whirlybirds

by Caspar Wilde

A collection of shortish drabbles starring our one and only Ellis, before, during, and after the Outbreak, in no particular order. Some angsty, some fluffy, some funny, Nick/Ellis, some Keith/Ellis, some without pairings. T for language and violent themes. Chapter 6: Keith insists on calling up a hooker. Ellis has a better idea. KeithxEllis.

3. six dollars to my name

In which Nick returns to old habits after the apocalypse.

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"I got five.. no, six dollars to my name." Ellis grinned, producing with a flourish a crushed handful of dollar bills from some deep dark place inside his overalls.
Nick however shot him a scathingly skeptical look, eyebrows raised. "Well shit, Ellis, aren't you just drowning in dough," he muttered, fishing around in his own pockets. But merely moments later he paused, and withdrew his hands, empty. Slowly, he turned and plucked the meagre fortune from Ellis' fingers, trying not to think about where they might have been. He slid the money across the counter to the suited woman behind it and collected his couple of chips. He tipped the young mechanic a wink, elegantly twisting the chips between his fingers. "By the end of the night, I'll turn this into five hundred dollars, or call me a liar."

"Well, I'll be damned," Ellis breathed, letting out a low whistle under his breath as the lady counted out bill after crisp fresh bill. Finally she slid the stack of cash across to Nick, who simply smirked as he folded the money and stowed it safely away inside his filthy jacket, making sure to tuck the bills in behind one of the Desert Eagles he kept concealed on his person. They might not have had zombies to worry about anymore, but Nick still never felt quite right without some sort of firearm.
"Told you," he quipped triumphantly, leading Ellis, whose mouth still hung open in awe, out into the cool Vegas night. "Bet you've never even seen so much money at once before, have ya?" It was a little cruel, he knew, to get so high and mighty teasing the kid, but old habits die hard. However, at that stub Ellis grinned, making Nick frown just a little.
"Well, actually, ah have, 'cause at th' auto shop we handled mosta our, uh, tran-sac-shins in cash, and this one time, muh buddy Keith had this-"
"Save it, overalls," Nick snapped, sullen all of a sudden at having been shot off his pedestal. Ellis just laughed, and shook his head, and laughed some more, hands in his pockets as they walked together.