The next morning Ellis awoke to find Nick nowhere to be found. He had checked the kitchen area of the small safe house, the bathroom, and even outside of the safe house. No sign of Nick anywhere. Did something…happen?

"Nick…?" He winced as he walked around, still really sore from Nick making love with him last night. He was sure that if they tried again in a few days, if Nick was up for it that is, he'd be a lot better in bed and actually enjoy it more and be able to drive Nick crazy.

Nick came back into the safe house, limping slightly. "What is it Ellis…" He looked at Ellis from the door, leaning against it weakly as he held his arm. He had gone out to find some cola to possibly give them some energy to move onto the next safe house because he was in a good mood, and he just wanted new guns from the nearby army base.

The young mechanic's mouth hung very slightly agape as he stared at Nick holding his bloodied bicep, only imagining how bad it was. Nick hardly showed that he was in pain, but when he did it was usually extremely bad. He noticed Nick's face was scrunched slightly, his teeth gritted, and his eyebrows furrowed together. He was also breathing quite hard. Poor Nick. The face he was making…it was heartbreaking.

Ellis slowly moved over to the shelf and got a first aid kit, unzipped it, and went over to Nick. "Let Doctor Ellis fix y'up…" He smiled widely as Nick smiled at him for using his line, a light humor falling over the two in the proceeding silence as Nick moved his hand away from his arm and Ellis began to clean it after removing the clothing.

Nick watched silently, staring at Ellis' lips as he whispered mutters of thought, patching him up so gently. Usually, team mates would have been rougher, even quicker to aid one another, just to get the bandages on and wounds cleaned. But things were different now, and Ellis actually cared if he hurt Nick now.

The wounds were patched up, and Nick had his arm thickly wrapped with gauze, thanks to Ellis.

The city slicker grabbed onto Ellis and hopped on one leg to the spot where they had made love the night before and sat down with Ellis' help. "I got scratched up by normal zombies…but I was lucky as fuck that there weren't any special infected, like a damn Tank. I hate those mother fuckers." He remembered a Tank almost killing Ellis and shook his head slightly, not wanting to cry again. That was a touchy subject for him—the possibility all too real of losing Ellis.

After Ellis made Nick a meal of canned ravioli, which was Nick's personal favorite of the very few things they had, and some cola, Nick had fallen asleep, clutching his arm gently in protection as he sat with his back to the wall, head lulled to the side.

Ellis sat in a chair infront of Nick and watched him sleep, his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands. He had looked at the map and saw that they needed to cross a bridge before coming up on the army base. It didn't seem too bad, but he had no idea the events that waited before them.

Ellis sighed and fixed his hat and moved a bit, the sound of silence deafening and driving him crazy. He knew he shouldn't wake up Nick, but he felt lonesome as well—Nick not exactly having been very affectionate to him since last night. He shook his head and went over to Nick, helping him to lie on the ground and covered him up with a blanket he had found stuffed in a bag on a shelf.

Nick opened his eyes slightly and snuggled against Ellis, reaching out to him and grabbed him around the waist, and yanked him against his body. "Get a good enough look at me?" He buried his face in Ellis' neck and sighed gently, focusing on going back to sleep until Ellis opened his big mouth.

"Actually, yeah! I never get tired a lookin' at ya. You're a real good lookin' dude, Nick." Ellis giggled wildly at the hot air being blown on his neck by Nick, and the feeling of Nick's scraggly beard gently tickling and poking under his jaw and at his shoulder. "You gotta shave…unlike you, I don't get no face hair…hardly. There was this one time, me and mah buddy Keith was in his bathroom, and I was sittin' on the side of the bathtub, jus' watchin' him shave, all jealous-like. Well, Keith saw that I was lookin' all jealous, and he looked at me, which caused him to cut his chin all ta hell. He bled all over the floor! I swore I woulda had ta take him to the hospital, the dumbass. I sure do miss 'im…"

Nick stared blankly at Ellis' neck, listening to him talk. It was so relaxing, to hear Ellis' sweet, higher-pitched voice, compared to his deeper, rougher voice. "Ellis, uh…I don't care." In all honesty, he loved the Keith stories. He could imagine the actions as vividly as Ellis described them, as if he were there. One thing about Ellis, he was a hell of a story-teller…

Ellis' smile faded into a serious expression and he looked at the wall as he talked to Nick, his voice slow and shaking. "Nick…you know tha'—I care for ya. A lot…and I'm not playin'. I chose you to give myself to cuz I knew you'd take care 'a me…and cuz I love you…I ain't ever loved no one." He held onto Nick tighter and pressed his hand to the side of Nick's face, not wanting to hear Nick's rejection, as he expected from him.

Instead, Nick smirked slightly and kissed Ellis' neck gently and pulled his head away to look at Ellis. He saw that Ellis looked scared as hell with wide eyes and was even…trembling a bit?

Nick pressed his hand to Ellis' ear and smiled a bit, happy. "I love you too. We've been fighting together for over six long months. I've learned so much about you, and still…I find myself wanting more. If we make it out of this alive, and the world begins to return to normal, we should get a house together and live life normally. Maybe then we'll see if we just needed fuck buddies, or if we really fell in love in a hopeless place."