The sun's rays shown into the shack, the two men inside were still asleep but were tangled together, blissfully unaware of it.

Slate's POV

I felt warmth beside me and curled closer, then when my mind registered what was going on I snapped my eyes open and realized it was Nick, a blush setting itself across my cheeks I felt a disturbance in my pants. Lightly pulling away I tried not to wake him but the mattress decided to creak and he stirred. "Ngh, Slate?" He mumbled cracking one of his eyes open "Yeah?" "What time is it?" He yawned out. I looked over at my bag "Almost 10" I laid back down and pulled some more of the blanket around me "I think we should get a thicker blanket, I'm Freezing!" Nick held out his arm, lifting the blanket some as he did so "C'mere" I scooted closer to the warm man and snuggled into his arms, a blush across my face as he laid his forehead against mine "You are cold…" He mumbled as he started to fall back asleep, this must have been his first real sleep in a while, same as mine, other then the whole comatose I had a while ago. I started to fall back asleep and before I know it I'm out and dreaming about Nick, doing the same thing except we had less clothes.

3 Hours Later

"Nick, can we just stay here for a little while?" I asked as we pulled the Caprino into the Hagar Settlement "I mean, we don't have anything that needs doing… and I would like some time for my fuckin' wound to heal…." I rubbed my hand against my chest, flinching as it stung the now wrapped wounds. After we got up I realized that my chest was hurting and I had to wrap it in some bandages. "Yeah okay, I'll just have to talk to Dan about it; I'm sure he won't mind but…." "Yeah I know I'm from The Bloody Wasted Clan and I need to be okayed by the boss…." I mumbled, my elbow propped up on the arm rest.

"Sorry…" I looked over at Nick and he was looking down at the steering wheel "Nah, its not your fault, I knew what I was getting into when I decided to become a member, I'm used to harsh treatment… why do you think we attack your vehicles and shit? Because if we just drove around people would attack us… Authority Used to come around and try to kill us because we weren't part of their perfect world… I used to get shot at in any settlement or town because of my British Flag… I wasn't good enough for regular people… they always said I wasn't civilized… Well they should talk…" I was babbling on as Nick walked me to his room and sat me down on the bed, quickly pulling off my shoes.

"Huh? Oh shit sorry mate… sometimes I get carried away" I started pulling off my armor "Take your shirt off too" "What?" I blushed "I-I mean that I need to have someone look at your wounds… I-I'll be right back" Nick walked out the door and I slipped my shirt off, looking around the room I noticed that it was pretty big, there was a bathroom attached to it and a small kitchen. On the walls there were different maps and things, a poster for Pinkies was hung up but was mostly covered. The door opened up again as I leaned back against the headboard "Dan, this is Slate Edge, Slate this is Dan Hagar" He looked at me for a minute then smiled like he knew something, holding out his hand I shook it "Nice to meet you" I said with a smile "Nice to meet you too" he sat on the edge of the bed and began unwrapping the bandages around my chest.

"Nick says that he found you in the Dead City, what were you doing there?" He asked as he looked at the wounds on my chest, then began dabbing it with cleaner. Flinching I replied "I was getting the plans for an ocular implant that would increase visibility in low light conditions… But when I got there I had to search through the Hospital which led me to a office complex… which then led me to a underground facility where they were experimenting with Mutants… I found the plans and had to run like hell until I made it to the exit of Dead City, The mutant's that were following me had pals waiting for me at the bloody exit. I remember being sliced and beaten… but after that nothing… I guess that's when Nick saved me…" I rubbed my neck, a habit I had since I was a kid and looked up at Dan with a grin.

He had finished fixing me up and was wrapping my torso "Interesting, It's a good thing he did to, you would have been dead… The Wasteland would have had one more good soul that was taken by those mutants." He cracked a smile and finished wrapping "Thank you" I politely said as I rested back against the pillows "Your welcome, I'll see you later" Nick walked him out and shut the door "Dan said that it would be fine if you stayed here, he just doesn't want any trouble with your Clan" "Don't worry they know I'll be fine, I told them I was going to explore so that's what I'm doing!" I grinned and yawned "I'm still tired…" "You can rest, I'm just gonna go out and get some things from Halek and then I'll be back okay?" I nodded feeling Nick pull up the blankets before leaving the room.

An hour later Nick had returned, waking me from my sleep by nudging my arm with a bottle "Hmm?" "I thought you might want something to drink…" I took the bottle and opened it, taking a gulp of it I sighed "Mmmhmm…. Cold clean water, one thing you don't get is cold water where I'm from…" I drank some more before capping it and setting it on the night stand. "Thanks Nick!" I grinned and noticed Nick was pulling other things out and setting them on the end of the bed, I sat up farther and looked he had most of the stuff out but then stuck what was left in his pack. I raised my eyebrow then shrugged, if he wanted me to see he would have shown me.

"Nick?" "Yeah?" I pointed at the object lying on the bed "Is that a-a sniper rifle?" He lifted it up and smirked "Maybe…" He replied mischievously, I stared at the beautiful weapon in front of me "It's ah beaut!" he brought the bless-ed object closer to me and I was afraid to touch it "I figured you might want it, ya know to use?" I nearly passed out "R-Really?!" Nick nodded and set the weapon on my lap "You have no idea how long I've wanted a sniper rifle, ever since I found out how useful they are in this world…" I paused and looked up at Nick nervously; he just smiled happily "N-Nick I uh have to tell you something…"

He sat down beside me on the bed and I set the Sniper rifle on my other side. "Nick I…. I'm from an Ark… I didn't want to tell you because I might put you in danger if I did…. But I just… don't want to hide it from you… The reason I survived was because my nanotrites saved me… and then you did… if you didn't come along I would have-" "It's okay, I understand, when I first came out of my Ark I found out that being a Ark survivor is like being a winning target. I had to prove to people that I was okay to have around, I was lucky no one turned me in." He placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled "Nick, when my Ark popped up everyone was dead except me… I was only 15… I was luck that it came up near a Wasted Clan base… Jonas saved me from being….. Well he saved me, when the Authority came to take me away they all fought for me. I became a member when I turned 16… I've had to do many terrible things for the Boss's they were all insane and disgusting… The last one was the worst. He would shoot harmless people that didn't even have any guns…" I sighed "Thank you for saving me Nick" "You're welcome" "And thank you for listening to my bloody tale" He nodded and handed me a wrapped up box "What's this?" "Open it"

I pouted then did as he said; lifting the cover I raised my eyebrows I picked up a key on a chain "Huh?" Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me up, walking me outside. I looked up as Nick pointed to something in the garage, my eye's widened, sitting there was a brand new buggy, painted Orange and Neon Green, a British flag on the hood I noticed under it, it said 'Can't Touch This' "Ho-ly Shit…." I turned to Nick and leapt on him, wrapping my legs around his torso I hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting myself. Pulling my upper body back I looked him in the eyes happily "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

We grinned at each other, seconds later my lips were against his in a passionate kiss. A small moan escaped my lips as he pulled me closer then released my legs, letting them fall I kept my arms wrapped around his neck, slightly pulling him down to my height. Our lips separating I realized what I did and blushed "Uh… sor-sorry mate…" He gave me a shit eating grin then lead me to the Buggy "Where the hell did you get a bloody buggy!" I hugged the hood of the vehicle as I asked "Well I had a buggy and I traded it in for a new one, this one has a high class engine and a 2x boost, performance spiked tires, plus I thought you would like the way I had it painted…" "Fuck yeah! And bloody fuckin' guns on it! Plus a bloody targeting system! This is the first vehicle I've ever had of my own! Thank you so much Nick!" I gripped him in another hug and he hugged back. "Your welcome Slate" I released him my stomach growling "I eh… don't mean to be a party pooper but um… I'm really hungry" I poked my pointer fingers together with a blush, Nick laughed and pushed me towards his place "Come on I got some good stuff for us to have for dinner" I smiled as he brought his hand down to mine and I grabbed it tightly, a blush dusting my cheeks as we walked into the house.

"Aim and Shoot… yeah-wait…" He adjusted my position for the hundredth time and I rolled my neck "Nick I have been aiming and not shooting for the past fifteen minutes… can I just fire?" He sighed and moved to circle his arms around me to readjust my body again "fine…" He really didn't want me to shoot this damn thing. I aimed down the scope and at the Mutant that was looking at it's reflection in a puddle and fired, it's head exploded into bloody matter and I fist pumped, aiming at the one beside it that was now looking at the dead body, another head shot, going to the third one I noticed it was running towards us and tried shooting it, I missed and started to freak out "You can do it." Nick assured from behind me.

My adrenaline speeding up my heart I started walking forward and out of our hiding spot, the Mutant looked even more determined now that it knew were I was. Kneeling down I aimed once more and shot the creature in the chest, it didn't go down so I fired again. It fell to the ground about 30 yards away. I rose from my knee and checked for more. There were no more so I turned to Nick, walking back towards him I felt something hard hit the metal plating on my boot. Looking down I realized that it was one of the mutants knives, bending down I picked it up and slung my sniper rifle over my shoulder before continuing to walk to Nick.

"Did you see that?!" I said excitedly "Good job, but be more careful with moving targets okay?" I nodded with a grin "Soooooo… Let's go get that reward!" Nick patted my back and we walked to the vehicles, I hopped in my Buggy and he got in his Cuprino, turning on the comm. Systems I spent all of yesterday hooking up, we drove towards the Hagar settlement.

"Hey, you shot them, you get the reward." "Well, you got me the rifle and the bullets AND showed me how to use them, so YOU get the reward!" Dan seemed to be enjoying our little fight over who go the reward. I shoved the money into his hands and he'd give it right back, Dan finally got tired of the argument after 10 minutes and grabbed the money, splitting the $100 into two fifties and giving one to each of us "There, now you both have half, Nick for the ammo, training and gun, even though Nick gave you that gun as a present and Slate, for killing the mutants…" We sighed like children and pouted "Fine…" We said in sync "Thank you" He just laughed "No, thank you, those mutants would have came right down to the settlement and gave us a huge problem… Now take care" We nodded and left.

"I wonder what Twinkles is doing...""What?!" I shook my head, raising my hands with a blush "Ehh…." I couldn't think of an excuse "You mean the same 'Twinkles' who is wanted?" I rubbed my neck and nodded "Chopper Gray is his name… age 29, about 200 lbs Height 6 ft something?" He nodded "Yes" "Well we got ourselves a winner, now how about we forget about it and continue on with getting the object that I dropped in the entrance to Dead City?"