycle of “I should have”, “why didn’t I”, and “what if”. Seeing her hug Church brought on an unbidden wave of nostalgia, while also serving as a grim reminder of exactly what they were getting themselves into.
Fuck if it mattered, though. The day they let something like that keep them down would be the day the world ended, and none of them had any intention of allowing that day to come. Turning her head to the side, Eva cleared her throat quietly, choosing to suppress laughter over tears – especially when Maggie decided to address their two newest members. She couldn’t see them, but Eva could only imagine what expressions they were wearing when called “fresh meat”. They handled her like champs, though, and Eva had to fight the urge to smile like a proud mother.
As they moved along, Maggie gave her an encouraging little wink (or maybe she just got something in her eye, you never really knew with her), which Eva responded to with a wicked grin. Quit looking so worried, It spoke for her, saying all the words that she didn’t need to utter aloud, Your face needs enough help without it.
Again, she hung behind for half a beat as everyone took off after Church, allowing them to put some distance between her feet and theirs. She tapped the toe of her shoe against the concrete twice, licked her lips once, cracked her knuckles and her neck…and then she was running.
And God, did it feel good. Jogging through Sundown’s halls was nice, it got her the exercise she needed – but the difference between that and running across the rooftops was like night and day. The two experiences were worlds apart, and there was nothing that could ever replace the freedom of the skyline. The danger, the fear, the exhilaration and excitement…you just couldn’t find it anywhere else.
It didn’t last long, though. Climbing downward wasn’t like racing forward – it was slow, careful, boring as hell, yet just as difficult. They were moving on a completely different axis, one they weren’t used to, didn’t belong to. And try as she might, it was a lot harder to apply an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality than Eva thought it would be. Worry and anxiety constantly gnawed at the back of her mind, and the air was thick with apprehension, nerves, trepidation…
Not to mention oxygen, God, what the hell, Church was not even remotely kidding around with this, the air just had one job, one job, what the hell, it felt like trying to breathe water, ugh, ugh, ugh.
She knew better than to say any of this aloud, of course. She wanted to keep morale up, not to bring it crashing through the floor – so she just focused on trying to find the best way to breathe. She started out by trying the obvious: taking long, deep breaths in order to slow her oxygen intake. It seemed to work pretty well at first, but within the first hour of their descent, she discovered a correlation between deep breathing and chest pains. Holding her breath proved to be much more difficult than she could have expected, and taking shallow breaths went against every instinct in her body. Then the dizziness started, followed closely by some mild nausea, and she could not have been more grateful for the regular breaks that they took.
It wasn’t until her muscles began to spasm and her vision began to blur that she discovered a better breathing tactic, just in time to save her from panicking. By forcing the air out of her stomach, to the point where it was concave, it became easier to pull the air back that way. She remembered Nadine mentioning diaphragmatic breathing once, in the context of learning to “calm down and stop making imbecilic decisions”. Most of what the nurse had to say in that conversation was lost on Eva, but she did remember Nadine explaining something about the expansion of the abdomen, rather than the chest.
It seemed to be right. The more she focused on breathing into her stomach instead of her lungs, the quicker her symptoms seemed to disappear. It enabled her to regulate her oxygen intake naturally, without having to deal with the chest pains, and she felt like a Goddamn genius. In any other context, it sounded like the stupidest thing to gloat over: “Hey, guys, guess what? I figured out how to breathe!” But she wasn’t about to let that undermine her victory. During their next break, she passed the tip on, trying her best to show them what she meant, since she just sounded like a lunatic when she tried to explain it.
And the descent continued, with barely a hitch. People would occasionally lag behind, but Eva would slow her pace to match theirs so that she was always taking up the rear, making sure they were never left alone or left behind – and every single time, they managed to catch back up on their own, without any help from her. And every once in a while someone would stumble over some loose rubble here or there; Eva was always ready, watching their backs like a hawk, waiting for the moment where she might have to lunge for a falling hand and haul them back up to safety – but it never happened. Not once.
And before she knew it, night had fallen, they were setting up camp for the night, nothing had gone wrong, everyone was safe, and damn – she was proud. Tired as hell, but so fucking proud, and that made up for the exhaustion tenfold. She wanted to lean out the window and just yell it out into the night:
“MY TEAM KICKS ASS!”
But, that probably wasn’t the best idea at the moment. She had work to do, and potentially drawing unnecessary attention to her exhausted teammates was not the way to do it.
As Church handed out the bedding supplies, Eva took a moment to catch her breath once more before pulling her knives out to check the perimeter. She had no idea what to expect down here, but that was no reason to grow lax – if anything, it was more likely that there might be a Specter lurking around. This was closer to their home turf than the Runners had ever been. So she took her time, stepping out into the dark hall and moving as far out as she dared to, checking the other rooms and any other possible hiding places. Once she was satisfied that she had been thorough enough, she made her way back to their own campsite.
She couldn’t help grinning when she saw that Church had set up a little campfire of sorts in her absence, making the word “campsite” one hundred times more relevant. Everyone had just about settled in – she couldn’t help wondering who had taken it upon themselves to set up her bedding for her, but she was thankful. Even something as simple and easy as unrolling a blanket and bedroll sounded like far too much work when all she wanted to do was keel over and sleep for a decade. Nobody else looked much better (except for Marina, maybe, but she was just the living embodiment of energy), and Eva couldn’t blame them. Before making her way towards her own spot at the far end of the circle, she took the time to make another quick round, placing her hand gently on each of their shoulders and dropping into a crouch in order to quietly check in with each of them, murmuring simple but genuine words of encouragement and congratulations. She ended with Church, who was stationed beside her, but he had more important things to do than listen to her babble, so she just gave his shoulder a firm squeeze before dropping down heavily onto her own bedroll.
“Alright everyone, this is supper for the night. When the cans start hissing, Eva should probably start stabbing them open.”
With a small grunt, she shifted her weight with a nod, reaching behind her to pull a knife free of its sheath. It hadn’t gotten much use recently, but she still took the time to wipe the blade off against her shirt. She wasn’t one to be paranoid about germs, but she really didn’t want to be responsible for giving her sector food poisoning.
“You’ve all made me really proud today,”
“Damn straight,” Eva muttered under her breath with a broad grin, still scrubbing away at the knife in her hands.
“Tomorrow we hit the Black Church, so I want you all fed and rested… How are you all feeling?
“Fuckin’ proud,” Eva murmured again, so softly that the others would have to strain their ears in order to hear her clearly, but her tone said it all. Finally satisfied with her cleaning job, she set the tool aside and leaned back wearily, jutting her thumb towards the sky as her form of response. She closed her eyes for a minute, nodding contently as the others sounded off as eagerly as they could with what energy they had left.
Then a timid little voice broke through the fray, making Eva’s eyes snap open.
“Are, um, are you al- alright, uh, Church?”
“Ja, I second that. You seem sehr beat, Church. Are you OK?”
“…” Eva stared at them wordlessly for a moment, her expression perfectly stoic. Then, a broad grin began stretching across her face, and she felt the strangest desire to laugh. Suppressing it to the best of her ability, which wasn’t good enough to keep a small snort from escaping, she turned to look at Church as well, cocking an eyebrow expectantly. She didn’t need to say anything, her face said it all: Would you look at that? The kids really do care.
[Captain]
Churchill seemed- for a few seconds- taken off guard by this sudden line of questioning.
He’d truly expected everyone to be too tired to notice his own weariness: But then again, he’d already been wrong once today.
Then he caught sight of Eva’s expression, before offering her, and the group as a whole, an enervated- but nonetheless utterly touched- smile.
Then, he rattled out a light-hearted laugh.
Truly, the climb had been particularly taxing for him: His lack of lower limbs meant his body required even less oxygen to function, meaning it was far easier for him to breathe in excess…
And that wasn’t even accounting for the weight of supplies he’d carried during their descent, a collection of bedrolls and food-filled cans.
But he dared not utter the complaint: Morale was the first step to winning any war.
“Haha, of course I’m alright! No need to worry, I’m fifty percent metal,” he assured them, tapping his stilts together lightly and generating a soft, metallic ringing sound, “And the other fifty percent is piss and vinegar.”
[Vivid]
If Eva had failed to suppress a snort the first time, she really failed this time, moving a hand to cover her mouth as the unattractive sound broke to make way for laughter. And it was real laughter, the kind that made your shoulders shake and your voice squeak whenever you tried to take a breath. It probably wasn’t the best idea to do that when oxygen toxicity was actually a thing to think about, but she couldn’t bring herself to care – it felt nice to laugh, and it couldn’t hurt to come across as carefree.
“Well, I can’t argue with you there,” She finally spoke, pressing her palms firmly against her eyes, as if to push the weariness straight out of her skull. When that, predictably, didn’t work, she just opted smack herself on the cheeks a few times. “It’ll take more than a bit of air to put you down, right?”
There was probably something to be said for the fact that her first instinct was to duck for cover when a faint hissing sound reached her ears. Thankfully, she was able to pinpoint the source as the cans before making a complete fool of herself. Pulling her coat off, she wrapped a corner around her hand before reaching for the hot cylinders. Holding her knife firmly, she pressed the tip to the metal once to aim, before driving straight down. As the surface broke open, the scent of the cooked food within wafted out to greet her. It wasn’t gourmet or anything, but at this point, even sand looked edible. Working quickly, she sawed off the top and handed the can off to Church.
“Careful, it’s still hot – start passing these around, will ya?”
[Captain]
Churchill obeyed happily, waving his hand over the can lightly as though the gesture might somehow disperse the heat, before passing it to his right.
"Eat up, gang: Ain't every day we get a hot meal! And afterwards, wrap yourself and get some rest."
[Vivid]
Working quickly, Eva pried the tops off of all the cans, handing them out one after another. It was annoyingly hard work, stabbing little tin cans open – she didn’t want to make any unexpected sharp edges. God forbid someone grab it wrong and cut their hand – the last thing they needed was to deal with an infection right now. They did have a medic on hand, but Eva would really prefer to use those supplies in an actual emergency.
Once she was finished up making sure every can was a perfect little non-death trap, she finally allowed herself to eat. Honestly, “snarf” was probably a more accurate verb to describe the action. She was starved, and really couldn’t care less about how she looked while eating, that food just needed to be in her stomach right now.
It didn’t take long for the others to finish up before her, regardless of how quickly she ate. Having received the go ahead from Church, they allowed their eyelids to droop one last time before dropping like flies, getting themselves some much needed rest.
“Hm,” Eva hummed sleepily as she propped her chin up against the heel of her palm. “It’s amazing how relaxed they get when they sleep. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Klaus breathe so easily.” Turning her head lazily to look at Church, she smiled and winked. “Why don’t you join them in the realm of the blissfully unconscious? You’ve earned it. I can take first watch.”
[Captain]
Church hadn't been as keen to eat as his comrades, be it due to nerves or just general fatigue: When everyone else had clambered into their bedrolls, he'd only finished half of his meal, and thought that fit, setting the rest aside for the morn.
He'd been preparing to take the first watch, when Eva had spoken.
He smiled back, tired but playful, "You kidding? No rest for the wicked, Eva," he flashed her the thumbs up, "I'll take first shift, alright? No need to overwork yourself: Consider it repayment for the trouble I caused last night."
[Vivid]
“…” Eva was hesitant to let the issue slide. Church really did look like…well, crap. The shadows under his eyes were alarmingly dark, and it wasn’t lost on her that the reason was because of the pallor of his skin. She knew what signs to look out for with fatigue, and he was displaying nearly every single one.
But she wasn’t exactly much better off. She took a moment to mull it over, trying her hardest to give him a stubborn glare, but the way her head was nodding really didn’t help her case at all.
“Alright, fine, but only cause you owe me. Going off and getting yourself into fights without my permission, having the gall to let them actually land a hit, starting a damn riot…” Her voice trailed into into irritated grumbling as she finally let herself lay down, reveling in the sensation of stretching out her legs.
“Don’t you dare think about letting me sleep through my shift, though,” She growled, turning over to glare at him. “I mean it, you take your four hours, and then you kick me if that’s what it takes to get my ass out of this bed, got it? I won’t excuse the ‘such a nice guy’ excuse again – if I wake up to find the sun up in the sky, you will have another bruise on the other side of your face to match the one you’ve already got, if not bigger.”
[Captain]
He chuckled, winking teasingly as he rose to full height, "Kick you? Careful, I might just take you up on that, Eva," he grinned.
Then, he slid his hands nonchalantly into his pockets, but it did little to distract from his tired features, "I'll see you in four hours, rest up. I'll keep the fire stoked 'til then... it'd be just like you to catch your death of cold straight out of the hospital otherwise, right?", he tittered.
[Vivid]
Pulling her hands out from under the blanket, she flipped him a pretty pair of birds – but her face betrayed no anger.
“That’s our Church, always taking care of us…” Closing her eyes, she rolled over onto her side so that she could face him without having to get up. “I know that’s what you do, but…step down every once in a while and let us return the favor, will you? I know worrying is what I do, but I’m not the only one that worries about you. Everyone here knows how hard you push yourself. We’re a team now, and every single one of us trusts you and looks up to you. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone anymore. It’s safe to let your guard down, you know?” Blinking sleepily, she gave him a soft smile, which was quickly broken by a large yawn.
“Ah, well,” She let out a small chuckle. “I know I can’t expect you to change overnight, but I may as well give you a bit of food for thought to keep you from dying of boredom.” With a sharp inhale, she rolled over onto her other side so that her back was facing him, and lifted a hand lazily in some form of wave. “Night, Church. See you in four hours.”
[Captain]
"Four hours," he repeated, offering her a gentle salute, "No promises, though... you of all people should know I'm not the thinking type," he jested, "But... I'll chew it over. Sweet dreams, Eva."
And with that, he crept away from the fire, and towards the window through which they'd entered the building.
"And... goodnight, everyone."
And then he leaned out, and the watch began.
True to his word, just over four hours later, Churchill found himself crouching beside Eva's sleeping form, pondering whether it was worth actually waking the girl and disturbing her rest, when he felt quite comfortable taking the next shift, too.
But he also knew that his arrogance would be his end: His second wind would leave him soon, and what precious sleep he could gather would inevitably benefit him come daylight.
So, lightly- softly- Churchill nudged Eva's shoulder, trying gently to stir her into waking.
"Eva," he whispered to her, trying his best not to wake the rest of his Sector, "Eva, can you hear me?"
[Vivid]
As Church prodded her shoulder, Eva roused slowly, none too willing. Her head felt heavy with the fog of sleep, and she was more preoccupied with trying to remember the contents of her dream, which were quickly disappearing into the recesses of her mind. Her mouth felt dry, and judging by the disconcerting dampness on the arm that she had been using as a pillow, it didn’t take long to figure out where the moisture in her mouth had disappeared to.
She had been told that she was an eerily silent sleeper – she didn’t snore or mumble, she didn’t move around or shift her weight, hell, she barely breathed – she had been rudely awakened more than once in her life by screaming individuals that were convinced she had died in her sleep somehow.
Waking up was another matter entirely, though; she wasn’t naturally an early riser, and she wasn’t a light sleeper – she regularly fell into a deep, coma-like rest that was a bitch to pull herself out of. So whenever she did have to wake up, it was a spectacle full of whines and protests.
Some part of her, a part that was constantly aware of her team and how best to take care of them, knew not to give in to that particular urge this time, though. Before her eyes had even opened, her lips were pinched tightly between her teeth, keeping her groans contained.
“Ugh,” She finally let out with a sigh, rolling over to grab Church’s prodding hand by the wrist and shove it aside. “Fucking hell…gimme a sec…” Getting her elbows under her, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and threw her blanket aside. Sighing once more, she lifted her fingers to rub hard at her eyes, placing her other hand on Church’s shoulder.
“Alright, I’m up, I’m good…” Finally dropping her hand from her eyes, she turned to look at him, still blinking hard. “Anything happen?”
[Captain
He shook his head, sitting down beside her bedroll and staring up at her lofty figure in the glare of the fire.
"Nah... just a few bats, a cat or two..." he explained, rubbing his shoulder simply so he had something to do with his restless hands, "It was nice. I haven't seen a cat since I was real young... they're pretty," he smiled faintly, dreamily, "Natural born runners... I bet they have really soft fur..." he trailed off, sighing softly, before slowly coming back to his senses.
He cleared his throat, awkwardly.
"I, uh... nothing else to report."
[Vivid]
Dropping her hands to her sides, Eva stared at him quizzically for a moment, blinking in surprise. Maybe it was just the exhaustion, but something in her chest seemed to give a little tug as she listened to him ramble mindlessly, watched him smile in that way.
He looks younger, she realized slowly.
These days, with their lifestyle…nobody ever looked their own age, much less younger. Hell, the twelve-year-olds that ran around Sundown constantly looked ready to lead an army to war – everyone was forced to be an adult, to carry the knowledge and responsibilities of one. It had become such a normal part of her life that Eva never even thought about how wrong that seemed.
But something about Church smiling and murmuring about cats pulled her back to a time when they were both just eleven, and the worst thing they had to worry about was how hard to kick a bully in the shin.
Slowly, the corner of her mouth quirked upwards, drawing her lips into a relaxed little smile. The sudden swell of random happiness was enough to pull blood straight into her cheeks, and she tilted her head forward to rub at her neck with an embarrassed chuckle as she felt her face heat up.
“I’d put money on that,” She agreed. “Maybe we’ll get the chance to chase one down once we take care of these psychos, yeah?”
[Captain]
Churchill nodded, dulled eyes brightening at the very thought.
"I think everyone'd like that... it'd be a nice morale booster, a cat around Sundown. Right?"
He hugged one of his stilts loosely, looking up at her still, "I'd call it Mag. Maggie'd hate that," he nodded, "Yeah... Mag."
[Vivid]
As she grew more alert, the haze of sleep slowly releasing its grip on her, Eva’s eyes grew bright enough to match his, and she found herself able to pull off one of her signature grins.
“Mag sounds perfect,” She laughed lightly. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a nice little one-eyed tomcat – it’ll be a match made in heaven. Imagine if we brought one back and it inspired others to bring home strays too…you’d be the founder of our very first four-legged sector!”
The thought made her chuckle, imagining cats running alongside the Runners. It wasn’t entirely unrealistic. They could put them in little vests and keep trackers on their collars…wow, okay, no, there was so much that could go wrong there. But it was something nice to think about.
“Cat hunt…yeah, I think we could do with something silly every once in a while. It’s a plan – we ain’t going home until we nab a cat.” Grinning, she held her hand out, as if to shake on a pact. “Marina’s gonna love that.”
[Captain]
Church reached up and took her hand firmly, shaking it as though it were the seal of a blood oath, "Sounds like we've got a deal. And hey... let's keep it between you and me, alright? It'll... It'll be a nice surprise for the others."
[Vivid]
“You’ve got it, boss – wouldn’t have it any other way.” Winking playfully, she clicked her tongue while pointing with both hands.
She held the pose for a few seconds, before dropping it and lacing her fingers behind her head with a bashful grin. “…how was that? Did that make me look charismatic, or just stupid? Gotta know if I should save it for a time when I need to charm myself out of a pinch.”
[Captain]
"Because I, of course, know so much about charisma," he jested, jabbing her knee playfully with his elbow.
"Heh, that seemed a little bit more like Roark... you know, our Roark. And Spanish he might've been, but charismatic? Eh..." he trailed off, chuckling awkwardly, "Keep the wink, throw in a smile... forget the hands."
[Vivid]
“Damn, and after all that hard practice I put in,” Rubbing the back of her head, she laughed uneasily.
No matter how hard she tried to get herself over it, she always got kind of…uncomfortable whenever Roark’s name was mentioned. It had been the hardest thing in the world, watching Sector V fall apart back then. The three of them had been the first people she had really been willing to call a family, the first people that she really felt comfortable and happy with. And then suddenly, one of them was gone, the other heartbroken, the last shouldering a burden that was far too great for his small shoulders at the time.
She would never be so pompous as to say that Roark’s actions had hit her the hardest, but she sure did suck at moving on. Both Maggie and Church had dozens more reasons than her to be broken up over him, yet they had both brushed it off and moved on. If it weren’t for the fact that she had been determined to support them both at the time, she would have been left behind, probably still crying pathetically over the unfairness of it all to this day.
Instead, she had allowed the sadness to turn into something more volatile. Maggie and Church had seemed to adopt a healthy “forgive and forget” attitude, but Eva sat with a slowly simmering rage inside of her every single day. She had learned to just ignore it most of the time, but it was always there, and whenever his name came up, it was all she could do to contain the explosion it caused.
She couldn’t forgive.
She couldn’t forget.
All she could do was suppress, and suppress, and suppress, until the feeling was a dense ball of ire and resentment resting in the pit of her stomach, waiting for a chance to destroy everything in its path if she would just let it out.
“Well, I’ll keep the tip in mind and start practicing the revised version,” It was getting harder and harder to keep her smile in place as the urge to punch something grew exponentially within her, and she was suddenly all too eager to draw the conversation to its close. “I can start during my shift – it’s time for you to get some well-earned and long overdue rest.”
[Captain]
Perhaps it was instinct, or the recognition of some miniscule micro-expression, coming and passing so quickly that neither truly knew it was the case, but something about Eva's decorum suddenly etched a frown into Church's features.
He reached up and took one of her wrists, and then weakly patted the back of her hand.
"Hey... cheer up," he breathed, "You're one of the only one of us who isn't black and blue from last night... come on, smile for us."
[Vivid]
For a moment, she said nothing, refusing to look at him as she stared out the broken window. It was a hard task, forcing fists to stay unclenched, forcing breaths to come slowly and evenly. Maintaining your composure was an art that really deserved more respect.
But it was one that she had mastered a long time ago.
Taking a deep breath through the nose, she let it out through the mouth in a heavy little puff! and turned to look at him.
“Smile?” Forcing the corners of her mouth downward, into a thoughtful little frown, she dropped into a crouch in front of him and pressed a fingertip to his forehead. “Churchill. Goddamn. Gunner,” She punctuated each word, like a parent that was about to scold a child. “You didn’t listen to a single word I said before bed, did you?” She gave his head a little shove at that, forcing it backwards.
“I’m the designated worrier around here,” As she moved her hands to his cheeks, one might have thought she was about to make a soft gesture – instead, she pinched the flesh between her fingers and pulled, stretching his face out in a way that just couldn’t be comfortable. “Stick to your own turf, buddy, or I’ll be forced to start puffing up my feathers!”
Releasing his face, she leaned back to sit on her haunches, resting her elbows on her thighs and her chin in her palms, humming slightly as she scrutinized him.
And she smiled.
It was a nice wide one that showed off all of her teeth, and looked just a tad too forced, but it was sincere.
“Don’t you worry about me, Church. It’s wasted energy – I’m fine. All you need to worry about right now is getting enough rest. You’d better not waste it on nightmares,” Tipping forward onto her knees, she reached out to cradle his cheeks again, pressed her lips lightly to his forehead – and blew out hard, like one would against a baby’s stomach. “There!" She couldn't help grinning wickedly – that had just given her the perfect idea for how to wake everyone up in the morning – but she was going to keep that a secret for now. "Now you’ve got nothing but pleasant dreams floating around in there!”
[Captain]
"Ow. Ow. Oh God my cheeks. Oh god the bruises why are you pinching my bruises" were all thoughts that passed through Church's head, but none passed through his filter: The surrealness of the event seemed to be enough to keep his decorum neutral.
He blinked, confusedly, when she pressed her lips to his forehead, but smiled dazedly when she blew against it.
"You're weird", he acknowledged, chuckling lightly, "But hey, that's why I keep you around."
He kept laughing as he got to his feet, ruffling Eva's hair affectionately, "Have fun on your shift, watchdog. Don't go chasing any cats without me, you hear?"
And with that, he stepped over Eva's bedroll, before sitting himself down on his own, and lying back.
He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, "Not even if it's a one-eyed tomcat."
[Vivid]
“Heh,” She smirked, spinning on the ball of her foot in order to make her way towards the window. Being careful to clear away loose shards of glass, she took up her perch, glancing out to give the area a quick scan before turning back to face him. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Sleep tight, Church – I’ll see you in the morning.”
[Captain]
"Yeah..." he murmured, yawning softly as he- finally- felt safe enough to close his eyes.
"Yeah... in the morning..."
And with that, Church was gone, lost in slumber.