[IC] Atomic Rain (Fallout)

[Nekoholic]

"We should start looking for a place to set up camp for the night," Leith announced, his voice little more than a soft grumble. He had barely spoken after they embarked on their sudden detour, going in the direction that the short-stack and jackass claimed was the site of the nearest vault. His stomach churned as they drew nearer and nearer, thinking of just what could be waiting for them there. Experiments gone wrong, nests of mutated creatures unique to that particular vault, hallucinogenic chemicals being pumped through the air system. He rubbed one hand over his face; they had to be close, and he wanted at least a night to rest and mentally prepare himself.
"Are you okay, Leith?" Basil asked, catching up to the ghoul, who had taken the lead hours prior.
Leith glanced down at the kid; not that anyone would notice, but his lips were pursed. "Define 'okay.'"
"Hmm...like, you just look really worried. Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong? Kid, look around you; everything's wrong these days," he said. Noticing the snapping tone in his voice, then the slightly hurt look in the kid's light green eyes, he sighed and added, "I'm fine, short-stack."
"Well, that's good," Basil replied awkwardly.
After a moment's hesitation, Leith asked, "What about you? Not in shock or anything from your friend almost dying back there?"
"No, I'm fine, too," Basil said. He shrugged. "He didn't die, so I'm not going to worry about something that didn't happen, you know?"
Leith nodded, "Good mindset to have." He then pointed out, "Wait, I never even introduced myself. How do you know my name?"
"I just picked up on it," Basil said with an unconcerned shrug, clasping his hands behind his back.
"Oh. Well, what's yours? I didn't pick up on that."
"Basil. Like the herb."
"Basil...my wife used to mix that into our tea. Was nice, so...nice name to have, I guess."
"Thanks." Basil rubbed his arm anxiously, as if hesitating to ask something.
"My wife's gone, kid. Can already tell you're the inquisitive type, but too polite like Kaye-kid back there to just outright ask." He smiled softly at Basil. "Hey, looks like your friend is giving us the stink eye. Should probably get back to him. I need to be scoping out some rest sites anyways."
Basil nodded, and turned to head back to Jace without any protests. However, before he went, he said quietly, "And...I'm sorry about your loss, by the way."
Ducking his head, he whispered, "I am, too."

[NinjaButterfly]

Despite Jace telling himself over and over that he simply didn't care what Basil did in his own time, he couldn't believe his own words. He eventually fell to the back of the pack to keep a close eye out on the two newcomers but was beginning to wish he hadn't. No matter how much he tried to pry his gaze from them, he couldn't stop glaring at the back of the ghoul's skull as he and Basil conversed with one another.
They seemed to be hitting it off very well and it made him wonder just what had occurred in his...medical absence. Had they made some type of agreement that they weren't telling him when he was unconscious? No matter how much he tried to understand, the more he begun to wonder what made the ghoul so likeable in Basil's eyes. In all the years Jace had known him, he had been the loner aside from himself and didn't have any other friends aside from himself...he was always the only one, and now this bastard wad in the picture. He hated that he was making him jealous, a ghoul of all things.
'He is smarter than me and knows more about the mission than even I do...and I have been on this mission since the beginning.' Realizing this only made him hate the ghoul all the more.
"Why aren't we going to the vault tonight?" Kaye asked once Basil walked away. She was immediately glued to Leith's side again, looking up at him. "Shouldn't we just get it over with?"

[Nekoholic]

"Like I've said a dozen times over," Leith said exasperatedly, "We don't know what to expect once we get there. So we need to rest up, get some food in our stomachs--especially for brain-waste over there. And above all else, we need to think up a firm plan, so that we can actually get in and out of there without casualties or wasting all of our supplies on stupid endeavors." He shot a look at Kaye. "Got it now, princess? Making sense to you now, buttercup?"
Basil fell into step again with Jace, and asked, "So what's with the sour face?"

[NinjaButterfly]

Kaye snapped a look at Leith and stuck her tongue out at him. "I guess we need to stop so you can get your beauty rest as well. God knows your ugly mug needs it. Might need to stop so someone can get that stick taken out of your ass as well." Sh3 smiled at him sweetly.
Jace didn't even look at Basil as he fell into step with him. "Who does that thing think he is?" He muttered under his breath. "He comes in here like he has been one of us from the beginning and starts throwing around orders like he is the boss?" He finally looked at Basil, glaring slightly. "You are more willing to listen to him more than you are the one who has been by your side for half your life. I kno2 I may be a dumb-ass when it comes to the science stuff and everything else...but I am the one who has kept us alive this far."

[Nekoholic]

Basil narrowed his eyes and replied, "There's no need to be racist. And he's not a 'thing' either--he's a human being, just like us." He folded his arms over his chest, refusing to look at Jace. "It's not like they plan on sticking around, anyways, so we could at least get along while we're together. And you should be more appreciative, too. If it wasn't for them, then..." He trailed off, lowering his eyes to the ground. "He's not that bad, honest. And it's not like I've abandoned you or anything, like you're implying. He just said that we should set up camp because we're all obviously tied, except for maybe Kaye, but I kinda suspect that she may be on something. I don't want to outright accuse her of that, though, because that'd be rude--maybe she's just a really, really optimistic and energetic person, and who am I to judge her for that?" He took a deep breath, cheeks flushed slightly as he finished his rant. "Anyways, stop being a jerk."
Leith rolled his eyes, but paused as he heard Basil raise his voice slightly. He didn't think that he was actually capable of getting riled up to this extent, but he looked it now.
"Sounds like we could all use some shut-eye," Leith piped up, looking between the two. He was quiet for a moment, Basil not even looking at him.

[NinjaButterfly]

Jace looked at Basil, feeling slightly hurt for his ending statement. He stared at him for a long moment. "I'm...the jerk. And your new friend is a godsend, huh?" He started walking a littl3 faster to give a little distance. He hated acting so harshly towards Basil, but he was exhausted and still felt the effects of his near-death experience. The botched plans weren't of much help,either.
"Right here is as good as any place," Jace said before taking a seat on an old tree stump. He practically threw his gun on the ground beside the stumo where he sat, too tired to care.
"Alright...I guess the big man has made his decision..." Kaye muttered, taking a seat a foot taking a seat on the opposite end of the stump.

[Nekoholic]

"Lead-head, be careful with that gun, yeah?" said Leith, but looked toward Basil. He wasn't certain what had gone down between the two, but the dumb brute looked even angrier and the short-stack appeared to be in a downward spiral of despair, his earlier strength sapped like nothing. "Hey, short-stack. You cook?"
Basil glanced up and numbly nodded after a brief moment's confusion.
"Good," Leith said, relieved to not be stuck with Kaye's "delicacies" for a night. He set down his pack near the stump. "I'll go get some wood then. Kaye, can I trust you to get the medicine prepared?" He shot her a dangerous look.

[NinjaButterfly]

"Well, of course you can, Chief," Kaye said, rolling her eyes. "Its not that difficult, you know. Don't worry. I will be on my best behavior..."
Jace stared at Leith for a long moment. He secretly wished he wouldn't come back and knew that was a bastard thought.

[Nekoholic]

Leith gave Kaye one last glare before he stepped away, vanishing into the sinking darkness.
Basil glanced at Kaye, "Do...do you need any help?" Deep down, he was afraid of this girl, but she had been kind enough to help them. So she couldn't be all that bad, right? Besides, talking to her was better than talking to Jace at the moment. For some reason, he seemed to be mad at him.

[NinjaButterfly]

"Nah, I got this," Kaye said, waving a hand of dismissal as she scrounged in her pack for he supplies needed. She hummed to herself. She begun to measure out the radaway for Jace, which took no time at all. once she was finished, she walked over to him and held out the syringe, smiling. "The doc needs to administer the medications."
Jace slowly looked up at her, staring for a long moment. "How do I know you aren't giving me some psycho or something?"
She scoffed. "Because you are already psycho enough without the help of drugs doing it for you." Before could retaliate, she stabbed him in the arm and quickly administered the medicine.
Jace practically growled and jumped up from his seat, making a move to grab her. "You bitch..."

[Nekoholic]

Basil's eyes widened, and he quickly shouted, "Jace, don't!"

[NinjaButterfly]

Jace clenched onto her vest tightly, a few of the buttons popping off to reveal the revealing shirt underneath. He stared at it for a moment, not even registering that there was a half-naked woman before him. He was staring at her like a bear caught in a bear trap, looking murderous to escape.
Kaye was Momentarily struck silent, actually frightened of this man which came very rare to her. She couldn't do nothing but stare into those hateful eyes and thought momentarily that he could indeed kill her at this moment without a second thought.
"I take that as a direct threat, you know..." he muttered, realizing now just how scared she really was. He finally tossed her away from her. He had been known not to be above hitting a woman, but he knew she was only trying to help. he hoped, at least.
Once she was released, she quickly scrambled away from Jace and hugged Basil, just to be near someone instead of Jace.

[Nekoholic]

Basil flushed as Kaye latched onto him; she hadn't even bothered to button up her shirt again, and honestly, he'd never been close to another woman (besides his mother, but even that was years ago), and he especially didn't expect his first encounter to be when she was half-naked. Okay, perhaps she wasn't exactly half-naked. She did, after all, have the shirt over her tube top. But the point remained.
Unsure of what else to say, he stuttered, "I-it's okay, Kaye. I mean, you may have been caught in a moment of vulnerability, but you're really, really pretty, I promise! And Jace didn't mean to--you, you just caught him in a moment of vulnerability, too, and I honestly think that we'd all be a lot better if we just got along!"
Leith then returned with an armful of logs and kindling, glancing between them. "Kaye, what did you do this time? I thought that I could trust you to handle the medicine appropriately this time." He shook his head. "Sorry about whatever she did, Jace. It's just her way of showing affection, honestly. And Kaye, get your clothes back on; Basil looks like he's about to have a nervous breakdown. That or you're strangling him." Kaye always did this whenever she was trusted with administering medicine to people; she just didn't know boundaries, in general. He'd never been able to get her to stop before, but perhaps she would now.

[NinjaButterfly]

"I only gave him the reccomended amount of actual radaway, I swear!" Kaye yelled as she released her hold on Basil, but still remained rooted to his side. When Jace shot her a sidelong glare, she shied behind Basil again as if Jace's leer was deadly. "Alright, so I may have used a teeny bit more force than I should have, but he was being rather complicated, you see? I mean, you have seen how the guy is! He wouldn't take his medication, so I made him so he wouldn't almost die again." She spared a look at him and crossed her arms. "You're welcome."
Jace decided to ignore her and slowly turned to look at Leith, a little surprised he had retrieved the wood so quickly; even more surprised that he hadn't tried to fight him for roughing up the person in his charge. Although it was a good thing for the temporary comraderie that was barely holding intact, he had hoped for a little scuffle to say the least. He was aching for a fight with the ghoul and could feel the storm brewing in the air, but it wasn't ready to be released just yet. It was only a matter of time, though...
That was probably a good thing it was put on hold, because he probably would have made a fool of himself if attempting to brawl in his current state. Given any other time, he wouldn't have hesitated to start a fight even though he knew there was the big possibility of losing; he just hated the ghoul so much that failure wasn't an option to Jace. Hell, he didn't even really understand himself why the ghoul irked him so and that fact alone annoyed him to no end.
He stared at the ghoul for a minute, watching as he sat the wood down. For the moment, the ghoul had earned a sliver of a point in his book considering he didn't berate him for jumping the girl as he did.
"I will build the fire," Jace said as he stood up, walking to the wood pile. He was tired, starved, and weak, but he wasn't going to sit around and be completely helpless in the eyes of these people. After taking out his fire bow, which was only a piece of wood with a rope tied to both ends, he set to work building the fire. In just a few minutes, Jace had a fire burning beautifully and begun to feed larger pieces of wood to it.
"Why...why did you build the fire so close to the tree?" Kaye asked, legitimately curious. At least she was quick to forgive...or forget.
He craned his neck to look at her for a moment before stoking the logs onto the fire. "The smoke hugs the tree and gets lost in the branches so the smoke dissipates before passing the canopy. Its better this way because the raiders are more likely to overlook it."
To say the least, she was impressed. "That is actually pretty good. I would have never thought of that." She then turned to look at Leith. "You should learn to build a fire like this guy. And he can do it faster than you, too."
Jace scoffed slightly and shook his head, prodding the fire absentmindedly. "Flattery does not work on me, so you can give up." He then sighed and stood up. "I will try to get along better with you people for the sake of our situation, but I want you to stay away from me. Both of you." He then turned and walked back over to the log he had left his weapon sitting against.
"God, so moody. Even more so than Leith over there, and I didn't even think that was possible." Kaye then leaned over to Basil and whispered something in his ear, "and just to let you know...no straight guy would have shrugged off seeing a half-naked lady like your friend did. He may not be in love with you...to hell with that, he totally has it bad for you. Besides, no one could resist staring at these." Since she was standing behind Basil, she touched her open chest against his back to get her point across and smirked to herself before making her way towards the fire, practically dragging Basil by the arm. "Come on, Basil. I will help you cook dinner. I insist."

[Nekoholic]

"Dear God, Kaye, relieve me of your food for just one night," Leith sighed, taking a seat a decent distance from Jace. He then reached into his bag, pulling out a small, leather-bound book and a stub of a No. 2 pencil. He then began his nightly recap on his day, a soft smile tugging at the corners of his lips; even when they were rough, not just when they were happy, he could trust the book to listen. This one was getting full, though. Soon, he'd have to scavenge or purchase another one. Perhaps he'd also splurge on a new pencil, but a vault should have plenty of those, right?
Basil glanced over at Jace, and asked with a nervous smile, "Is there anything in particular that you'd like tonight, Jace?" It'd been a difficult day; perhaps a good meal would cheer him up a little?

[NinjaButterfly]

Jace stared at Basil for a long moment, seeing the nervous look in his eye and felt guilty for putting him through so much distress. "Um...anything is fine with me. I am just hungry. But...thanks for asking, though." He smiled softly, though a little forced.
"Totally in love," Kaye whispered to Basil.
"What was that?" Jace said, overhearing her, but not catching the words.
"I said totally...got laid." she had no idea what she was saying so started whistling.
Jace stared at her oddly for a moment and decided not to even bother with. She was such a weird individual, he didn't even want to attempt understanding her mind.
Since most of their supplies consisted of canned foods, it didn't take long for the food to cook.
"Food is ready!" Kaye said, overly chipper. She hummed to herself as she handed everyone a bowl of pork n' beans with some mixed in squirrel. When she handed Jace his bowl, she smiled winked at him which unnerved him slightly. "Enjoy the feast Basil has prepared for you all... do not forget to give compliments to the chef!" With that she sauntered off.
Jace was truly starved and don't hesitate to take a huge bite, barely even chewing it. if he had chewed it he probably would have spit it out. "God! What the hell is in that?" He didn't mean to sound so blunt about it, but even dirt tasted better than this.

[Nekoholic]

"I thought you said that it'd add extra flavor," Basil murmured, glancing at Kaye.
"Yeah, fucking horrible flavor. Even I can barely swallow this without wanting to puke up what's left of my stomach," Leith said, gagging on the first bite he'd taken. He shook his head, glancing back down at the bowl; it only looked like completely normal Pork 'N Beans with some squirrel bits. Kaye always managed to mess up the food somehow, though, so this came as little surprise to him. "Whatever. I'm not letting food go to waste." He dared to take another bite, hoping this somehow wouldn't be the end of him. Well, it'd save him the pain of going to that vault, at least.
Silver linings, Leith. That's what she would've said.

[NinjaButterfly]

Jace stared at the food for a long moment before hesitantly taking another bite. If he wasnt so hungry then he wouldn't eat the damn stuff. It may have been a bad idea considering how empty his stomach was, but he ate the rancid food as quickly as possible. Once he was finished, he sat the bowl down and took a large swig water to wash it down.
He remained silent for a long while as the food settled his stomach, but the more it did the stranger he begun to feel. He felt almost as light as a feather. The more time that passed the more his tension dissipated and he was actually beginning to feel... happy.
He looked over at Basil and smiled legitimately. "Thank you for dinner. it was...nice," he said as he leaned closer to him. "Did you like the food? It was filling to say the least..."
Kaye smiled at Jace's words, feeling quite accomplished. Now, let the fun begin...

[Nekoholic]

Basil glanced over at Jace, relieved to see that the food had actually brightened his mood. Excitedly, he said, "I'm glad that you liked it, Jace. Your initial reaction was kinda...not good?"
"Hey...hey, Kaye-kid," Leith said, scooting closer to Kaye. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. He was quiet for a moment, then spoke again, "Kaye...Kaye-kid, have I ever mentioned that you're like family to me? Like, you remind me of my baby girl, a long time ago. So sweet and innocent, not knowing what she was doing. You're like that, even if you like to pretend that you're not." He sighed, but then smiled. "Love ya, darling. Now tell me...what the fuck did you just put in the food?" He looked over at her. "Because I wasn't supposed to say any of that."

[NinjaButterfly]

Jace continued smiling at Basil, scooting a little closer. "Your cooking makes miracles. I feel...great. Especially with you by my side...buddy.
Kaye smiled at Leith, never having seen him so chipper before. She stared at him for a long moment as his words sunk in. "You never allowed me to know anything about your past before." She giggled slightly, but mostly due to the light feeling she felt. "And noooo, I didn't do nooothing to the food, paps. I just helped cook, you know? I am a good girl, don't you think?"