Alex kept looking the place over from his spot against the wall, like something was just going to manifest out of thin air and try to eat them. When he wasn't doing that, he was giving Kou the absolute worst look.. He even went as far as to tell the guy to go put on a damn shirt so she'd stop drooling!
She was not drooling.. melting into a puddle of lusty goo, yes, but not drooling.
Guess it really doesn't matter if he has his memories and human emotions or not, a guy's gonna' be over-protective of his sister.
Food smelled amazing! Real food! How she managed to make it was a complete mystery to everyone, but she did it. Spicy Texas chili packed into hard taco shells, a bowl of tortilla chips with queso and spicy salsa.. Yea. Mexican restaurants in this part of the country couldn't hold a candle to this. ..Just imagine what she could make if she had a good selection of produce to use!
How were these guys not fat?
How.. oh..
Yea she finally managed to tear her eyes away from the tattooed stud long enough to notice the other two really weren't that far off the sexy scale. Nero had the boyish charm of the high school hunk that every girl would kill to be with (OMG, she loved his tattoo! Did he just have his arm done or was there more?), while Dante had a more mature, rugged sexy going on.. Did he have a tattoo hiding somewhere as well? Oh, did she love a man with ink!
How could this girl stand it?
Friends with benefits?
Or maybe she wasn't into guys?
And why hadn't she made enough food for everyone? Was there just not enough?
Wait.. Where the hell did the meat come from?
"Why aren't you eating?" Her question popped out as curiosity got the better of her. Alex, she could understand, but the siblings weren't eating either..
Kou snagged a taste from his friend's plate, but that was it. "Don't worry," He smiled at the concern marring the woman's face," She wouldn't give y'all anything weird. Likely perishable ingredients were salvaged from the MREs they'd thrown at us. As for why we aren't eating," He motioned toward her brother in reply, "Same reason he ain't."
She was lost until Ragland spoke up. "You were infected by the virus as well?"
Candy gave a small nod while her brother's attention was caught, quite suddenly, by something in the living room.
Save for the noise they were making and a couple helicopters in the distance, all was quiet and it seemed neither his sister or the older of their friends noticed or even cared. Nero got curious when he saw his friend's attention had shifted, but he didn't say anything.. Alex even looked around in that direction and didn't seem to find anything out of place.
They carried on with the usual small talk; where everyone was from, what their jobs were, family, friends.. Interestingly, many of the countries and cultures had come back fairly the same, after the war- as far as names, languages and such, went.
Kou was having a hard time keeping his mind on the conversation, though, his mind and eyes going back to whatever he'd noticed before. It seemed to be getting him more and more antsy as the time and conversation went on. First a leg started to bounce, then fingers were tapping an odd rhythm..
After a good 20 minutes, or so, Dana couldn't take it any more, "Something wrong, Kou?"
That did it.
He got up with an angry huff and stalked over to the bookshelf to reorganize the books. Everyone watched in complete confusion, save for Dante who gave a small chuckle and shake of his head, and his sister who decided it was a good time to explain.
"High functioning autism. It's hard to tell, now, because of how long we've had to work on it, but there are still moments where it kicks up." She gave a half smile to the looks of understanding dawning on all their faces.
Ragland's interest was piqued at this bit of information. One could hardly tell, even knowing and watching for the signs.. not that it was his area of expertise.. "And how long have you been working with him on it?"
"7,748 years, 4 months and 2 days." Kou supplied from his place at the bookshelf, never missing a beat in their reorganization.
"Holy fuck! You guys are lookin' damn good for being almost 78 hundred years old!"
"no shit.." She turned her attention to a surprised Nero. Whether he was more surprised at the actual numbers or the way Kou rattled them off so easy, he had no idea. "What? I've only known those two for a couple days."
Dana nodded in understanding while Dante and Candy waited for their friend to rattle off an exact time..
Well, he seems to have gone into his own little world.. Rare for that to happen unless he's playing with some mechanical or electronic something or another. The red-head excused herself and quietly made her way across the room to sit next to her brother on the floor and spoke softly to him until he came back.
A/N:
is my math off any?
-knew each other for 20 years, 3 months and 14 days when the first trials were run and Candy was infected
-project was scrapped exactly 27 years after the first trials
-the war began 1,116 years, 5 months and 13 days after the project was scrapped
-the war lasted 568 years, 2 months and 28 days
-it's been 6,015 years, 9 months and 11 days sense the war ended
