It had been a couple years since they had defeated Lilly. No one else had come looking for them since. Violet was voted unanimously to lead their group with Clementine in charge of defense. Ruby was able to make the green house fruitful again. The safe zone was expanded greatly thanks to James and in teams they often ventured outside of the safe zone looking for seeds, game or supplies. Aasim set up a classroom so that he could start teaching Tenn, Willy and AJ. Omar was able to start expanding his recipes do to the influx and wider variety of foods. Louis studied a book on sign language and spent a little time every day teaching the other kids in the school how to speak it. In general everything was looking up for Ericson's.
Clementine patched up the back wall, giving everyone more safe areas within the school to roam. Inside that back fence was the school's gymnasium. It was a mess, but Clementine had made it her personal project to clean it up. Since no one had bothered to attack in years, she felt herself struggling to be useful to the group. She went on hunting parties and fishing trips, she went out to collect supplies and fashioned weapons, but it didn't feel like enough.
Clementine tossed and turned in bed, feeling useless. Violet stirred beside her and Clementine stilled, not wanting to wake her. Clementine smiled softly at the blonde girl, unable to resist pressing a kiss on her forehead before slowly rolling out of bed. Glancing briefly at the now empty bed once occupied by AJ. He had officially moved in with Tenn a while ago but it was still weird not seeing him laying there, knowing he was alright. She grabbed her shoes from the floor and her hat from the bed post, sticking it on her head. She left her jackets behind and quietly tip toed out of the room, opening and closing the door gently behind her.
Once outside of the room Clementine pulled her boots on and headed to the gym. She was hoping to create a space where Tenn, Willy, AJ, everyone really, could play games and as silly as it sounded, a place she herself could exercise. She didn't want to admit it, but years of living behind walls, sleeping on a bed, eating regular meals and having no one to fight had started to make her soft and she didn't like feeling soft.
Even lookout duty had been lax over the last year. The post was left empty during daylight hours and was only manned at night. Clementine looked up at the spot and found Aasim, who she knew was assigned, laying down and not stirring as she opened the loud exterior dormitory door. She sighed to herself, knowing that Aasim was asleep. Clementine knew that most everyone fell asleep while on duty but she hadn't said anything, maybe she needed to call a meeting and chastise the group.
Walking into the gym she looked around, she was certainly making progress. All of the debris was cleared off the floor, one of the basketball hoops was still in great shape. If only they could find a working air pump for pile of flat basketballs they had. Most of the bleachers had been removed to reinforce the outer walls but a couple still remained in the gym. A pull up bar hung in the corner and Clementine walked towards it. She jumped up, missing the bar the first time before trying again and gaining a grip. She pulled herself up and slowly dropped back down, again and again. When she felt like she couldn't do another, she pulled her legs up and hooked her knees on the bar, put her hands on her head, holding her hat on and started doing sit ups while hanging upside down.
The door creaked open and Clementine froze, it was still really early, she hadn't expected anyone to be up for hours. "I thought I'd find you here." came Violet's raspy morning voice.
"I'm sorry I woke you." Clementine frowned, still hanging. She noticed her shirt had started to ride up and grabbed it with both hands, pulling it down attempting to tuck it into her pants. Once her hands were removed from her head her hat fell to the ground. Violet smiled as she picked it up off the ground and stuck it on her own head. "Hey! Hands off the hat blondie!" Clementine took a swing for it, still hanging by her knees, Violet easily side stepped the grab laughing.
"It looks better on me." Violet smirked as she turned the cap backwards on her head. She grabbed Clementine's hands, staving off another attack and leaned down placing a kiss on Clementine's upside down lips. Clementine pulled her hands from Violet's grasp and grabbed the back of her head pulling it closer and deepening the kiss. Just as Clementine started to pull away she grabbed the hat off of Violet's head grinning. "That was low." Violet glared, trailing after Clementine's lips with her own.
Clementine reached up with one hand and grabbed the bar, slowly lowering herself to the ground as she placed the hat back on her head.
"Why have you been coming here so much?" Violet reached up and tipped Clementine's hat over her eyes, causing Clementine to grumble as she pushed the rim back up.
"I just want to help out..." Clementine shrugged, "Give something back to the people who have given me everything."
Violet snorted, noting Clementine's offended expression, "Clem, you saved us all, you don't owe us anything. Besides you're one of us now. Like it or not you're a troubled youth and you have been for a long time." Clementine chuckled at the comment and looked down, rubbing her arm apprehensively.
"That's not it though..." Violet was concerned as she tried to look into Clementine's eyes but the rim of her hat blocked her view. "Seriously, this thing!" Violet twisted the hat around backwards, staring into the younger girl's eyes. "What's going on Clem? You can tell me anything."
"I feel useless okay? I'm in charge of defense and there's been nothing to defend against in years! Everyone has been doing their share, pulling their weight except for me." Clementine started pacing in front of Violet, "and on top of that I'm weaker than when I arrived here, I can feel it. How am I supposed to protect AJ... protect you when I'm this-this powerless!"
Violet wrapped her arms around Clementine, pulling her close and holding her tight. "You're not useless and you're still the strongest person here. Don't be so hard on yourself."
"I want to be stronger... for you..." Clementine mumbled into Violet's neck.
Violet smiled as she placed a kiss on the top of Clementine's still backwards hat. "Alright, keep doing what you're doing then. I'm going back to bed." Violet released their embrace and ambled towards the gym exit, stretching as she went. Clementine bit her bottom lip, looking back at the pull-up bar and then to Violet. She shook her head, having made her decision and hustled to reach Violet before she got to the door.
Clementine swept Violet into her arms, carrying her out the door, "I can do this later, since you're awake... maybe we can get some exercise together?"
Violet raised an eyebrow laughing, "I'm not really the 'exercise' type." She wrapped her arms around Clementine's neck and laid her head against her chest, allowing herself to be carried.
"Oh, I think you are," Clementine winked, enjoying the way Violet still blushed after all this time as she headed back towards the dormitories.