Part 4 – A Lull in the Storm

When the storm came they hurried as one to the barn Daryl had found. Noah found himself a place in the corner, close enough to the fire to feel the heat, but not close enough to intrude on anyone.

"Yo bro!" said Tara slumping down beside him. "How are you doing?"

Noah looked across. There was something endearing nerdy about Tara when she was trying to cool. She grinned back at him concern in her eyes.

"You looked like you could use the company." she added.

Noah nodded but didn't speak right away.

"What did you think of dinner earlier?" she asked, referring to their previous feast of stray dog by the roadside, "That gave a whole new meaning for the term hot dog, don't you think?! "

It was a bad joke. Noah knew it. Tara knew it too. They had spent the last few days dying in increments but somehow Noah found a smile.

"At least we know those ones didn't contain the government's official quotient of rat shit." she added causing Noah's small smile to widen to a grin.

"Your jokes are terrible." he said.

"So they tell me." said Tara brightly and Noah found his mood transformed as it often was when Tara was around. She reminded him of his little brothers sometimes. Although back then Noah had been the one with bad jokes.

"Talking of 'hot dogs'." said Noah, as the comment had brought another thought to the front of his mind. "I was wondering what you said to Sasha."

"What?" Tara asked. It looked like she hadn't been listening; too busy wriggling and trying to find a comfortable spot in the itchy straw.

"It's just I saw you talking to her on the road and then when we stopped and ate…"

"…Duke." finished Tara.

"Yeah, Duke…" echoed Noah, "…She was almost trying to be nice to me."

Tara shrugged.

"I just told her that although she might not feel her life is worth living right now; the world is already full to the brim with dead people and she shouldn't be adding to it out of selfishness. If you're alive you're already on the losing side, so you can only win by surviving. And you can only survive if you help each other out."

"Helping again." said Noah smiling.

Tara grinned.

"It works for me."

He starred a little longer at Tara.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked.

Tara dismissed the question with another shrug.

"In case you haven't noticed. I'm nice to everyone."

Noah nodded.

"I'm not complaining." he said quickly. "I like it." he stammered. "I like you."

"I like you too." said Tara still grinning. Then Tara's expression changed a little. "But… you know I'm gay, right?"

"I'd worked it out." said Noah. He wasn't blind to how Tara would hover close to Rosita whenever she got the chance. "It's cool. I'm cool."

"I just mean you look like you could use a friend." Tara said at last.

Noah nodded. He quickly replayed all the moments between them and the easy rapport they shared.

"And there was me thinking we were already bro's." he said.

He smiled and held out his fist.

Grinning back Tara bumped his fist.

…