August pt. 1

vii. and all

Tsubaki wakes slowly, from what Black Star can tell. He's at the foot of the air mattress, tweeting to Harvey to pick up some bubble gum if he gets the chance, because Black Star will not lose this stupid prank war with Ox, and if the guy sees him tweeting about it, the horror of what he might do with the gum will kill him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Black Star watches Tsubaki turn on her side, moving more onto his pillow than hers. Seconds later she is reeling back, yelping and pawing at her face. He sees the look on her face as she tries to figure out what she'd rolled on, her gaze darting from him to the pillow and back to him.

He's still laughing, holding his stomach and hiccupping as tears fall down his cheeks when she looks at him, rubbing at her face. He's got half a mind to tweet about it, just to make Kim and Jack laugh, but she's glaring at him and pointing, asking, "What was that!?"

"I-ha ha-drooled. Holy shitsticks I'm sorry but you're such a spazz!"

He's still laughing when she kicks him the rest of the way off the mattress, flopping back tiredly onto it. He didn't wake up when she came to bed last night, and he wonders how much later she stayed out. He was on most of the night talking to that fucking Prometheus guy, Marie's friend, but had fallen asleep sometime around two. Even now, At-Prometheus tweets back at him. "Yo, what time did you come to bed last night?"

She grumbles something that sounds like three and Black Star gives her a very disapproving look. "You know, Miss-I-Don't-Really-Need-Sleep, you do actually need sleep."

He knows she's been talking to someone, though he has yet to find out whom. A part of him almost doesn't want to. Who could she talk to, what could she say to someone that she couldn't say to him? It leaves him with a gross feeling in his gut that feels a lot like jealousy, which is shit because gods don't get jealous. Mostly, a part of his mind sneers, because gods don't lose to humans. But isn't he losing right now?

Whatever, he thinks; making sure his prosthesis is on properly. At least she's talking to someone.

Tsubaki is still grumbling softly, pressing her face onto his pillow. "Don't get your gross morning breath all over my pillow, Tsu," he says, standing. She peeks at him from between her bangs but he's already pulling the door to their room open, slipping through and heading into the hallway.

He scans his phone while he makes his way to The Motherbrain, scowling at the cryptic as fuck messages At-Prometheus keeps tweeting at him. It could be that the guy just doesn't know how to type or text, but Black Star figures Marie would have shown him, and he's just being difficult. There are a few messages from other raiders, other groups, and Black Star makes a mental note to send out a few people to pick up the group stuck in the mall.

He's thinking of something witty to say back to At-Prometheus when an arm is slung around his shoulder and he is taken slightly off balance. "You know, it was kids like you that Jackie and I yelled at, a hundred years ago."

"Yeah," Black Star slips out from under his friend's arm, going back to reading off his phone. "Thanks officer, I'll be sure to look where I'm going, though."

Harvey chuckles slightly, shoving his hands into his pockets. Black Star briefly wonders if it's him that Tsubaki's been talking to, but then nixes the idea. Harvey doesn't seem the type. "We going anywhere today?"

Black Star doesn't know, hasn't decided yet. They probably should make a few runs, but he's too focused on trying to figure out why At-Prometheus keeps tweeting him lines from history texts and other boring reading material. It's all about illnesses and cures and death and Black Star is very done with his obscurity. He tweets, wut the fuck? At the most recent tweet, then pockets his phone.

"Do you want to go anywhere?" Black Star asks, stretching his arms up high and feeling the muscles in shoulders tighten pleasantly.

"Not really," Harvey shrugs, slipping through the door and into the Motherbrain, grinning at Ox when he comes into view. Black Star nods at Sid, who is standing in front of the monitors. "But I'm getting a bit of cabin fever just sitting here."

"Yeah, being safe is a real hassle," Kim speaks up from her spot at the table. Black Star takes the time to walk past her and knock her feet off the table, before taking his own spot three seats away from her.

"Some of us like the thrill of adventure, Kimmy-poo," Black Star grins at her, reaching into his pocket to check for anymore messages. None from At-Prometheus, but one from Clay saying something about finding survivors and-

"What the fuck why is Clay out on a run?"

Harvey and Kim decidedly don't look at him, and Black Star feels a conspiracy. Ox crosses his arms over his chest and looks him straight in the eye, saying, "Jack thought they should be trained to run raids. In case something happens to us."

One word sticks out to Black Star specifically. "They?"

"Blair is out there too. Clay, his dad. A few other civs who looked or seemed capable."

Harvey and Kim are grimacing, but Ox barrels on, oblivious. Or maybe he doesn't care. "Jack just brought them to the Costco about an hour away. We've been there before and took out most of the walkers, so it'll be a walk in the park, just a quick mission to let them stretch their legs."

Black Star is still reeling on the fact that he wasn't consulted, never mind that Jack took several civs with her. And nobody had thought to tell him? He can feel his face getting redder and his hands clench into fists at his sides, "Who the hell said they could-"

"Sid," Harvey pipes up from the table, meeting Black Star's eyes for the first time. And yeah, now that he thinks about it, Sid does have the authority to send people out, no matter how annoyed Black Star gets when he does so without asking. This makes it the third time.

"And nobody thought to wake me up?"

"Nobody wanted to wake Tsubaki up," Kim says quietly, giving him a very pointed look and tapping her fingernails against the table. She has literally the nicest fingers of anyone he's seen, and he doesn't understand how, it being the freakin' apocalypse. "You know she's been...having a rough time with things."

Black Star thinks maybe Tsubaki's talking to Kim, but before he can grill her on it, the monitors light up.

"They're back? Good, I need to rip someone a new asshole."

The next raid they go on, Black Star is part of. So are three of the civs that Jack took, Clay, his father, and Blair, and Black Star has changed his guess of Kim as Tsubaki's confidant to Blair because she has been up her ass since they'd left.

The goal of the raid is to more or less figure out where At-Prometheus is and rescue a group of civs who are trapped in a clinic, which sounds easy but is turning out to be way harder than he thought. On both accounts. Black Star really fucking hates At-Prometheus, and he doesn't even know why. The guy doesn't ever have anything substantial to say and is always speaking in riddles and if it hadn't been for the fact that he mentioned something about Marie once and then something about cures, Black Star would literally not give a shit.

But, curiosity has gotten the better of him, once again, so he gives a bit of a shit.

Currently, Sid is going over the game plan-a group runs in through the back, another through the front, take out as many walkers as possible without any fatalities, rescue the civs and figure out if any of them are bitten; the group entering through the front raids the pharmacy attached to the clinic for any and every drug they have; they run back to the first van where someone will be waiting and ready to go, while Tsubaki, Sid, Blair, Clay's father and a few of the civs Jack trained, and Jack get into the second van where someone else will be waiting and ready to go, and hopefully Black Star will have tracked At-Prometheus down.

"And if he hasn't?" Clay asks through the walkie-talkie, sounding wary. "What happens then?"

"We go home and try another day," Tsubaki says into her own, giving him a look that tells him she thinks he can do it. He appreciates it, and gives her a wink. "But he will. I don't know any better hacker than Black Star."

"Wasn't the wikileaks guy a good hacker?" Kim mutters, missing the glare Black Star gives her, but totally getting the one Tsubaki gives her, which makes him feel marginally better.

He stays in the car while they head in-a small little egg timer gives them thirty minutes to get in and out, and it grates on his nerves while he works. He keeps looking up and around, watching for any movement in the alleys near the clinic, or sounds that might tip him off that something is going wrong inside. So far he's only heard the muffled sound of a shriek. He hadn't recognized it from any of the others, so he'd gotten back to work.

At-Prometheus is harder to track than Black Star originally thought, especially considering he's working on a phone and doesn't have to proper equipment. But still, he has to work with what he's got. If his hunches are correct, this guy could be a lot more than just an idiot who spouts stupid shit into his twitter. Marie trusts him, at least Black Star thinks she does, and Marie is pretty badass, he will admit.

His earphone crackles to life with Tsubaki's voice, "How goes it?" She sounds winded and he is reminded that it is probably eight million degrees in there, and she's probably been killing walkers. He briefly wonders why she's talking to him when they both have other things to do, but realizes he's cracked the first bit of coding and he replies back, "Keep talking."

She talks in his ear quietly, more often than not out of breath and grunting as she takes down a stray walker. Her voice is like some Mozart shit (Black Star is fairly certain Mozart makes you smarter if you listen to it as a kid) and he's already halfway done when the timer goes off and the first van speeds off. He doesn't even know how many civs they've saved, but it looks pretty full and-"Where are you guys?"

"We're almost done, Blair and Sid are heading into the-"

He hears a muffled shriek in the background, then Tsubaki's loud "No!" And he's out of the van faster than he's ever moved in his life, pounding across the hot pavement and through the smashed front doors, past the metal gate that kept the civs inside safe, or safe from whatever was outside.

The only thought going through his head while Tsubaki yells orders into his ear is that someone was bitten. Someone is dying, someone is hurt, and they're going to have to kill a friend. He wonders who it was, but the thought is quickly answered as he rounds a corner and pushes through the swinging door to find Sid and Blair bleeding in front of two dead pharmacy workers.

Everyone is freaking out, screaming or pacing or holding up their guns and taking aim at the two people bitten, while Tsubaki is trying to get everyone to calm down again. Her face is completely drained of colour, much the same as Blair and Sid's.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Black Star bellows, stomping into the room and toward Sid, who gives him a look that is a mixture of terror and pride. His gaze passes over to Blair, who is hunched over and cradling her arm, eyes wide with fear.

Actually, everyone in the room looks scared. Murderous. Ready to jump the fucking gun and Black Star is having none of this bullshit today. If they can't handle this, they can get the fuck out while he takes care of this. He tells them as much, giving each of them a hard look.

Jack stands up taller, Tsubaki's blank face stares at Blair. He nods at the rest of them, feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. Another message from At-Prometheus.

He's reaching in his pocket to see what it says when he hears the loud bang of a gunshot. Instinctively, Black Star crouches and covers his head, looking for the source while simultaneously feeling something splatter against his back and neck.

Below him, his phone shows a reply to Jack's tweet to Black Star, telling him Sid and Blair have been bitten. Beneath her tweet is At-Prometheus' reply.

I have a cure. #Resistance

He doesn't really know what happens next-just knows that his eyes trail up from his phone, blood and brains sticking to the sole of his sneaker as he darts across the room, grabbing the woman who'd shot Blair-he doesn't remember her real name, just that her username was MadamMedusa-by her neck and shoving her against the wall. He snarls at her, not even really sure what he's saying, but her nails dig into his hand, leaving bloody tracks as she tries to breathe, and Black Star presses harder because Blair still had time, had to say good-bye, and if there was a cure-

"She had to!" Clay's father is yelling at Black Star, trying to haul him off, but it only succeeds in loosening his hold, and then Tsubaki is there in muted rage, hand clenched in the woman's hair as she knocks her skull back into the wall behind her violently.

Movement around them stops. Jack has a hand around Black Star's left bicep, Clay's father on the right. There are two more people and Sid behind them, but all eyes are on Tsubaki as she smashes the woman's head into the wall so many times that it's stained with blood.

Medusa fights back as much as she can, swinging her hands up and clenching them into Tsubaki's hair, driving her knee into her stomach. There are elbows and nails and hands and clumps of hair on the ground, and all they do is watch.

Tsubaki gets the upper hand eventually, pinning Medusa against the wall and slamming her head repeatedly against the wall.

"Stop," Black Star commands after the thirteenth time, but Tsubaki looks no less enraged. She does stop, letting Medusa slide to the ground, blinking slowly at nothing in particular. Blood dribbles from her nose and a sticky, wet trail of it is smeared on the wall above her.

"Are you done?" Sid asks a few feet away, and Tsubaki boots Medusa in the ribs.

"Yes," she answers quietly, turning her gaze on the rest of them. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Jack tells her. She's looking at her phone when Black Star looks over at her, and when she meets his eyes, she says, "There's a cure."

Black Star doesn't say anything, doesn't meet Sid's eyes or react to the noise Tsubaki makes. He won't get his hopes up on this cure or At-Prometheus.

While Jack speeds through empty, body-ridden streets, Clay's father, who he has learned is named Dane, and Black Star keep their guns trained on Sid. The two civs-Linda and Kyle-are navigating in the front seat, while Tsubaki sits pressed up against him. He's tempted to ask her if she's okay, but he knows she's not. And he has no doubt now that Blair was her confidant.

I'll take care of her, Black Star decides firmly, watching a line of white burn through one of Sid's braids. I'll make sure she doesn't...I'll make sure she's alright. I have to. I owe her this. More than this.

Sid is watching him. With each passing minute the air in the van seems to leave and the heat of the day compresses around them. Black Star wonders if he actually smells death in the van, or if it's just his imagination. "You should have left me there," Sid tells him quietly. "This isn't the type of man I am-leading lambs into the slaughter."

Black Star's eyebrows furrow, "What?"

The man's eyes are glistening with sickness and water and something deeper. They stare at Black Star like they can see his soul. "You don't know this man. It could be a trap. A set up."

"It could be a way to save your life," Tsubaki says lifelessly from beside him. "And if it works, everyone else's."

Sid doesn't say anything, but Black Star can see the trepidation in his eyes, in his stance. He's scared, or worried, or both, and Black Star has to ignore his own voice in his head, telling him to take this one step at a time, to not rush into this.

"You should have left me back there. Shoulda' killed me, Black Star." Sid repeats, scrubbing a hand across his face. His teeth look sharper than before.

He feels Tsubaki stiffen, sees the way the others pause.

Black Star scoffs and snaps, "Just let us help you, old man. If you die you can haunt me."

Sid glares at him, but Black Star sees something like relief in his eyes, so he isn't really offended when he says, "I will, punk."

At-Prometheus is holed up inside a house just outside Vegas, its windows boarded up, a tall fence surrounding it. Black Star has passed by it a thousand times before, but he's never thought anything about it before. Houses were not safe anymore and probably wouldn't be ever again. Windows could be shattered; front doors kicked open, boards broken. But, At-Prometheus seems to fuck everything in the ass, so Black Star is not surprised that he's living inside a house.

Marie greets them grimly at the door when they arrive and shuffles them in quickly.

The house, despite its outside appearance, is pretty nice inside, and pretty clean, and Marie explains offhandedly that all the old buildings out here have wells, and that she's a bit of a neat freak, and oh, Stein's lab is in the basement.

Black Star grunts under Sid's heavy weight as he and Dane bring the huge man down the steps and into the basement, the rest of their group trailing behind. The stairs are metal and the walls look like steel, and Black Star actually wants to cry when they reach the bottom. His leg is bugging him a bit from carrying such a heavy weight and walking down the stairs.

"Who's Stein? At-Prometheus?" Tsubaki asks while Marie leads them down a long hall.

The woman looks over her shoulder, brown-eyed gaze passing quickly over Sid, who is breathing heavily at Black Star's shoulder, and moving on to Tsubaki. She offers a small smile. "Yes, he's a scientist."

"And this cure?" She prods, sounding sceptical. "He said he has a cure."

"Yes," Marie says firmly, stopping before a heavy-looking door and typing in a code. "He does."

The room is freezing when Black Star gets in, which is a nice relief. Sid is burning up and the heat outside wasn't helping at all. Everything is pristine and shades of white and grey, including the pasty man standing by a long table.

"Hello," he says politely, though his tone makes him sound bored. "I'm Doctor Frank Stein."

Frank Stein? Black Star is pretty sure this guy's parents were fuckin' high when they named him. Who names their kid after a monster that was hated by everyone? "Cool," Black Star says regardless, nodding at him. "You can help our friend?"

The Doctor's cold eyes pass over each of them, finally landing on Sid. They move rapidly over his body, and then he nods sharply, pointing to an operation table on the far left of the room. Black Star, Dane, and Sid make their way over while the Doctor turns away and gathers things from off the table he stand in front of. Marie is asking the rest of the group if she can get them anything.

"Lie him down," Stein commands, coming up on Black Star's right and reaching over to grab Sid's face and turn it toward him, where he proceeds to check out his eyes and teeth. Sid looks worse than before, all pale and sweaty and he begins to mumble something. "Fever," Stein decides under his breath, turning away. "Black Star, right? I'll need you and the others to hold him down while I do this."

"Why?" Dane snaps on the other side of the table, but he's got a tight grip on Sid's arm. "Is it going to hurt?"

"It might, I suppose."

"It might?" Jack, who has made her way over with the others, sounds outraged. "What do youmean? Haven't you done this before?"

"No."

"WHAT!?" Black Star yells, along with the rest of the group. Marie looks guilty as she takes a place at Sid's head, reaching over to press her dainty hands down on his chest. Sid jerks at their loud yell, but Black Star ignores him. He's too busy thinking about all the things that could go wrong. He remembers that the monster wasn't named Frankenstein, and that it was the man-a man who thought he could achieve more than anyone before him and failed and he thinks maybe this guy is nuts and he's trying the same thing. "I don't fucking think so!"

"Black Star-" Marie tries, but he's shaking his head, watching Sid fill a needle with an awful looking cloudy mixture. It's a muted purple, almost grey.

"No, he's not-what if he just fucks up and creates something else...something other than a zombie? You're nuts if you think for a second that we're letting you do this, you creepy mother fuck-"

"Stop it," Tsubaki sighs beside him, and Black Star turns to her, eyes widening at the look on her face. She looks determined. "You're wasting time. This could save him, right? You said so yourself, and now we have the chance."

"We can't do this alone," She adds, so only he can hear over Sid's laboured breathing and mumbled half-words. "You can't lead this resistance by yourself."

She might as well be saying ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind, but this is not Lilo and Stitch and Sid is not being kidnapped by aliens. This is someone's life, his friends. But...

"So what is your decision?" Stein asks at his shoulder. Black Star stares hard at the man on the table, watching as half his braids burn white.

"Okay," he nods, pressing down. "Do it."

Stein squeezes between him and Tsubaki, and then the needle is shoved into Sid's chest, right where his heart is, and he screams.

Sid's screams echo in his head for hours afterward.

He's tweeted at Harvey, telling him they'd be staying the night here and bringing Sid home tomorrow, if he made it through the night, and now Black Star is sure it was the dumbest mistake he's made in a while. He swears he can still hear Sid yelling, begging to die, can see his skin changing colour beneath his hands, or how his eyes bled and his lips curled back from his teeth as the most guttural of sounds made its way out of his throat.

Stein had said that if he made it through the night, then they'd probably be safe. The antidote-the cure-must be working, has to be working, at least a little, because Sid was still alive, breathing, when Stein had sent them away earlier.

Black Star had thought maybe a shower would help clear his mind, maybe. Actually, he was originally planning on talking to Tsubaki, but he hadn't been able to find her anywhere, and so shower it was. Besides, he's still got...got bits of Blair on him, and he really needs to wash it off.

Only, that's where he finds Tsubaki.

"We have to stop meeting like this," Black Star jokes, leaning against the door while she peeks at him from behind the curtains. Her eyes are red rimmed and her nose rosier than usual. He's probably interrupted her in crying or something, but Black Star is a very big believer in not wallowing in guilt, so he figures his most loyal follower should be too. "You need help washing your back?"

She smiles at him faintly before disappearing back behind the curtain. Black Star makes his way over and sits heavily on the lid of the toilet, briefly wondering why they seem to always have little pow-wow, heart-to-hearts, and fights in the can. They should really stop-it's not sanitary. He tells her as much, and gets a quiet laugh in return.

"Where else would we meet up? The roof?"

Black Star flushes at the onslaught of memories of them on the roof of the library and he smirks at the shower curtain. "Maybe that should be where our first date takes place. What do you say?"

She is quiet after that, and Black Star slumps, angry with himself for putting his damn foot in his mouth. Again. He has no idea what is going through her mind anymore, hasn't for a while, and he doesn't really know if her feelings for him have changed at all. They could have, he wouldn't be surprised, but.

He shakes his head. Thinking about this will only cause more problems. They need to worry about hundreds of other things right now, not when their first date will be.

With a small sigh, he asks, "How are you doing?"

She doesn't answer right away, but when she does, her voice breaks. "I'm okay."

Would it be weird to get in the shower with her and make sure she's actually okay? Probably. Does it stop him from kicking off his sneakers and doing so? Nope.

She looks very, very shocked to see him step inside the tub, and immediately her hands and arms move to cover her naughty bits, even though Black Star has pretty much seen it all, at one time or another. And he's not even looking there thank you very much.

"What," Tsubaki whisper-shouts, looking very upset and very unamused, "are you doing?"

"Turn around," he instructs with a grin, to which she replies with a fierce scowl and a sloppy punch that he catches and also gives him a nice view of her tits. "Not like that, perv. I'll wash your hair. Like we're girlfriends or something. You talk to me while I wash your hair. I've heard it's very relaxing."

"Can you even reach that high?" She snaps, but turns away from him slowly, letting her hands drop back to her sides when she is completely turned. "And Marie is going to be so suspicious when she sees you all wet."

"I'll tell her you splashed me. If me being dressed is bothering you, I can fix that?"

"Please don't."

Black Star gives her his best smile when she looks over her shoulder at him. "Just relax. The Great and Mighty Black Star is here to give his favorite person a head massage. You should count yourself lucky."

Tsubaki lets out a sigh, which quickly turns to a low moan when he begins to lather her hair up with shampoo. "So, are you actually okay?" He asks quietly, turning the water on a bit hotter. He has no idea how she can shower in water this cold. "Because you've uh, kind of been freaking me out." You're worrying me, is what he doesn't say, but he thinks she gets it, because she presses up into his hands like a cat.

"I'm really stressed. And anxious. And violent," Tsubaki breathes, almost too quiet for him to hear. "I don't mean to be, I really don't but. But I feel like someone has to be and that someone is me. If I'm not, you'll die, or Jack and Kim will, or someone else I care about. Like Blair," here her voice breaks again, and he pretends he doesn't notice the tears dripping down her cheeks, mingling with the water. "I don't want to lose anyone else, so I'm trying to be better, I'm trying not to...to feel and...And I'm losing myself, I think."

"Nah," Black Star murmurs, running his fingers through her long hair, untangling all the knots. "I wouldn't let that happen. You know that, right? And you uh...you know you can talk to me, don't you? Because you can. Look, we're talking right now. It's like a regular ol' slumber party, except you're naked."

She laughs, looking at him over her shoulder again. He doesn't know if this has helped her much, or if what he's saying is getting through to her, but he thinks maybe it is. Hopes so, anyway.

They finish her shower five minutes later, with her rinsing out the rest of the conditioner while he steps out of the shower. His shorts feel heavy, way too heavy for just wet cargo pants, and he looks down to see a familiar lump. His phone. Which is probably broken, now, from being showered on.

"Son of a BITCH!"

Stein calls them into his lab the next morning bright and early.

They make their way down there slowly, all wary of what they might find when they reach the lab, knowing that they might see a body covered with a sheet, or Sid staring back at them, looking altogether unimpressed with how long it took them to get down there. Black Star hopes it's the second, but from the way the man had screamed yesterday, he guesses it's the former.

What they find, as Marie pushes open the heavy doors, is a mixture of both.

Sid sits up on the bed, only it's not Sid, and it's not one of them. This...creature has blue skin and wide eyes and he really looks like Frankenstein's monster.

But then he slides off the table saying, "Yo," and Tsubaki lets out a breath beside him, along with most of the others. "Don't look so surprised. I'm not the type of man-or I wasn't the type of man to let something like that defeat me so easily. I told you this would work."

He smirks at Black Star, and Black Star feels his own mouth widening in a grin.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

Marie's hands clap over her mouth, and when Black Star and the rest of them turn to look at her, she has tears in her eyes. "Stein...does this mean?"

"Yes," he nods, shoving his hands into his pockets. "We can help the twins, now."

The twins, it turns out, are Castor and Claire.

They had been bitten a few days ago and had been resisting, better than Sid had, and have yet to fully turn. Stein had only just finished the cure when he found out Sid was bitten, and decided, apparently, that Sid could be the test run before they tried curing the twins.

Said twins dance around the living room, all white hair and razor smiles but completely human, and they fucking' freak Black Star out. But Marie loves them, and so does Tsubaki, so he can't really say anything.

Still, he sees the way Kim flinches when they come near her or how Harvey's hand is always rested somewhere he can easily access his knife. And he feels a little better.

But right now, he has bigger problems than the twins.

"What the hell do you mean you're staying?"

Marie is looking warily between them, but Black Star is more focused on Doctor Crazy Pants. He stares back passively, seemingly unaffected by Black Star's tone, but he can see the sharp glint of annoyance in the man's eyes, and how his finger shave to curl into fists because they keep twitching. He doesn't seem like the most stable guy in the world, but he cured Sid when he got bit and they can all deal with the weird little quirks the guy has if they can stay alive.

But he doesn't want to come. And Black Star has no idea why.

"It's way better than this," Black Star continues, throwing his arms out and gesturing to the man's tiny kitchen, where they're having their impromptu meeting. He can hear the others shifting in the next room, but he pays them no mind. This involves them, too. "We've got supplies, food, and people. And it's not like we could just run on out here if someone was bitten on a raid-we were lucky with Sid. It's too far, too dangerous. Walkers could be here at any moment, and then where would you be? Fucked, that's where. At the Dam we've got checkpoints and not even I could get in if I posed a threat to the Dam. It's way safer than this-"

Stein scoffs, waving a hand at Black Star and looking at him sharply, "I think you're missing the point where I said all my supplies are here, and that we are safe here. The walls and doors in the lab were made with reinforced steel."

"Yeah," Black Star jokes, grabbing his pop and taking a swig from it, grimacing when he realizes it's flat. "It's almost like you knew it was comin', huh?"

It's meant as a joke, but Marie stiffens imperceptibly, and Stein looks out the window. Black Star's heart picks up speed and his hands get a little sweaty. "...unless you did," he swallows around the lump in his throat and glares at the man. "Did you-"

"Never mind any of that. I need Sid to stay here so I can finish up tests on him and make sure nothing goes wrong. At least a week, maybe more. I'll think on your proposition and give you your answer next...Wednesday. Does that sound alright?"

"Stein," Marie begins, but he cuts her off with a sharp look.

This guy is too sketchy, his mind is telling him, which sounds a lot like Tsubaki. Did you see the way he reacted when you joked about him knowing?

But Black Star knows they need him, so he pushes past his annoyance and scepticism and leans across the table, shaking the man's chilly hand.

Black Star is in a bit of a rage still, so he steals Jack's phone and tweets passive-aggressive things at everyone who's been tweeting him the last day, since he'd ruined his phone by showering with it. Still, he sees the tweet from At-Pianoman, asking for directions, and replies very snarky, it's hoover dam, use a map.

"Don't get mad at innocent people just because you're made at Stein," Jack chuckles, looking at him when she should be looking at the road ahead of them.

"Mind your business, cupcake."

"Call me cupcake again," Jack says with false cheerfulness, "and I'll rip off your dick."

He winces, and is a little nicer to At-Pianoman, telling him, we'll pick you up, where are you? And then turns to glare out his window. So what if he's pissed? Stein was a fuckin' jerk for not coming with them, and Sid was being annoying by staying with them. Black Star knows why he's staying, because people will not react well to his new uh, transformation, but still. At least Stein said he'll think about it, though Black Star probably has Marie to thank for that, not his awesome persuasion skills.

ur just sore bc u didnt get ur way At-ShadowStag tweets at him, and he tweets back, talk 2 me when ur over ur s'ghettio fix, bitchass.

He hears her huff in the backseat and vows to eat all of them before she can when they get back to the Dam, just to spite her.

Before he gives Jack back her phone, At-Pianoman tweets him back, saying i'll find u