Ellis' snores filled the small room and Nick rolled over onto his left side, pulling an extra pillow over his ear. Nick had waited an hour or so before deciding to go to bed after Ellis had already fallen asleep, which turned out to have been a terrible idea. Thankfully, it had started raining pretty hard and the constant pounding on the rooftop slightly deadened Ellis' snoring. Nick could hear the low rumbling of thunder in the distance as he started drifting gratefully off to sleep.
BOOM!
"TANK!" Ellis' scream preceded a heavy object falling directly on top of Nick. Nick sat straight up and hit his head on something painfully solid. "Ow!" Ellis yelled at the same time as him. Another clap of thunder rolled directly above the little safe house and Nick heard Ellis mutter an embarrassed "oh".
"Shit, Ellis. What the hell?" Nick growled as he sat up again, this time slowly so as to not hit his head on Ellis again. He rested his back against the wall and squinted into the darkness to see Ellis' face only a few inches away from his own.
"I thought…" Ellis ran his fingers through his hair. "I thought it was a tank." He sighed and slumped. "Shit, that's embarrassing." Hanging his head in embarrassment and relief, Ellis finally realized what exactly he had landed on when his forehead hit Nick's head. They were so close that Nick saw Ellis' eyes widen in surprise in the instant before he leaped off Nick's knees and scrambled for the bed again. "Um…" He coughed. "Sorry. About… that" Seemingly out of words for once, Ellis turned over and pretended to fall asleep again.
Nick could hear Ellis' forced slow breathing and had to force himself not to laugh. The kid's sudden embarrassment gave Nick an idea. Well, if he was really honest with himself, he had been thinking about it for a while, but this incident inspired a way of acting on the idea. As silently as he could, Nick got out of the sleeping bag and stood up. He waited until there was a flash of lightning and then listened for the beginning of the thunder. When it started to roll directly above them, Nick jumped on the bed.
"Ahh!" Ellis shot straight up again, hands flying in every direction. He smacked Nick in the face a few times before noticing that the older man was cracking up. "What the hell?" Ellis fell back onto his pillows again. "I never figured you to be the jokester in a serious situation." Ellis muttered darkly.
Nick was choking on his laughter now. "I never figured you to be scared of thunderstorms, Ellis!" Nick laughed. "We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, man, you should have gotten over that fear a while ago."
Ellis glared. "I toldja, I thought it was a tank breaking in!" He shoved at Nick, who lost his balance and fell onto his side on the bed.
Nick shoved Ellis again. "Learn how to take a joke, overalls." He teased, sitting up and grinning at his disgruntled friend.
Ellis glared at Nick, who continued to grin teasingly, and then attacked. He leaped forward and sent them both flying off the bed and onto the piles of sleeping bags on the floor. Nick slammed into the ground with a surprised grunt. "I know how to take a joke, old man." Ellis growled.
Without meaning to, Nick burst out laughing again. He couldn't help it; Ellis was just taking everything too damn seriously. Ellis lowered his face and seemed ready to make another go at insulting Nick when the conman decided to test out his theory. He picked his head up and covered Ellis' mouth with his own. Ellis didn't jerk away, but he also didn't encourage Nick to continue. Nick grabbed Ellis by the neck and yanked him downwards. Ellis still didn't encourage Nick, but was still not telling him off.
"Come on, overalls." Nick snarled into Ellis' mouth. For one second longer, Ellis remained still as a statue, then he seemed to regain movement as he forced his mouth down onto Nick's, causing the back of Nick's head to slam into the floor again. He sat up after a moment, still straddling Nick's waist and seemed to be trying to find words to ask a question that Nick could sense coming. Instead of letting him think about it, Nick sat up too and forced Ellis to back up far enough for Nick to place his hands on the other man's chest and push him to the floor instead. Before allowing time for Ellis to change his mind, Nick started to attack Ellis' mouth again while working on getting their shirts off.
"Let me help with that…" Ellis slurred, grabbing hold of Nick's shirt and yanking it so hard off of him that a large rip appeared in the back of it. Filled with triumph, Nick threw the shirt into a corner to be forgotten for the remainder of the night.
…
Yeahhh, so that's my first attempt at writing a fanfiction. Hope you didn't hate it :) reviews are always appreciated!