A/N) Not too happy with this one - took a while to write and I still don't feel like I got it right. Oh well - it reveals some required info so - enjoy I guess.
Motivation is your superpower.
Boomer winces as Butch hisses when Brick punches a particularly scratched up spot on his upper arm.
"Ow!"
"You wanted pain, there you go." Brick snaps as he grabs a white strip of fabric to wrap around Butch's scratches, tightly. "What were you thinking you idiot? Starting a fight like that."
"I just wanted to see." Butch mumbles. Boomer sees him fighting a smirk. The dark haired boy's eyes still had that glint to them. Boomer sighs and sits on a crate, deciding to take in the area around them.
After that red haired girl stopped the group brawl the dark haired girl had stood and explained that 'this idiot started it for no reason' and 'he was asking for it.' And 'Next time I'll crack his head' as she pointed at Butch, everyone backed her up and Butch had almost laughed, he probably would have if Brick hadn't glared at him so viciously.
It had gone rather smoothly for the most part. The new girl glared at them, was told who they were, and sent them to this corner of the Haven to wrap up their idiot brother without further incident.
"You just wanted to see huh?" Brick sounds less than amused.
Butch sighs. "It's been a while since I got a fight like that. Snapping Zombie heads is fun and all but it's not like that. Man - "Butch's grin grows now, "what a rush!"
Brick smacks him upside the head.
"And the last rush you will ever feel. If I catch you doing something stupid and unnecessarily screwed up I will kick your butt out of this place myself." Bricks eyes glow. "Do I make myself clear?"
Butch rubs his head. "Yeah, yeah, I got it." He pouts.
Boomer resists the urge to snort at him.
"Excuse me."
The boys stiffen and turn to see the red haired girl from before. She's pretty when she's not scary, Boomer notices. Her eyes are a weird coral color and her hair is red - like crazy shiny and long and she's - really pretty.
Boomer doesn't notice Brick stiffen behind him as they all stare at her.
She doesn't notice their blatant stares. "I didn't get the chance to introduce myself before." Her eyes flicker to Butch who grins sheepishly at her. "I'm Blossom Utonium, I hear you just came from the outside?" Her voice is smooth and clear. She exudes some kind of confidence Boomer feels like he's felt before. But he can't remember where.
Then he hears the silence.
Wait - why isn't anybody answering - scratch that, why isn't Brick answering?
He and Butch both turn to look at their silent brother.
The silence in this place is starting to make it heavy. The girl shifts on her other foot, the only thing showing her discomfort about the thickening silence.
"Uh, Brick -?" Boomer nudges his silent older brother to get him out of his stupor.
Brick blink and flashes the younger blond a look before realizing he'd been staring. "Uh - Hi - I'm sick – Brick - um - Hi."
If Boomer didn't favor his own life he would have - you know . . . snickered at his super smart brother's slip up. But he did like living so - yah. He stayed quiet for the benefit of living another day.
The red haired girl, Blossom - that's a nice name - gives him a small smile and holds out her hand firmly. "Nice to meet you all."
It takes Brick three awkward seconds of staring at her hand before he realizes she's waiting for him to take it. Oops. Boomer almost snorts at that. Butch looks like he's going to crack at any moment - he doesn't values his own life like Boomer does.
"So," Blossom says withdrawing her hand, "You've been outside this entire time?"
Brick nods, on time this time. "We've been on the outskirts for a while now. We weren't even aware this place existed."
Her pretty face turns into a sympathetic frown. She seems much nicer than the scary person she was outside when she stopped the brawl. "I'm so sorry, I can't imagine how awful it must have been to be out there all alone." She sounds genuine.
Brick doesn't answer this. Boomer kind of wants to thank her and everyone else. But he stays silent.
"So - is there a specific place for us to stay?" Brick says instead. "I don't think we're just supposed to find a corner and claim it right? You guys seem more organized than that."
Blossoms pretty pink eyes light up, "Oh yes! Boarding house, for boys specifically. We have some room for you guys I believe, and if we don't - the boys will be happy to accommodate."
Boomers not so sure about that but he smiles behind his brother who nods.
"I'll show you if you want."
Brick accepts.
They follow the red haired girl out and through the Haven, Boomer can't shake the feeling of excitement to have a new safe place to live.
"This is it!" Blossom sounds excited as she shows them a row of low roofed bunk houses. They all look sagging and the roofs are made out of crate planks. Man - they make everything out of everything around here.
Boomer wonders where they find all the stuff.
"This is it?" Brick sounds much less excited than Blossom does. Maybe she notices because she sags a little.
"It's not a grand thing but - it keeps out the carbonated rains and you can sleep in it." She says, her previous excitement sort of flattened.
Way to go Brick.
Boomer looks at his older brother in confusion. Butch looks pretty interested, he's already heading towards one of the doors.
"Well - thanks." Brick says, eyes grazing over the place.
What's up with him?
Butch starts to twitch; he really wants to get inside.
"You're welcome I guess." She says calmly. "Check out building six, there should be beds in there for you. We divide rations next to the fire over there at sunset," She points at a darkened pit a-ways away, "And we mostly get everyone in by dark."
"Where do you guys get the food and things from?" Brick asks, he sounds - weirdly like he's suspicious.
Boomer doesn't get it. What is up with him?
The red headed girl doesn't say anything for a second. Her soft pink eyes suddenly train so hard on Brick it's like she's looking through him. She must have detected the weird hardness in Bricks' tone. She sucks in a breath, like she's counting in her head and gives them a prim smile.
"Scavenging mostly. We have teams of well-trained individuals who are able to go out and bring back things for us to use." She sounds very informed.
Boomer wonders if she's in charge or something. She looks their age - but she sounds much older.
Brick nods and glances at Butch sharply who's inching away towards the cabins. The brunet boy freezes.
"So what happens when this area runs out of supplies?" Brick asks.
Boomer almost sighs in irritation. Can we just go now please?
"We scavenge farther."
"And if it gets too far?"
"We move."
Brick doesn't seem satisfied, but he turns away. "Thanks for the info."
The girl seems slightly ridged now but she nods. "Don't forget - rations over there in a few hours and we look forward to having you three mold into our young Haven. Have a good night." And she turns on her heel and briskly walks away, her red hair flaming under the last faint rays of the setting sun.
Boomer thinks they should probably not make that girl mad.
He turns to comment to his brothers and maybe ask Brick what's wrong with him right now but they're already heading towards the Cabin without him. He scrambles after them.
'Hey guys, wait up -" They step inside the creaky wood shack and stop.
Inside is pretty snug, three walls have one bed against it and they're on a metal frame. Boomer's eyes widen, he hasn't seen a lifted bed in years. The last one they had Butch broke because he tripped and landed on the frame, bending it the wrong way and nearly breaking his neck when the frame snapped shut on his head. Boomer remembers being grateful Butch has a hard head, otherwise hat would have hurt.
"Nice digs.'" Butch voices his approval, dark eyes sweeping the bare room. "Looks like it's just us though. That red head really set us up nice huh?"
Brick hums noncommittally and sits slowly on one of the beds. It creaks and the hinges were slightly rusty, but otherwise - it's better than sleeping in a dusty corner with a rag to cover with every night.
Boomer tries it out too and a grin spreads across his face. "This is gonna be so cool. We've got people to talk to and food that we don't have to scavenge for all the time and - and Zombies can't get you in here. This is awesome!" He can't keep the excitement from his voice.
Brick stares at the ground hard, eyes narrowing in thought and his lips pull into a tight line.
"Brick? Are you ok?" Boomer asks suddenly, sort of worried about his brothers silent thinking. When Brick thinks with that look on his face it means he's trying to figure out the best course of action for something.
"Yah bro - you've been really weirdly quiet. You're doing that thing with the eyebrows - why are you doing that thing with the eyebrows?" Butch says as he leans annoyingly forward and pushes a finger between Bricks frowning eyebrows.
Brick smacks his hand away and sighs. "I'm just thinking about how interesting it is that we didn't know this place existed. Also - once we settle in, we're going to have to find a place in here, it's not like when it was just us three anymore - we'll have to mold. And that might be a bit problematic." He sounds like he's talking while he's thinking now.
Ah - that explains some things. Brick's being paranoid. Boomer smiles carefully. Brick hasn't shown paranoid in years. It used to be when one of them didn't come home in time after a scavenge or when Butch would go disturbingly silent for hours which means he's trying to think which make Brick twitchy. But then they kind of just became numb to everything and Boomer suspects Brick still cares just - puts the worry part of it on the back burner.
But maybe being here with new people and new place is bringing back his uncertainties.
Butch snorts and punches Brick in the shoulder. "We'll do fine man." And he flops on the last unoccupied bed and folds his arms behind his head closing his eyes. "Besides, I think we're gonna fit in just fine."
Brick snorts this time and rolls his eyes. "Yah, if you guys could keep down the need to be stupid though, that would be grand."
Boomer nods hard, trying to appease his older brother just so that he won't breathe down his neck about this later.
Brick wasn't looking at him. His eyes were on Butch's stretched out form.
It's silent for a moment.
Butch lets out a loud exaggerated sigh and rolls over to his side, back towards Brick. Boomer waits. Brick's eyes bore into Butch's back now. He hasn't blinked once. It always freaks Boomer out when he does that, like if he stares long enough he'll be able to burn a hole in whatever he's staring at.
Another silent moment.
Then Butch sighs again, this time louder and more dramatically, "Fiiiiiii-iiine - " He flips over and smirks at Brick. "Fine - I won't do anything stupid - " He turns back over.
Brick doesn't believe him, but he drops the laser stare for now.
Boomer shakes his blond head as Butch mutters under his breath something that sounded suspiciously like 'for now' under his breath.
Boomer sighs. Whatever does happen though - it can't be any worse than living alone outside with hordes of Zombies.
Don't do anything stupid - ok - that should be easy enough right?
They go out later to get rations and to Boomer's surprised there are so many people there already, including that Blond girl - including Bubbles, Boomer can't remember much of anything else except that she was laughing and it sounds amazing -
Butch already falls into a group - the people he got into the brawls with Buttercup. They greet his green eyed bother really warmly in a weird rough, smack - smack – punch – punch, kind of way. Even that Buttercup girl seemed ok with him being there. Boomer suspects she might have had fun beating Butch up - but he's not sure, he doesn't know her that well yet but Boomer's pretty sure, judging by how tough she seems he wouldn't be surprised if she did like fighting though
Brick hangs back a bit, some people - a few were adults here, approached him first and Boomers surprised that Brick actually gets in a conversation, he must really have meant it when he said he wants them to find a place here.
"I'm Mitch - this is Mike and that's Robin." Boomer hears the freckle faced boy from before introduce himself and the others to Butch as Boomer walks up to them.
Butch smirks at them all "Nice - I'm Butch - " he pauses and glances at all of them, Boomer wonders what he's thinking as a weird look flashes across Butchs' face for a moment before he covers it and squares his shoulder, "Nice that you exist."
They go silent. Freckle face and the soft looking boy with blue eyes look away and that weird girl with large eyes and brown hair looks sort of teary.
Buttercup was silent up until this point and Boomer notices that she's shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other and her hands are clenching tightly at her sides. Then she claps them together startling their silence and briskly smacks a hand against Butch's shoulder.
"Nice to meetchya crazy boy." She smirks at him, her bright eyes sparking with a weirdly familiar glint that Boomer suddenly feels like he's seen a hundred times before even though he doesn't know her that well yet -
"Yah – nice to meet you too crazy girl." Butch says back. They stare at each other for a weird second that Boomer cannot explain and he's staring at them harder than he realizes - he's never seen his brother so still for longer than three seconds and -
"Ahem - " The sharp throat clearing startles all of them and Boomer notices the freckle faced boy looks like he's trying to fight a grin as he looks at Buttercup - "let's eat. I'm starved."
This was greeted by a chorus of agreements, and they turn to get their rations.
Boomer feels kind of warm on the inside as he sits next to Butch and they're surrounded by talking and laughter of others and - and when Buttercup insults Butch's face, he insults back, she punches him and then a scuffle ensues and then they start a fight and Boomer finds himself watching and laughing and then accidentally smacking Brick in the head when he gets shoved by Butch in the middle of the fight and - and they're laughing.
Brick looks exasperated but he doesn't look angry yet.
Boomer sits back and watches again. Takes it in. Really takes it in - the noise, the voices, the people . . . and he feels that warmth inside grow.
Yah - yah they could stay here.
They just - they just should keep from messing this up. Boomer smiles slightly - just don't do anything too stupid and they'll be fine.
Just fine.
"It's official. You are an idiot. A total, complete, and utter idiot." Brick looks livid. Furious. Nearly murderous.
Butch grins as he straps on the black belt around his waist, several others mill around doing the same, some slipping gloves on, other sharpening hatchets or knives. Buttercup was behind them saying something about decapitation of dead flesh.
"C'mon Brick, you said we have to find where we fit in this place. And I did!" Butch sounds extremely pleased with himself.
Boomer shakes his head as he sits on a boulder pretending to draw random patters on it with his finger. He doesn't want Butch to go - but of course his brother would find scavenging a fun pass time. Butch could never sit still for long. They've only been here for like eight days and Butch has already found a group of people almost as crazy as he is.
Buttercup included.
"I swear Butch - you are literally the sheerest idiot I have ever - "
"Chill Bro" Butch cuts Bricks livid rant off. Boomer thinks he shouldn't be so 'whatever' about this. But this is Butch - and he wouldn't be himself if he doesn't push buttons or his safety. "We'll be back before dark and when we do - you'll be super jealous of the fun I had." His grin is cheeky and Boomer sees that familiar glint in his green eyes. He's twitching slightly from excitement.
Boomer sighs and slides off the boulder as he makes his way towards his brothers.
"Hey Butch - don't let the Zombies get you." Boomer smiles halfheartedly, he knows Butch is the fiercest when it came to killing Zombies but - but still, just in case, Boomer thinks he should remind his brother of the danger he always seems to forget exists. Like this was some kind of game or something.
Butch nods.
"C'mon yah losers. Let's move out." Buttercup suddenly yells at her group and heads for the gates, armed and ready, even her footsteps look armed.
Butch grins after her. "Yes Ma'am." He turns back to his brothers taking in Boomers downturned face and Bricks grim glare. He smacks them both on their shoulders and salutes. "Don't worry guys, this ain't any worse than going out alone like we used to - it's better actually. I've got a bunch more people at my back. Bring you guys back a Zombie eyes ball as a souvenir."
"Please don't." Brick deadpans.
Butch laughs and takes off, practically skipping after his new found group.
"Hey Brick?"
"Hmm- " Bricks says absently, eyes trained after their idiot brother.
"He'll be fine right? Should - should one of us go with him and - "
"And what? He has a group - he'll be fine. It's just . . ." He hadn't asked or let Brick know beforehand.
Boomer figures Brick doesn't like that.
Maybe Brick's need for control was greater than they realized. Maybe having Butch decide on his own to go out into that hell without telling Brick was - was making Brick feel like he was losing control to keep them safe and in one piece and-
Boomer sighs and decides to head to the infirmary. For no reason at all, he's fine. Brick just needs time to brood and he needs some company. And the infirmary has people in it that he likes and he thinks they like him and - and Bubbles likes to go there a lot - not that this has anything to do with her, just . . . just she's so happy and in turn makes others happy and it feels like - like she's a piece of the sun that has fallen on earth to have the lucky people that know her remember what the sun used to look like and - and Boomer knows there's another word for this but he's not sure what it is and he really like to talk to her but - but what if she doesn't want to talk to him? What if she has other things to do and he'll just annoy her and -
His nerve scare him and he doesn't understand them. Bubbles is in the infirmary alone when he gets there though and he freezes.
She hums sweetly as she folds a crate full of extra clothe that they sue for clothing and bandages.
"H-hi B-Bubbles." He waves shyly. He feels weird around her - feeling like weird jitters and his stomach hurts all the time and he feels really hot and he doesn't get it at all - and he's afraid to ask Brick because, what if he's sick! What if he's turning into a Zombie slowly or something? He doesn't think he's been infected, but still!
"Hiya Boomer, nice to see you today." She smiles bright and blindingly at him.
Boomer sighs. "Yah me to - you - um - nice to see you too." He stammers.
She giggles and it sounds like what Boomer imagines Music must have sounded like back in the day. Brick was telling him about that a while ago, they have interesting pieces of history in this place that they managed to save through their scavenging and that keeps Brick busy for hours, it's like the boy is starving for something and Boomer's not sure what it is yet but -but at least Brick has a favorite pastime now?
"Hey, you wanna help me with something?" She asks and whirls around, snatching him by his fraying shirt sleeve and leads him towards a huge box in the back. Boomer waits as she opens it and gasps.
Inside where - weird moving things - Boomer doesn't know what they are, but they're in jars and they're moving - they're alive? Holy -
"Wha - "
Bubbles giggles, his face must have looked incredibly stupid at the moment. Boomer stares at her with wide eyes and she gives him a wide smile.
"They're tadpoles."
"Tad - what?"
She laughs again. "Tadpoles - they're baby frogs - amphibians. Professor managed to find some species and we - we breed them here."
Boomer can hardly believe he's seeing living creatures that aren't humans and - and wow. He lifts a jar full of small flitting living things. They're ugly and kind of gross looking but - but they're alive.
"We hope one day - one day we'll be able to have a place to let them go - but for now we're going to build a pound inside the Haven when they grow a bit more." She was saying as Boomer watches with clear fascination.
"You think there will be a place outside for them someday?" He says suddenly. He wonders - will there be a place outside for these little things? There isn't for humans and he's pretty sure, until they all die and become Zombies - this was how life was going to be.
Bubbles doesn't answer - she's opening lid slowly and dropping some weird greeN stuff in the water.
"Bubbles?" She looks distant suddenly. Boomer feels weird and - and he wonders what she's thinking.
"Bubbles?" He says again and touches her arm gently.
She startles - 'Oh - oh sorry, I was just thinking about the cure Professor - " She stops, blue eyes wide, she looks like someone hit her and she slaps a hand over her mouth, puts down the jar and stands hurriedly. "S-sorry Boomer I - I need to go for a minute. Sorry - "
She runs out and Boomer's left alone in the dusty room with jars full of wiggly black specks in a crate.
"Cure?"
What - what does that mean?
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Thanks for reading!