A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for almost being a month late, but thanks for the reviews last chapter. Happy reading!

3:00AM

She stared densely at the crackling fire in front of her, it's weak yet bright flames offered enough light for Kirsten to see the pebbles and twigs near the stone surrounded fire. Her eyes slightly squinted at it's illuminance, followed by the light blowing of wind that blew the heat into her face. She'd been keeping watch for a few hours now, and by every minute it just seemed to get colder. It was the early stages of winter, time was ticking slowly as the days rolled through December. She didn't know the exact date, she stopped counting the painful twenty-four hours after three months into the outbreak.

Some days seemed harder than others, and today was surely one of those days. She woke up to bad news of Pete dying, almost opened the door to her doom when she mistook Carver for Luke, had to be forced out of the cabin, and was put on a thirteen hour walk to find mountains. Today was an extremely hard day.

Her eyes trailed over to the orange sleeping bag that Nick laid inside of, surrounded by the rest of the sleeping bags that the group slept on. She could tell that he was wide awake since she didn't hear his usual snoring. She couldn't blame him for not being able to fall asleep, another death in his family happened, and so soon after his mother. Kirsten wondered how much it'd alter Nick's personality, and how fast it would.

After the death of her sister, she spent a few days silently sulking to herself, eating away at her mind by thinking of ways that she could have saved her, thinking about how she should have said goodbye, or maybe even died with her. But those few days alone taught her that if she wanted to survive, she couldn't torture herself anymore. She couldn't keep thinking that a person is what should be making you fight for your life everyday. But those thoughts taught her wrong. Very wrong.

Luke showed her how wrong it was when she was about to make one of the biggest mistakes in her life. He helped her see clearly. And sometimes, just sometimes, she tries to find ways to repay him. Like giving him the rest of her food when she's done, or filling his water canteen when he was too tired to even leave the cabin. ...Or maybe locking lips with him when he's least expecting it. Although that one wasn't really what she had in mind when she thought of ways to repay him. She pulled a wild card that night, and she kind of liked it. She doesn't doubt that he did too.

Kirsten's running thoughts came to a halt when she heard the continuous rustles from the left of her. She darted her eyes towards a tossing and turning Clementine who held onto her hat with her hands. The more she stared at her, the more she felt sorry for the girl. Sorry for all that she went through during the last couple days, or, as a matter of fact, the last couple years. It must have been more brutal towards a small girl than towards an older woman.

"Clem?" Kirsten whispered, leaning over on her hands and tapping Clementine's foot. "Are you okay?" She asked, leaning back into her original position.

Clementine lifted her head up and darted her eyes towards the older woman, her scruffy, curled hair sticking outwards. She began to sit up, shaking her head as she placed her hat on her head. "I just can't sleep," she told her.

Kirsten patted the gravel next to her in hopes that the young girl would follow through. Clementine crawled away from her sleeping bag and towards Kirsten where she brushed against Luke's foot, sitting directly in front of his sleeping bag. "Now, I'm gonna need you to help keep me awake right now because I'm ready to collapse right here," she giggled.

Clementine tugged the corner of her lips, forming a small smile. "Sure. Do I ask you questions or something?" She asked.

Kirsten shrugged her shoulders, maintaining a low voice, "If you'd like."

She nodded, pulling her knees up and crossing her arms over them, "Okay, how old are you?" She asked, turning her head towards the woman.

Kirsten huffed with a grin, "Twenty-four. And I'm going to assume you're still eleven? Or did you magically turn eighteen today?" She sarcastically said with a grin, earning a small smile from Clementine.

"No, I'm still eleven," she replies, half smiled.

Kirsten's grin soon fades as the recurring thought bumped back into her head. It looked like Clementine had been through a lot, but how much had she actually been through? She looked towards the younger girl, "Tell me how you started, Clem."

Clementine's eyes perked up to her, "Started what?" She asks.

"All of this," she continues, "How did all of this start for you?" Clementine's eyes drift towards the ground as she moved her feet across the gravel, her already wrapped arms squeezed tighter around her knees as she exhaled. "You don't need to if you don't want to," Kirsten assured her.

Clementine shook her head, "I want to. Sometimes we need to let it all out," she replied. Kirsten nodded her head as the girl began to speak. "My Mom and Dad went on a trip to Savannah every year, and every year they came back. Sometimes with a souvenir or a toy, but this time, they didn't come back at all. I was with my babysitter for a couple of days before she got bit." Clementine's eyes drifted away as she paused for a moment. "There was a man in the forest who got in a car crash. He found me and told me that he'd take care of me until I found my parents."

Kirsten looked down towards the gravel as she spoke, "Did he do that?" she asked.

Clementine nodded, exhaling once again. "We went to Savannah to look for a boat, but I ended up running away from the group when this man lied about knowing my parents. I was just... a stupid kid. The man in the forest got bitten while trying to save me, and I..." Clementine's eyes shut closed tightly, her head tilting away from the fire that illuminated her face as she breathed out. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be alive."

Kirsten's face turned into a look of sympathy as she placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder. "He sounded like a great guy, Clementine. What was his name?" She asked, letting the girl regain her composure and turning around back to her.

"His name was Lee," she replied. Immediately, the thought of her uncle popped into her head, and she couldn't help but smile.

Kirsten turned towards the girl more, "My aunt was married to a man named Lee. He was a good guy too, but things got complicated for him and he did something that wasn't like him. Sometimes it even hurts to think of my aunt because of what she did to him." She narrowed her eyebrows, "Needless to say, the senator she slept with deserved what he got," she snarled. Clementine's head perked up towards Kirsten in realization, and Kirsten's immediate reaction was to apologize. "Oh, sorry. You shouldn't hear stuff like that."

Clementine shook her head, "Was your uncle on his way to prison because of what he did?" She asked.

Kirsten's facial expression sunk just as Clementine's did, the realization both hit them like a ton of bricks. As Clementine grew older, she understood what had happened between Lee and his wife, given the information he gave her. She put all the pieces of the puzzle together in her head, as she'd normally do. "You don't think that...? Lee was...?" The younger girl's head started to slump down as she was Kirsten hit reality. "Fuck..." She whispered to herself, turning around towards the fire.

Clementine's eyes sunk down towards the ground as her eyebrows furrowed, tears beginning to well slowly in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Kirsten... I just wanted to see my parents..." Clementine's voice trembled, she sat physically able to look back up at the older woman.

Kirsten couldn't blame the girl, and as a matter of fact, Clementine did that enough herself. The sudden shock and realization of this stunned her, it put her into a small paralyzation where she couldn't move for a moment. Of course she's had close ones die before, but she just couldn't imagine him being dead. Lee was another person to kick off the missing list.

She shook her head, averting her eyes from the ground and towards a teary eyed Clementine. "Clem, no, don't... don't cry. Please," she pleaded, extending out her arm and placing her hand on her shoulder, "You can't let that eat away at you. It'll tear you apart." She told her, but a cold, sorrowful weep escaped Clementine's lips in response. Kirsten was starting to feel the pain radiating off of the young girl, and she did the only thing she felt was the right thing to do.

Kirsten pulled the girl closer to her and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her tightly as Clementine silently weeped into Kirsten's shoulder. Her tears trickled down her cheek and onto the older woman's shirt, creating a small damp spot on her clothes. From the corner of her eye, Kirsten saw an awoken Luke sit up on one of his elbows as he rubbed his eyes. Damn, he's a light sleeper.

Luke didn't speak, but raised a hand towards Clementine in confusion. And soon enough, Nick gloomily rose from his sleeping bag, examining the situation with weak eyes.

"Clem...?" Kirsten uttered, slowly pulling the little girl away from her. "Clem, I think it's time you get some sleep, okay?" She insisted, as the little girl nodded her head in agreement. Clementine wiped her tears as Nick laid back down and Luke sat up fully, she had stopped crying. The younger girl crawled back to her sleeping bag where she then removed her hat and placed it down beside her, falling back into the position she was in before Kirsten alerted her. Kirsten felt a little guilty, she felt as if she shouldn't of asked her about her past, but how else would she have known that her uncle is dead? That he wasn't another person to go searching for?

"You okay?" Luke's voice caught her attention, she gave him a brief nod before he moved forward and next to her. "You don't seem okay," he told her, staring at lowered eyes.

"Yeah, it's just- just nothing." She replied, looking back up at his illuminated face. "You should get some sleep, we're up in a few hours."

Luke raised an eyebrow, "You forgetting somethin'?" He asked her, to which she gave him a puzzled look in return. "You need ya rest too, I can take the last few hours," he told her, before beginning to grin, "The last thing I want is needing to carry you for a few hours." It was true, she needed to be up and alert tomorrow for travelling. She couldn't do that with no rest under her belt, could she?

Kirsten raised an eyebrow at the man, "Oh please, that's all you'll want." She said with a menacing tone of voice, grinning as he forced an innocent shrug.

"Well if it weren't for the kids around, I'd probably do more than just—"

"No-no-no, no, you don't need to go any further," She exclaimed in a hush tone of voice, cutting him off with a raise of her hand. Luke grinned as she shook her head, trying to contain a laugh. She crawled over to the empty sleeping bag, lying down on her side as she adjusted her pillow a bit. She raised her head up once more to see him still grinning, her cheeks flushed as she placed her head back down with a grin she couldn't contain anymore.

"Quit being so gross..."

7:00AM

"Come on, dude. It doesn't take that long to piss, does it?"

Luke pulled up the zipper on his jeans, turning his head over his shoulder to glare at his best friend, "Well it don't take that long to get mauled to death if you don't keep it down," he hissed, turning around and walking up to Nick before they both walked down the graveled footpath.

"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes, clutching onto his rifle a little tighter. "You get the chance to talk to Clem about last night?"

Luke shook his hand, placing his hands in his pockets with a confused and concerned look. "No... No, I didn't. I don't even know what happened. I only woke up to her crying." He replied, running his fingers through his hair. "What even happened?"

Nick sighs, keeping his head down towards the ground. "I didn't pay much attention to their conversation, just had a lot of stuff on my mind. Kirsten had an uncle that took care of Clem, and neither of 'em knew. Clem said she fucked up and he died because of her." He replied, looking up towards a shocked Luke.

His eyebrows raised with a jolt, his lips parting before he spoke. "You serious?" He asked, looking up at Nick with wide eyes. Nick nods his head before briefly scanning the area with a turn of his head. "She- uh, she still hasn't found her Dad yet. Think we'll be seeing him any time soon?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders with a pout of his bottom lip, "You think she'll go runnin' about trying to find him? It'd be a one in a million shot if did, anyways." He told him, letting his eyes wander about at the landscape in front of him. Luke wondered what Kirsten wanted to do about her father. What if the group did find him? What would he think of Luke? What would he think of his daughter liking Luke? Or worse, what would he do to Luke if he found out he had some sort of burning passion for his daughter? Nick looked down at Luke, "Why you askin' anyway?" he asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Luke's head snapped up towards Nick just as he spoke. He shook his head a little bit to get rid of the gnawing thoughts before letting his eyes trail back to in front of him. "Jus- Just wonderin', y'know?" He responded as casually he could. ...Which wasn't all that casual.

Nick's once confused face turned into a menacing expression, he looked down at his friend and nudged into his ribs, with a devious grin spreading across his face. Luke walked silently as he 'nonchalantly' looked away and into the forest. "You scared to shit, aren't you?" He asked, "You actually think we're gonna find this guy and he's gonna beat your ass for wanting to fuck his daughter—?"

"There's more to it than that, asshole." Luke replied, cutting his friend off with a glare. "I've got clue how this guy is— he could pull the trigger on me, or worse; on all of us. I- I mean— he could be a fuckin' psychopath and we wouldn't know shit. I don't even know what type of father he could be. He could hurt her, y'know?"

Nick looked down towards the ground in speculation before looking back at Luke, "Or he could be a totally normal guy, you don't know."

"In a world gone to shit like this? You still think there's a normal guy out there—? A normal person? Pfft, good luck tryin' to find one of those."

Nick narrowed his eyes towards Luke, "You tryin' to say you're not a normal guy? Hell, you're more normal than almost everyone else," he responded. Luke's eyes trailed off in disbelief as he kept walking, "I'm not kiddin', Luke."

"You think so?" He asked, "Because I feel like I'm goin' to fuck up at any moment now. Especially now with Carver on our tail, I don't how how I'm going to cope. At least Kirsten's doing an alright job of it so far." He replied.

Nick paused for a small moment, unable to respond to how Luke felt about his situation. "So how are you and her anyway?" He asked, turning his head towards him.

"I'm getting there," he responded. Luke's eyes narrowed at Nick as he took his hands out of his pockets, "And just so you know, I don't just wanna fuck her."

"Oh really?" He asked, the same devious grin spreading across his face, "Sure didn't sound like it last night. Sounded like you wanted to do something to her—"

"When and if she's ready." Luke cut him off, beginning to slightly grin as the pair walked along. His grin grew bigger as he couldn't contain it, looking down at the gravel he walked on. "Not like she declined, anyway."

"There's the ego booster," Nick playfully retorted, as Luke huffed a small laugh. "In all seriousness, sounds like you really got somethin' for her." Luke lightly smiled. Oh, there was something for her alright. She didn't even have to speak a word to him, just looking at her made him feel like he could die a happy man. She meant a lot to him, even if she did end up leaving the cabin that night. He wouldn't have forgotten about her, and he hopes that maybe she wouldn't have forgotten about him either. But he didn't need to think like that. She was here, with him, with the group, and relatively happier than before. Sure, she was still sarcastic and bitter at times, but he loved that about her. A lot of girls he met were either too nice or too negative. Kirsten didn't meet any of those type of labels. She was just... her.

"Yeah," Luke nodded, "yeah I do."

Nick paused for a moment, "She melt your heart away, dude?" He sarcastically asked, grinning as Luke's eyes narrowed into a small glare. "She your little ball of sunshine?"

"You can shut up now, Nick."

"Aw, come on. It was just gettin' fun."

A/N: Heya! Hope you liked the chapter. Time for some reviews, shall we?

Reystro: I thought it was pretty funny hehe. But what?! Of course I would read your new chapter first! I was so excited when I logged on today and saw you'd updated again! Your fic gets me even more motivated to work on mine. I have terrible writers' block though, ugh. But I'm working on it - I promise! I was worried Kirsten was gonna blame her feeling of safety and the way she reacted to Carver on her feelings for Luke - phew. Poor Luke. I'm glad you're taking things slow between them though, it's a lot more realistic. It's tempting to jump into the fluffy stuff. I'll be anxiously awaiting chapter 14:]

BTW I know I've changed my username AGAIN. I can't decide between Margyri or Reystro - just wanted to add that in case you hadn't seen me use this username.

Hope it wasn't that much of an anxious wait, because it's here! I'm glad that taking things slow seems more realistic, but I'm scared it might seem a little forced in the next few chapters because of what I have planned. And I can't really postpone it, since there's really no other time in the next episodes of the game- except for that one time, but I have something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT planned for that moment, which is not what happened in the previous version. So stay tuned for that tear jerker (hopefully). I can't wait for your fic to be re-written! You have all my support, don't be afraid to private message me if you need help!

TheWalkingDeadLuke: Omg amazing chapter please update! Is there going to be rated M soon? Or in this story?

Well, I'm not very experience in writing M scenes (trust me, I've tried). But I'll try to make it as close and heated to an M scene as I think I can go. There definitely will be- uh, "M associated" themes in the story. :)

XxClemClemxX: EEEEEE! I'm SO HYPED! I love it

Glad you love it! EEEE! I'm really hyped too!

So that's it for the HM's and I really, really, really hope you can leave a review for me! I'd still love me some of that criticism if ya got it.

Also, don't be afraid to kick my butt for almost taking A MONTH to update. Bad me. Bad, bad me.

Happy reading!