Once when she and her Dad had been caught by a sandstorm, they'd bunked down in an old sewer. It had been long abandoned, half-collapsed. The pile of debris had been the only thing separating them from the feral ghouls baying on the other side. She'd had nightmares for weeks and still shivered when the wind howled that certain way.
So Hotel Happy was not the worst place she had stayed but sure as hell it was up in the rankings.
"It's not a brothel." Ann tried to excuse the hovel as she and Will carried Hank into the small room. "And the lock's pretty good."
"We will move the bed against the door." Caius declared, receiving no argument from her. They put Hank by the boarded-up window where he would be safe from their redecoration. The metal bedstead protested when they shifted it but aligned neatly with the scratches on the jamb, suggesting they were not the first to barricade themselves here.
Caius cleared the floor and arranged the bedroll while Ann tended to her uncle. His weight in denarii would not convince him to sleep on the mattress. If offered his weight in aurei, he would still hesitate. The legionary was certain the mattress had quivered when he touched it.
He stretched out on the blanket, grimacing as muscles across his back and shoulders punished him. Caius groaned when he reached up for the bottle she offered but waved away her concern. He shifted onto his side to drink as she unlaced her boots, shedding coat and hat before hesitating.
"Could you roll over the other way?" Ann asked. She was prepared to get changed in the same room. Hell, she was going to sleep beside him. But she didn't want him practically nose to tit when she took her shirt off.
"I am too tired." Caius screwed the cap onto the bottle and lay back down. He shut his eyes. He kept his eyes shut not for her modesty but his peace of mind. She was not a whore or a slave. Only the Dissolute gave into their urges and rutted like animals.
Ann chuckled. Yeah, it was a bit like that. She changed out of her sweaty, dirty clothes into her comfy jammies. She'd have to put everything back on in the morning but that was the morning. And she'd been in those clothes for days. They were nearly standing up by themselves.
"I've got a change for you." Her voice was quiet. Ann didn't really know why. It wasn't anything. She hadn't even thought about it other than the same she'd thought for her. That after slogging to Nipton it'd be nice not to sleep in her own stink. "They're new. I mean, they're not Hank's. If you want 'em."
Caius looked at her. She wore a loose shirt and shorts in a soft old fabric, worn smooth and pale. He nodded, thinking that anything clean would be welcome. She turned her back on him while he disrobed, hanging her clothes over the bedstead. It irritated him she did not gather his garments to do the same. To avoid a charge of being slovenly, the legionary picked up after himself.
When he returned to his place on the bedroll there was a chaste handspan between them and the merchant woman was already asleep. Caius smirked as he closed his eyes. No stamina, that was...
He woke to silence. Some small sound was missing and the lack of it had roused him. His Legion training prompted him to lie quietly, eyes lidded, listening intently. Ann was no longer beside him. He sat up with hand reaching for the machete he did not have.
A finger of daylight clawed through the boards on the window, catching the side of her face as she sat beside the stretcher. She held the dead man's hand in hers. Her posture told Caius all he needed. It was done.
Had she done it? The legionary did not ask. He lay down to go back to sleep and give them their privacy. But she had heard him move.
"There are some things I've got to buy." Ann didn't turn around. Caius shoved the bedstead to the side, disdaining quiet as it was past dawn. Time to be awake even for Profligates. She dressed and left. He did not ask where she was going.
When he died, if he died well and within scope of comrades, his body would be cremated and his ashes buried at the shrine to Mars in Flagstaff. That was enough. More than his comrades had got. He would make offerings for their spirits to rest easy, though their families had most likely already been informed of their deaths. He had a duty.
Ann returned with empty hands and a full pack. And a brahmin. Caius had expected a shovel. He tended the beast while she shrived the corpse then they left Nipton with little interest from the locals. The legionary made note of that. Two people, a pack animal and a shrouded body garnered not a twitch of a curtain.
They headed in silence back to the gully. Ann stopped only twice to check her bearings on a compass as the open country gave them good vantages to retrace their steps. Caius watched for enemies and felt under-clad without his armour.
The gully camp was as they had left it. Ann collected a few things before leading the laden brahmin on to a smaller ravine nearby. It was long but shallow, entirely enclosed at one end. Caius might have called it a cave except he could touch both sides with arms bent. They put Hank there, right at the back where the sand was moist underfoot.
The legionary would have left it at that. It was a decent place. Chthonic enough for Pluto to find the dead man. But Ann was not finished. She put a blanket over the corpse and tucked a pillow behind its head. From out her pack came a clock, a pre-war contraption with metal bells on the top. She put it beside him, adding a battered book and a lunch-box.
How those things would help her uncle on his journey to the afterlife, Caius did not know, though he supposed a snack might be welcome. The dead hungered. He did not pester her with questions as they withdrew from the ravine though it surprised him she said nothing over the body; no prayer or remembrance.
They piled rocks in front of the opening, blocking it off to keep scavengers out. The young woman did not speak until she had loaded the rest of the trade-goods onto the brahmin, breaking down the camp site with practised efficiency. She offered him a backpack.
"Water and food and stuff. Whatever you'd need to get you wherever." It was more than fair, Ann reckoned. Will had earned it and if he had some place to be, she didn't want to keep him from it. "But, well." Her hands shook as she held out the supplies. She really did not want to be alone right now. "You can walk with me if you want."
"I will." Caius took the pack, shrugging it on and feeling less like a beggar. Her smile made him feel something too but he pushed that away. "Is there anything more you need do?"
"Not until sundown. We'll be at the road by then." Ann didn't want to talk about it. She'd done right by Hank but he was still gone. It hadn't made it hurt any less. "Everything's a bit shit right now. I'm glad though that we met." She offered him her hand.
"As am I." Caius responded, shaking her hand awkwardly. It was not a gesture common in the Legion. Her head tilted as though confused. He could not read her expression behind the bandanna though he thought he heard a soft chuckle. The Dissolute were inexplicable.