#Set the first night Dale moved in.#

"When I said you could sleep on my couch, it was just a figure of speech. You know that right?"

Dale looked up from his notebook, flipped it closed. "Hey. It's after three."

Skylar was poking her head shyly around the living room door. "Yes it is. You know I've got three rooms with free beds right?"

Dale looked away from the window. "I'm sorry. Am I keeping you awake?"

"Nah. I wasn't sleeping."

"Nightmares?"

"Memories."

"Same thing." Dale muttered bitterly.

Awkward silence.

"I'm sorry I didn't have anything to…"

"It's okay. I wasn't hungry."

Skylar looked down. "I promise I'll get better at this."

Silence.

Dale piped up. "And I'm sorry to just take the…"

"It's okay." She retuned. "It's not like my dad was going to be using that toothbrush anyway."

Dale looked down. "I promise I'll get better at this."

Small smiles at each other.

"Well, good." Skylar said, coming forward decisively. "For a moment there I was worried this was going to start out awkwardly."

Dale chuckled.

She looked at the spiral-bound notebook next to the couch he was sitting on. "Journal?"

"Checklist. Lots of things to take care of now."

"It can keep till morning."

"I cant," Dale sighed miserably. "Every time I try my brain starts running and making lists and thinking of things and I've got to write it down before I forget."

"Like?"

"Like what are we going to do with all the garbage that's piling up, now that gas is so rare."

"Huh"

"Or how to make thread, now that we're going to have to repair all our clothes."

"I got one." Skylar put in. "How are you going to shave now that the store bought ones are going to run out? Can you find a straight razor?"

Dale snapped his fingers at that and picked up his notebook. "Good one. And how do we brush our teeth once the brushes wear out?"

"Been wondering about that last one myself."

"Or how to lay out a tarp to catch the most rainwater, or how are we gonna make our own toilet paper?"

Skylar closed her eyes and let out a sound like a strangled sob. "Oh lord in heaven have mercy on us one and all, yes; I am going to miss toilet paper."

"I couldn't help but notice that your family uses the quilted, triple ply variety. My family never had anything that ritzy."

Skylar cracked one eye open and looked at the earnest and sincere look on his face.

Beat.

She burst out laughing.

"What?" Dale looked startled.

"I was just struck by how weird my life has become, that this conversation seems totally normal."

"Well anyway, that's why I'm not sleeping." He looked at her. "What's your excuse?"

Skylar looked down, feeling vulnerable. Finally she started to speak. "I have trouble getting to sleep. Once I do I sleep till morning, but I always have trouble getting to sleep when there's no noise."

"Too quiet?"

She looked embarrassed. "No. When I was four years old, I snuck out of my room one night to see a midnight movie my dad was watching. It was called 'The Omega Man.'"

"Love that movie."

"I was four years old watching the world end on screen. A busy street filled with skeletons, cities gathering dust… I was so freaked that when I went back to my room, I lay awake listening for people, and when I couldn't hear them, I was certain that there had been a disaster, and I was the only person left in the world." She shivered. "Big thing for a four year old."

Dale seemed at a loss. "Can I help? How'd you get past it before?"

Skylar smiled, reminiscing. "What I would do, some nights I would sneak out of my room, and go to my parents door. Once I saw they were there, I could sleep." She smirked. "Once, I fell asleep on the floor outside their room. Dad came out the next morning and tripped over me." She chuckled. "Since the bombs fell, there haven't been streetlights, or cars on the street, or people walking past, or until today, people in the house."

Dale seemed slightly in awe at the whole thing. "Skylar… you've never told me anything like this before."

She smiled thinly. "Actually Dale. I don't believe I've ever told you anything at all."

And after that, neither of them could think of anything further to say.

#Author's note#

Okay, so maybe I have a little mush to spread around.