The crew spent most of the night making feeble attempts at dressing their wounds, and taking turns keeping the lookout from the top of the Fort, making sure they'd yet to have been discovered. In the middle of the night, Rude climbed up the ladder to find Elena, rubbing her eyes determinedly on lookout duty. She gave him a little wink and a wave as he approached, beckoning him to sit down beside her. "Hey," she said, "So, what'd you think of our rescue?"
Rude considered it. "Not bad," he admitted, "for being out of practice."
"Out of practice!" Elena snorted. "You're an ungrateful little twerp." She slid her legs out in front of her, dangling them over the edge of the outcropping where she was perched. "You'd think you'd have a little more respect for our endeavors."
"Sure," Rude murmured, grinning. "Thanks."
Elena just shook her head in mock annoyance, and licked her chapped lips as the sun started to come up over the plains which splayed out in front of her. Rude slunk a little bit closer to her on the ledge, following her gaze. He glanced down at her arm, and gave a little grunt of discontent, seeing a large red welt blazing on her left wrist, "How?" He asked, gesturing at the bruise, and Elena, shrugging, pulled the arm behind her back, trying to make the gesture look casual.
"War wounds," she chuckled, "marks of honor, no?" She grinned reflectively. "Remember how we used to show off in the locker rooms back at the Company?"
Rude was startled. It was a rare day that he'd every heard anyone invoke The Company with that kind of nostalgia. Elena leaned back against her wrists in a stretch, and then flinched, feeling the bruise, and straightened up again.
"Nasty job," Rude commented on the welt. "C'mere." He lifted up her wrist gently with one hand, staring at the wound for a moment." "Lemme wash that."
Elena raised an eyebrow, and pulled her wrist away. "You should have been a mother, Rude," she murmured. "You're a better one than mine was." She turned her own wrist over and examined it carefully. "I like it. Adds some color." Her own pale skin was apparent as ever in the vague sunlight that was climbing up overtop of them as they sat. "You always said I could use some color."
"Not what I meant," Rude admonished, but he let the issue of her injuries go, and Elena turned her focus to the horizon.
Footsteps could be heard below, and then Tseng's head appeared over the top of the rope ladder that led up to where Rude and Elena sat. A few moments after him came Reno, a little louder, a little less adept at climbing the ladder. "Hey, kids," Reno declared, "Bedtime." He sat down next to Elena, and shoved her gently in the side. "Go on, yeah? Get some sleep."
"My pleasure," Elena replied with a yawn, and pulled herself to her feet, with Rude following suit. Giving Tseng and Reno a little thank-you wave, she and Rude descended from the summit of the Fort, to find a pair of decently clean cots to curl up on.
"Rude?" asked Elena, after a few minutes of decently comfortable silence. Rude's head appeared over the side of the bed that he'd settled into.
"Yeah?" He replied, resting his chin in one hand.
Elena bit her lip, suddenly feeling like it was a stupid question. She wanted to ask what it was like to live alone. It seemed like the kind of moment in which one would ask that kind of deep question, in which one would have the chance to inquire into a taciturn friend's personal life. But Something in Rude's expression said that he'd rather not talk about it.
"Nevermind," she said, with a shrug, rolling over on her cot. "G'night."
"G'night," Rude muttered, and it couldn't have been more than five minutes later that he was asleep.
On the roof of the fort, Reno stretched out on his back, poking Tseng in the ribs with his toe. Tseng jerked away from him, and made a face. "Ew," he spat, "Don't put your feet on me."
"What," muttered Reno, "'s not like yours are any cleaner." He paused for a minute, staring at the sky, ignoring the landscape and the signs that he was supposed to be watching for. "I'm bored."
"Deal with it," muttered Tseng, not looking up from his own vantage point. Reno rolled over on to his stomach, yawning. Tseng glared at him. "Can you focus, please? It's late, I don't have the patience for this, you're not seven."
"You're old for your age," noted Reno. Tseng snorted.
"I'm dealing with the situation in a much more collected and mature-!" Reno poked Tseng in the ribs with his foot again, a little harder this time, and Tseng sprawled back against the roof of the Fort. "You're impossible. And gross."
"You love me," Reno grinned.
Tseng said nothing for a few minutes. After a short lapse, he turned back to Reno with a little resigned shrug. "I've got a deck of cards," he muttered.
Reno raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah?" He grinned. "Let's see it."
Hey guys. Memslle here. I know it's been a really horridly long time since I've updated this story, I'm not sure if anyone will pick up where I left off and keep reading.
I've got an explanation for that. I was in an accident after I left y'all this summer, and I spent a couple of months blind. Sort of distracted me from the goal I'd had of finishing this story sooner than later.
But if you'll keep reading, I'll keep writing it. Let me know where you stand on this one.
Thanks for indulging, kids.