The next day, walking around the wet ground, around the snow and trees down the road a little ways from the prison, August and a few other volunteers were helping out. Chopping fire wood and collecting a ton of walnuts Emma needed to extract the oil from.
"Mowgli! Get out of that tree, boy! I mean it! Right now!" A tall, 37 year old, dark skinned Indian man with smooth long black hair squinted up into the branches of the big tree.
"Papa! I'm fine!" A pubescent little voice called back from above.
Mowgli was in the tree knocking down walnuts that hadn't fallen yet. Thomas Bagheera went to complain again but he was cut off.
"Thomas! He is fine! Let the boy have some fun...he's been stuck inside for weeks." A deep voice spoke up.
Another equally tall but kind of bulky and chunky, white man with brown shaggy hair and brown eyes, called out from his position under the tree sitting on top of his bucket that he was collecting walnuts in.
"Baloo, if he falls-!"
"He won't fall, Thomas." Bill Baloo replied back nonchalantly with his eyes closed as he leaned back.
"Your blasé attitude to our son being up in a tree, 20 feet from the ground disturbs me. Truly, Bill." Thomas huffed.
"Come sit down with me, enjoy the sun and the cool air, huh? We've been collecting all morning. Come. Come sit with your husband." He beckoned him over.
Thomas sighed but relented bringing his almost full bucket of walnuts over with him and sitting down on the lid. Bill peaked an eye open as he saw Thomas sitting there enjoying the sun shining down on his face. Thomas felt his gaze on him and turned to look at him with his fiery red brown eyes.
Bill bit at his bottom lip and leaned forward to give Thomas a quick kiss, which turned heated when he put his hand into his husband's silky dark locks. Bill pecked his lips as he pulled back to get some air into his lungs.
"Let's go back inside." Bill kissed his pouty lips.
"Ok. Let me get Mowgli down fro-"
"No just you and me." Bill shook his head. "Mowgli will be fine out here, Akela and his sons are out here, so is August. He will be fine." he insisted.
Thomas shook his head about, to list whatever reasons he didn't want to leave their son out here, but Bill whined and started to kiss his face, so he sighed thinking it over.
"Our cell is empty...and people aren't inside anymore." Bill pouted. "I miss you, we'll even be quick if that's what you want."
"An hour?" Thomas bit his lip.
"Two." He kissed under his jaw.
"Fine." Thomas sighed.
Bill pulled back and gave him a bright giddy smile, yanking him up, completely forgetting about the buckets.
"Akela! Can you keep an eye on Mowgli?" Bill called out to the man chopping wood.
The light skinned man with a buzzed head and full beard gave out grunt of acknowledgement and kept chopping. That was good enough for Bill, Thomas chuckled as he was being pulled away.
"Mowgli! Be careful! We'll be back!" He shouted up and more walnuts fell down.
"Alright! I will!"
Thomas heard him yell back and could only assume the boy climbed higher into the tree. As they were passing August who was kneeling on the ground, he chuckled and stopped Bill pulling him away for a second.
"August! Hi can you watch Mowgli for me please?" Thomas giggled at Bill trying to pull him away.
"No worries. I'll look after him." August chuckled at Bill's eager attitude.
"Thank you! Woah!" Bill yanked. "Are we going to run the whole way?" Thomas asked laughing as he tugged him away.
August watched them rush of, hugging each other closely and he sighed. Looking at how they behaved and pretty much how every other couple in the prison behaved was starting to irk him. Not in the sense that he didn't want people to be in love and all lovey dovey and what not...It just made him feel left out, like he was missing something everyone else was getting.
He was a 28 about to 29 year old man with a two degrees in philanthropic studies and filmmaking, living in the apocalypse. Before the world went to shit, August was over in South America, over 3,700 miles away from his family but he still managed to get back home to them. By the grace of God.
August had sat down to give his leg a break seeing as he'd been standing up for a few hours now and he was feeling some soreness from riding the Yamaha yesterday.
But the ground was wet so he quickly got up and decided to kneel instead, taking a breath and he attempted to get up. He winced as he tried to stand, moving his thigh muscle, and felt pain spread in his leg.
"Here let me help you."
August looked up and over to see, Archie standing at his side with his hand held out. Reaching his hand out to take the one that Archie was offering him, he sighed heavily and groaned as he was pulled up from his kneeling position.
"Thank you, Archie." August sighed.
"It's no problem." Archie patted his arm.
"Some days are just better than others you know."
August let go of his hand and leaned over to wipe the dirt from his pants. Straightening up and feeling the wet spot on the back of his pants, August cringe and tried to look over his shoulder at it. Reaching back and touching the damp fabric he wiped more dirt from his pants and butt.
"Damn it...Does this look bad?" August scrunched up one side of his face, cringing at the wet feeling.
"Turn around let me see." Archie said casually.
August did, not even thinking about it, still gripping the fabric between his fingers, trying to look back as Archie was looking at him. Archie looked over August's whole figure, until he got down to the taller younger mans lower half.
"No. No. You look good. I mean it's alright." Archie cleared his throat, licking his bottom lip. "It's not bad. I'm sure anyone who sees it will realize you just sat on something."
August nodded his head and turned back around, looking over at the red headed man. Well not so red anymore there was some grey mixed in to Archie's vintage looking taper faded comb over that was swooped to one side. That being said Archie was 56 years old so the grey hairs mixed in were warranted.
August looked over his freshly shaven face and at his piercing blue eyes and his red glasses. Over the last few months, they had become really good friends. Archie was just really easy to talk to and was helping August out with some of the mental issues he was having.
After seeing his father and brother shot down like dogs, and almost losing Emma and Henry and being practically handicapped for weeks August tended to get into this dark space in his head. He was always fine around Henry or Emma but he found himself having some pretty disturbing thoughts and realized he needed to talk to someone. So Regina told him how Archie was a therapist when things used to be normal and pointed him in his direction.
August felt he could talk to Archie right away and they fell into a sort of routine of meeting to speak to each other every week. But it wasn't just a patient-therapist sort of thing, Archie was actually his friend now and he appreciated him for the things he's done. A few times he's even held him while he cried, August couldn't stop it; it just all seemed to bubble over especially not being able to walk.
"Are you here to help out?" August smiled at him.
"Yeah... I figured I should be useful. No point of just sitting around inside you know." Archie's voice was soft but deep and raspy in a way, like it was aged.
"There's some more wood over there you could take to the truck?" August pointed to the right. "Or the buckets over there under that tree. Mowgli is still knocking down walnuts. Just be careful or you'll get hit in the head." He chuckled.
He was only slightly joking, those little suckers really did hurt. Archie nodded and smiled, walking over to the buckets, looking up and dodging a walnut falling above him. He chuckled and shook his head bending over to pick up the ones that were littered in the snow and grass.
August watched him walk over to the buckets and looked over his figure. Archie was wearing brown fitted pants with black boots and he wore a grey long sleeve under another worn white short sleeve. He had them both tucked in, the grey sleeves pushed up on his arms and a belt around his waist.
August noticed how...toned Archie looked compared to when he first met him all those months ago. August titled his head a little to the side and looked at his back, up to his shoulders. Archie dodged another walnut and laughed, looking back over his shoulder at August.
August watched him smile and noticed his facial structure and the way his eyes lit up, August smiled back at him.
Archie actually looked really cute and-
"What the hell?" August shook his head, stopping his thoughts and looked away.
August cleared his throat and stepped over toward the chopped up wood on the ground, bending over to pick them up and taking them over to the back of the truck. This was a different maintenance truck they had at the prison, not the ones they took on runs.
He threw them inside and braced his hands on the side of the truck, looking over his shoulder and back at Archie.
What the hell was going on with him? He was just thinking about Archie and how cute he was and his body and how he
wanted to touch-
"Stop that!" August huffed to himself and closed the back of the truck.
August called Mowgli down from the tree telling him they had more than enough Walnuts for now. Archie finished putting the walnuts into the buckets and picked both of them up and carried them to the truck. August looked away when he realized he was staring at the older man's body again, at his puffed up chest and noticed the way his muscles kind of showed through the sleeves of his shirt.
He furrowed his eyebrows and bit the inside of his cheek when that fluttering came back at the pit of his stomach. What the hell was going on with him?!
Archie put the buckets in the back and Mowgli jumped out of the tree and down to the ground.
"Later Akela!" The shaggy dark haired boy waved to Akela who was sitting down now.
Akela and his sons were just sitting on the ground basking in the sunlight now. He gave the boy a subtle nod and a little wave.
"Can I ride with you two back to the prison?" Archie huffed wiping his hands off.
"Uh Y-yeah" August pushed off the truck. "Akela! I'll be back to get the axes and you all once I drop everything off." he called out.
Akela nodded his head but that was all the acknowledgement he got. Mowgli ran over and hopped into the front in between August and Archie. August put the key in the ignition and started the truck, and put his foot on the gas driving down the long road to the prison gates.
He needed to talk to Emma.
Out near the big garage that the bus was stowed away in, they found an open space to set up the oil press and all the supplies Emma got from the hardware store and also the kits Kristoff and Jefferson found in the auto shop for her.
After coming back from the run the next day, Mulan helped Emma out by assembling the oil press for her and setting up the space outside. To test her theory out, she sent Graham out to the Walnut tree down the road to grab a few and when he came back with them they washed them and they let them dry out in the sun for a day.
From inside her cell, Emma told Mulan they had to remove the shells from the walnuts, chop them up, warm up the oil press and put the nuts into the top of the press. It was a manual press so she had to turn the crank to feed the nuts into the expeller and placed a mason jar under the machine to catch the oil.
Mulan cranked and cranked till her arms were hurting, but it wasn't for nothing because after about eight minutes they'd had about three teaspoons of oil just from those few nuts. It wasn't the fastest method but it was efficient. Time was one of the biggest factors here the walnuts needed at least a day to dry and the oil needed a day to set. But that was only getting more of the vegetable oil portion of the biodiesel there was still a bunch of other steps that needed to be done but they needed Emma for that.
Thankfully buried and hidden way back in the garage, there was a processor. So Emma got Graham and Kristoff to dig it out for her and bring it out to the space so that she could have open air to breathe. Her head wasn't as groggy but she still couldn't do things for too long without getting dizzy.
So today after Regina's return and the all clear from Doc, Emma took the few bottles of vegetable oil she found in the kitchen and the few jars Mulan had already cranked and set out on filtering the oil out into a large metal drum filter and putting it into the heated processor.
After checking titration levels and measuring the lye, that was sitting in the medical wing from when the team brought back all those supplies from the super center. She mixed the Lye and Methanol in a separate container before adding them into processor and mixing it together.
Doing all of this didn't seem to affect her too much, the open air and the cool breeze helped with the smells.
"How do you know how to do all of this again?" Regina asked from across the processor as Emma was mixing.
"Biodiesel is better for the environment, my dad used to have the farm hands help him make it but I would watch." Emma chuckled and shrugged. "After August left for school, my dad didn't really have anyone else to bug him and teach things to. Of course he had Adam but he was more into art and being inside the basement playing video games."
"So you were a little geeky tomboy learning about cars and farming huh?" Regina smirked and walked around the machine.
Emma stuck her tongue out at and rolled her eyes. Behind them August pulled up in the truck with Archie and Mowgli and the many buckets of Walnuts and chopped wood.
Some young stranglers around the courtyard walked over to the truck and started unloading everything. August turned the truck off and hopped out, closing the door behind Mowgli, quickly scanning the area for his little sister.
"August are you alright?" Archie's voice rang out next to him and he jumped and stepped back.
"Woah!- Uh Yeah. Yes! I'm good. I-I just need to go talk to Emma." August smiled and fidgeted.
Throwing the keys over to Kristoff and taking large steps toward the big garage, August stopped before he ran into the tables and barrels they had step up.
"Emma!" August called her name in a harsh whisper.
Emma turned her head, smiling from Regina's teasing and flirting to August once she heard her name. She saw how jittery he looked and furrowed her eyebrows toward him.
"Are you alright, August?"
"I need to talk to you. Like right now!" He urged. "Can you take a break?"
"I just started-" Emma started to say.
"Go on. I'll stir this." Regina spoke up and touched her head.
"I just started." Emma huffed. "I've barely been working for 2 hours."
"And you can come back, after you've had a break." Regina said firmly and leaned down kissing her lips. "Go on."
Emma huffed and kissed her lips again, stepping back and walking towards August. When she was close enough, he rushed forward and wrapped his hand around her wrist, pulling her forward.
"August!" Emma groaned as he tugged her along.
August didn't stop until they were across the yard in the greenhouse. And the door was shut completely behind them.
"Augustus! What the hell?"
"I need to talk to you!" He urged
"Ok. Jeez! About what?"
"When did you start liking women?"
Emma's mouth shut and she narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"
"Answer! When did you start to like women?"
"Why?!"
"Emma!" he gripped her shoulders and shook her a bit.
"Augustus Wayne! I have a concussion please stop shaking me!"
"Oh." He stopped. "Right. I'm sorry...But seriously answer me. Please!"
"What do you mean when did I start liking women?"
"When? How? Why?!" August listed. "All of it!"
"I-I don't know August, high school maybe?" Emma scuffed and shrugged.
"But why?! You were always fawning over boys and posters and the farm hands that worked with dad! Talking about wedding dresses and wedding cakes with mom! You had that boy at your sweet sixteen dance with you!"
"August what does any of that have to do with anything?" Emma put her hand on her hip and looked at him with a straight face.
"What made you start liking women?!"
"I don't know! Something about them has just always made me feel different, different than how a guy could make me feel. Women are pretty and just- it's just different I don't know August." Emma shrugged and laughed a little.
"What's different about it?"
"August!...Okay...there's being physically attracted to someone and sexually attracted to someone. Even emotionally and intellectually too...I've found myself being physically and sexually attracted to men and women. I "experimented" but I never really saw myself in a relationship with a woman before Regina...With her it's all four of those really."
"Which means you aren't straight anymore..." August concluded.
"I never truly was if you want to look at it like that." Emma chuckled. "Why are we talking about this stuff August?"
"I...I was thinking earlier how I hadn't been with anyone in a long time and then...I was looking at Archie outside and I-" August sighed forcefully. "I started thinking about him."
Emma's eyebrows slowly rose and she tried to keep her face as neutral as possible.
"But that's crazy right?! Emma? That's crazy because I've only ever been with women! Many women! I've never in my life looked at another man that way! Never! So that's crazy! Right? I'm not gay!"
Emma opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again, trying to think of the best way to approach her brothers frantic state.
"I think...feeling...what you're feeling...an attraction to a man or his body, doesn't make you gay, August. You never experimented with this sort of stuff?" Emma spoke carefully.
"No."
"You never looked at man before and thought he was attractive? No little crushes in school?"
"No!"
"You've never wanted to kiss another man? Like ever?"
"No! I'm not gay!" He stressed.
"Why are you trying so hard to put a label on it?"
"Because Emma! I have only ever been with women. I. Like. Women."
"Ok so you're confused on what you like but there's a lot more to being gay than just finding another man attractive. Did you...think about being with Archie?Sexually?"
"No. Not really."
"Would you see yourself in a relationship with him?"
"No, Archie's my friend and he's...been kind to me."
"Then you aren't gay. In this situation...you just find him cute and you're lonely and horny and miss being intimate with another person. You like women and you're sexually attracted to them...But...would you maybe find yourself being involved sexually with another man? Not just appreciating their looks?"
August went quiet then, his shoulders sagging and his eyebrows scrunched together.
"I don't know...just...I can't see myself like that with Archie." He sighed.
"But with someone else?"
"I don't know...maybe."
"...The world around you is changing and evolving and so are you...so it's ok if your...sexual preferences have changed or if other things you know...turn you on." Emma spoke carefully. "If you really want to put a label on it and need to do some exploring then that's perfectly ok August. Alright? Just chill."
August took a breath and calmed himself down, Emma stepped forward to rub her hands up and down his arms.
"Thank you." August nodded. "I don't know why I started freaking out."
"It's fine. So you're straight-ish. That's ok." Emma shrugged playfully and he laughed.
"So what does that make you then? With Regina being different and all? And you were with men before I mean you have Henry."
"...In this moment? I don't know, bisexual maybe? full homosexual? It's more of the bond we have above everything else. But I couldn't ever see myself with anyone else, male or female. Regina's it for me. Just her."
August nodded his head understanding and then he snickered, shrugging his shoulders.
"So you're just Regi-sexual." He joked.
Emma sighed and pushed him away from her walking towards the doors of the greenhouse, rolling her eyes as he followed.
"Sometimes I don't know which one of us is the older sibling."
"It's still me no matter how much you wish you were older." August chuckled and kissed her cheek, walking ahead of her now.
"What's on your butt?"