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An unspoken beautiful (and terrifying) thing

Summary:

Reporting back to Bubba and Kate with what he found out from Haddonfield, Ash is still left baffled with what he found and confides in Kate, hoping that they can come up with something together.

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   As if waking up from a nightmarish sleep he didn’t know he even fell into, Ash’s eyes flew wide open and he gasped loudly as he quickly sat up, clutching his chest with a steel grip. 

   Feeling his heartbeat begin to slow down, he looked around. 

   He felt his shoulders lose any remaining tension when he saw the warm glow of the campfire and the silhouettes of his fellow survivors sitting around it. The log he woke up on was a few feet away from the main cluster of people so any conversations that could’ve been taking place were too distant for Ash to listen in on. The rush of sitting up too quickly finally hit him and he groaned, slamming his eyes shut as he cradled his forehead in his real hand. Christ, he wasn’t even alive when Michael threw him down, yet he could still somehow recall the pain of his head bouncing off the hard wooden floors.

   “You alright there?”

   He already knew exactly who the voice belonged to, yet he still glanced up towards them nevertheless.

   Just as he expected, Dwight Fairfield was looking down at him, wearing a face of mild concern as he stood by the other end of the log. But then again, he almost always looked mildly concerned, even if nothing was happening. Ash responded with a shrug and grunt before moving his legs so Dwight could take a seat beside him, which he quickly did.

   “It’s a good thing that you woke up when you did.” Dwight commented, placing a toolbox he was carrying down by his feet. “Meg and Feng Min went out into the fog not too long ago and made it very clear it was to find shit to mess with you with.”

   “And what? Were you about to let them just do it?”

   Dwight let out an amused scoff at that and shook his head. “I’m flattered that you think that I could possibly stop them.”

   After giving it a moment’s thought, he gave a small tilt of his head and quirk of his eyelids. “Fair point.” Another twinge of pain erupted from his temple and he returned it to his hand, hissing in discomfort.

   “H- Hey, are you sure you’re okay? I could grab a med-kit if you-”

   “Nah nah.” He waved his prosthetic hand in dismissal. “I’m fine, kid. I’m fine. Just...migraines and...and...and other shit like it. Nothing I can’t handle.”

   “What even happened?”

   Ash blinked, looking back up at him. “What do you mean?”

   “I mean, you just kind of...appeared back at the campfire, but you weren’t in a trial before-”

   “And how do you know that?” He truly didn’t mean to snap at the kid, he just still had a lot on his plate to deal with thanks to what he found at the Myers house. He could still see those nauseating images, which were now burned into his eyelids, every time he blinked. It still didn’t fully make any sense to him. What could drive an unkillable man to depict himself in such violent scenarios with him being on the receiving end of the pain? And that last drawing he found before being killed…

   Tuning back into the conversation, he could tell Dwight had grown a bit more reserved thanks to his retaliation.

   “It’s just, y’know, the ones that did come back from a trial didn’t mention you dying or being there, so-”

   Sighing, Ash laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. “I know, I know. You’re right, I wasn’t in a trial.”

   Dwight seemed to loosen up again and now almost looked a little frustrated too, not just concerned. “Then what? Did you- Christ, were you attacked outside of a trial in the fog?”

   “What? No no!” He insisted, going back to waving his hand around. “God no, it ain’t like that. Even without my chainsaw hand and shotgun, I could easily take any of them in a one-on-one match. Easily.”

   “Then why haven’t you done it already?” Dwight deadpanned.

   “You really gotta work on that bedside manner of yours, y’know? Look- it’s- it’s a long story, okay? It’s a long story and the details are messy- it’s a lot. The point is that I’m perfectly fine.”

   Dwight still didn’t seem entirely convinced by Ash’s explanation, even as he shot the younger man with one of his signature smiles. Ash might have been, well, himself, but he meant what he said about keeping Kate’s, and now his, visits with Bubba a secret. And since his death was thanks to a wingman mission that ended poorly, he wasn’t going to tell Dwight about that either.

   As Ash continued smiling at him, Dwight’s unamused grimace only grew more intense. 

   Snapping, Dwight whipped his gaze around and threw his hands up in defeat. “Okay! I’ll drop it! Just- Just stop smiling like that. Jeez…” 

   “As usual, no one can resist these pearly whites.” Ignoring Dwight’s eye roll, he went back to looking around and craning his neck to better inspect the circle of people around the campfire. “So, where’s Kate?”

   “How did I know you were gonna ask that?” Despite giving Ash a hard time, he vaguely gestured to the general area around them untouched by the light illuminated by the fire. “I think she’s still out there looking for offerings. You...know how she’s been lately. Still doesn’t make any sense though like- I dunno, didn’t it come off as random and out of nowhere when she started going out more and more alone?”

   Pretending to consider Dwight’s words while clad with thoughtful expression upon his face, he sighed. “It’s simple: she’s lonely. It’s shocking that it took me this long to put the pieces together. I can’t even begin to imagine the solitude she must be going through where she somehow feels more comfortable out in the dangerous fog than here with her fellow survivors.”

   Dwight’s lack of an immediate response could be boiled down to his mind simply refusing to believe anything Ash was saying. Once it finally clicked however, Dwight slowly turned to look back at him, his face twisted into annoyed bewilderment .

   “Lonely? Wh- What? She’s- Kate is friends with...with nearly everyone here. She still talks with everyone here too when she’s not out in the fog and she’s-”

   “Lonely! She’s lonely, Dwight.” Ash refused to back down from his initial claim as he started to stand up. “And it’s about damn time someone finally stepped up and reminded her that she belongs here with us and that we value the role she plays in our lives.”

   A beat of silence followed as Dwight continued to watch Ash, now standing in a valiant pose with his hands on his hips. Just as Dwight was about to interject again, Ash glanced down at him.

   “It’s me. I’m gonna be the one to bring her back down to earth. I don’t know if I made it clear enough when I first said it, but yeah.”

   And just like that, any chances of Dwight challenging him had been quashed as he dipped his head down in defeat with a sigh.

   “I’m guessing that means I’ll be seeing you later then?” Dwight droned, a hand now slipped underneath his glasses to cradle his face.

   “You know it, Pizza Hut.” He confirmed, triumph lacing his words. “As they say, catch ya on the flip-flop.”

   Dwight didn’t even know why he actually considered for a moment telling Ash that he was the only one who said such a thing. Instead, he simply gave him a small silent wave as he watched Ash march away from the campfire and into the foggy woods.

 

   Finding Coldwind without Kate’s help proved to be difficult, but thankfully not as difficult as finding Haddonfield. It took him a couple tries, but after mistakenly entering the still new and unfamiliar Raccoon City Police Station, and promptly getting the hell out of there, the next gateway he walked through greeted him with warm sunlight and the soft padding of farm soil beneath his shoes.

   “Home sweet home.” He muttered under his breath as he walked further inside.

   The comment was mainly directed in relation to Bubba, since this was more or less his home now, but as Ash visited the farm more and more, the more homey it felt to him. The quaint and charming nature of the cornfields, barn and house refused to go by unnoticed. Being able to freely and safely explore the place definitely helped too. It made him curious as to whether other realms would feel more welcoming if the residents weren’t such assholes.

   After seeing the empty barn, he figured he’d find them in the Thompson house instead and as he walked inside and immediately heard Kate’s voice from the kitchen, he knew he made the right move. He walked into the room to join them and smiled at the sight of Kate, wearing one of Bubba’s other aprons, and Bubba huddled around the counter, mixing and pouring different ingredients into bowls. They didn’t notice him at first, but Ash intended to change that.

   “What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”

   As expected, the two looked his way and while Kate wore a suspicious smirk in response to his comment, Bubba quickly wiped his hands on his apron and walked over to him. Patting his shoulder, he babbled a greeting to him and probably something else that Ash sadly couldn’t fully understand.

   Patting his arm in return, Ash gave Kate a smirk of his own. “And no, that comment wasn’t directed at you.” To further prove his point, his gaze shifted to Bubba before giving him a quick wink.

   Moving past his initial surprise, his babbles involved into giddy and shy giggles as he cradled his own face, slightly rocking back and forth in place.

   Putting down the bowl she was using, she leaned against the counter, hand on her hip. “Better not be planning on creating some kind of love triangle and getting in the way of Michael and Bubba, Ashley.”

   “Wouldn’t even dream of such a thing.” He said, attempting to reassure Kate. “Sometimes I just can’t control myself around this big guy. His charm is downright intoxicating. No wonder you were sneaking off to meet up with him.”

   Instead of instinctively rolling her eyes at this, the corners of her lips gently tugged themselves upwards. He was joking around, sure, but his tone didn’t hold a single drop of insincerity to it. Ash truly did think he was charming and couldn’t help but feel grateful that she trusted her judgement when it came to including him in on her secret visits with the killer.

   As to not let her smile linger for too long, she cleared her throat. “Well, to answer your question of what we’re making-” She picked up the bowl and gestured to it. “Cornbread and chicken soup.”

   With a small confused quirk of his eyebrow, he walked over behind Kate to look at all the ingredients. Although he kept his hands to himself and really was just looking over what they had, Kate could feel an uneven beat in her chest as her eyes quickly darted downwards into the bowl. She internally kicked herself when a mental image flashed through her head of Ash with his arms around her as she cooked as if she were some sort of coy housewife of his. It was the kind of role Kate never pictured herself having before and despite it feeling out of character, she hated how much she didn’t hate it, since it promised the guarantee of being in Ash’s arms.

   Interrupting the fantasy, Ash spoke up. “Where the hell did you get all this stuff?”

   It took her a second, but she eventually found her voice, as well as her confidence and snark. “Believe it or not, the Entity has some favoritism for the killers and is more willing to give stuff away if they’re the ones to ask.”

   Upon hearing Kate’s explanation, Ash turned to Bubba. “You asked the Entity for cooking ingredients?”

   Bubba’s nod was met with an amusement chuckle of disbelief. “Damn Bubba, you got everyone and everything wrapped around your finger, huh?”

   Only then did Kate finally roll her eyes at the man before wiping her hands clean. “But you didn’t come over to help us with cooking, did you?”

   “I mean, it wasn’t the initial reason why I came, buuuuut maybe I can be the taste tester and-”

   Before he could continue, his idea was shut down thanks to a small swat on the hand and unimpressed glare courtesy of Kate.

   “Okay, okay.” He surrendered. He went quiet for a moment, choosing to fiddle and mess with the different mechanics on his hand as he thought. “I, uh, just got back from Haddonfield.”

   Bubba wasn’t too familiar with the other realms, but he knew thanks to Ash and Kate that Haddonfield housed Michael in between trials. That’s why he looked just as curious as Kate as he moved closer to the pair, waiting with bated breath to hear what Ash had to say. Kate’s look of curiosity looked a bit more serious compared to Bubba’s. She had no idea what to expect when it came to what Ash found or how it would help them, but she was ready.

   “And-?” She asked, prodding him to continue. 

   “Well, I went to Michael’s old house, of course, and I found some...interesting things while sneaking around.” Without meaning to, he glanced up at Bubba, who stared down at him with careful eyes. How would the big guy even react to what he found? “He, uh, keeps a bunch of stacks of paper in a closet, so I checked that out and...I saw that a lot of the sheets of paper just said ‘Leatherface’ a bunch of times. Like, back to front with barely any blank spots.”

   The sudden tension that came with his words made the air around them downright suffocating as both Kate and Bubba took a moment to properly process the information given to them.

   It was as if Kate was given a nearly empty puzzle box and asked to put the nonexistent pieces together. She had to know more.

   “Well- wh- what- I mean, how were the words written?”

   “Sometimes they looked neat, other times they looked more frantic and shit, like he broke a pencil in the middle of writing.”    

   Well, that had to mean something , right? For Michael Myers, infamous for lacking any real strong emotions, to do anything in a frantic manner. But the more rational and less optimistic side of her also refused to go unheard as images of Michael stabbing and slashing at the papers forcefully entered her mind. All the survivors knew how obsessive his methods of killing and stalking were, especially Laurie, so the mere idea of Bubba being the new object of his violent obsession had Kate’s stomach churning.

   That’s why she couldn’t bring herself to look up at Bubba yet and eventually, Ash continued.

   “Then I- Michael actually came home and found me while I was snooping around and...I’d say we talked, but that’s not true, of course. I did all the talking while he just stood there and looked at me and he was trying to get closer to me, but stopped when I mentioned that I knew Bubba. Well- when I mentioned that I knew Leatherface . I guess he didn’t know his real name until I told him. In any case, I said I knew him and told him point-blank that Bubba likes him.”

   She couldn’t blame Ash for being so direct about it with him, especially if he thought Michael was going to kill him if he stopped talking, but she also couldn’t help but wonder if they should’ve kept it a secret for a bit longer. By telling him that, they officially passed the point of no return. They were really truly in it now and couldn’t back out of it. 

   Again, she gestured for him to continue.

   “And-” He paused, glancing down at the ground for a moment to think. “He kinda- he just stood there for a bit before trying to walk towards me again, so I got the hell out of there.”

   “You were able to get out of Haddonfield safely?” Kate asked, rather surprised that Ash was able to escape from such a close face-to-face encounter. 

   At that, Ash puffed his chest out a bit as his face twisted into a playfully offended expression. 

   “Of course I was! He didn’t make it easy for me, but he’s far from the fastest killer here. Plus-” He began stretching his legs, bending and unbending his knees into half assed lunges. “I’ve actually been learning a thing or two from Meg and Nea when it comes to making quick escapes. Safe to say that the three of us are now evenly matched in terms of athleticism.”

   Never in her entire life has Kate been so sure that something was pure bullshit and though she’d normally give the man a hard time for it, they had more pressing matters to attend to. After giving Ash a suspicious cock of her eyebrow, she finally looked up at Bubba.

   He didn’t even notice Kate looking up at him or when Ash joined her. He was far too busy thinking about everything he had just heard. 

   This proved that Michael thought about him even when he wasn’t watching him. He thought about him and watched him so much that he knew what they called him and wrote it over and over again to himself. From watching Bobby, Bubba knew that writing someone’s name a bunch of times was another sign of a crush and now Michael knew his real name, which caused the blood in his face to migrate straight to his cheeks. It then clicked with him that Ash also told him that Bubba liked him. He could barely contain himself and like what usually happened when he thought of Michael, didn’t even notice his body slightly shaking and shifting around in place or the pleased hums and giggles slipping past his lips. This was all still so new and alien to him and though the more nervous and unsure emotions still lingered within him, he couldn’t ignore just how happy and excited he felt as well.

   Since merely looking up at him wasn’t catching his attention, Ash cleared his throat. “So, uh, any thoughts on all this, Bubba?”

   Instead of taking a moment to mull over what to say, he allowed himself to speak from the heart and would worry about being understood afterwards.

    “Good! This is good! Thank you so much for helping me! I was really scared when I thought of Michael ‘cause I didn’t know what I was feeling, but now I get really happy when I think of him and I want to see him and talk to him more. You’re both so nice and smart and brave. You’re very good friends and I hope you’ll keep helping me.”

   Based on his cheery tone and how he patted Ash and Kate on their shoulders, he surprisingly seemed to be extremely pleased with what Ash found. The fact that Michael wrote down his killer title over and over again in a quite frankly obsessive manner didn’t appear to put Bubba off. Hell, maybe he liked it and saw it as sweet. Both Ash and Kate were fairly certain at this point that the ways killers show and perceive love would be very different from how “normal” people showed and perceived it. Still, Ash had one last thing he wasn’t sure he wanted Bubba to hear about just yet, but since the confusion he had concerning it still swirled around his head, he couldn’t just fester in it alone. 

   Just as Kate’s lips parted to say something, Ash quickly butted in, patting Bubba’s shoulder in return. 

   “Glad you feel that way, bud. Beyond happy that I could be of some assistance.” His arm then slid behind Kate’s back and he latched his hand onto her arm. “Real quick, are you cool with momentarily cooking alone? ‘Cause I need to steal Kate here for a sec to chat. I’ll be sure to bring her back once we’re done.”

   Kate didn’t even have a chance to have a say in whether or not she went with Ash before Bubba’s nod had Ash swiftly escorting her outside on the porch. 

   Once they were alone, the two were silent for a moment, exchanging worried and knowing glances. They both knew they had to discuss this and didn’t want to waste any time with it.

   “So-” Ash sighed. “What do you make of all that?”

   As she thought of what exactly to say, she let out a similar sounding sigh and shook her head, letting Ash know of her lack of confidence ahead of time.   

   “To be perfectly honest, I just- I don’t know. I really don’t know. I mean-” She began stuttering as she shrugged her shoulders. “Writing his name over and over again reminds me of when a kid writes their crush’s name but also-”

   “It could be something more sinister?” Kate sadly nodded when Ash finished her sentence. “Yeah...I thought that too. And, uh...that isn’t even everything I found, actually.”

   The grim tone of his voice caused Kate to stiffen in place as she looked at him with desperate eyes, silently begging him to tell her what else there could’ve been. 

   “I didn’t wanna bring it up in front of him since I wasn’t sure how he’d take it, but I can’t just ignore it either. It’s been bouncing around my head this whole time and you know better than anyone else that I ain’t the best at connecting dots when those dots aren’t my chainsaw and a Deadite’s noggin.”

   He fully expected Kate to groan and plead for him to get to the point like she always did when he spoke like this, but she didn’t. She stayed quiet and kept her concerned gaze fixated on him and he immediately felt a ping of guilt. Kate was clearly taking the situation very seriously and though Ash couldn’t help himself but to joke around like he always did, he was serious about this too. He could only hope that Kate knew this. That he wanted the best for Bubba just like she did. 

   Once the reaction he was expecting never showed up, he continued.

   “It turns out our friend Mikey isn’t just a murderous stalker. He’s also a bit of an artist.”

   Kate blinked. Well that wasn’t exactly the direction she thought this conversation would go in.

   “Wh- What?” She said blankly.

   “I guess he picked up the hobby either while locked up for 15 years or while being stuck here. In any case, he draws some real disturbing shit. I mean- it’s actually kinda good in a way in terms of realism or style or whatever- still fucked up though. At first, the pictures were of him, like, stabbing someone or the claws of the Entity stabbing someone. But then...I found a shit ton of art of him stabbing and harming himself . I’m talking, like... mutilating himself.” 

   As the words settled in her mind, her face turned ghostly pale as she began attempting to process this alongside everything else she’s been told. How could she possibly interpret this? The writing was one thing, but this? She was so overtaken by bewilderment, she didn’t even stop to consider how this could be connected to Bubba or if it was connected to him at all.

   It turned out, however, that she didn’t need to stop and consider at all.

   “And in between these fucked up self portraits, there were more pages sprawled with the word ‘Leatherface.’ So, uh, I don’t know how, but it clearly has something to do with Bubba.”

   Kate thought that would be the end, but Ash still had one more thing left to say.

   “Right before Michael found me, there was this one picture-” He stopped himself, thinking it over and giving yet another attempt to make sense of it. Like all the other attempts, he had nothing. “Michael seems like a pretty emo guy. I say that ‘cause all his art only used blacks and grays and shit and no color. But then I found another portrait of him and in it, he was ripping his heart out and- all the other times he’s drawn blood, it was black, but in this one, it was more...colorful. And I don’t just mean that he used red and bright shades of it- I mean that he used a bunch of different colors. It was kind of an eyesore after only seeing shades of black and gray being used. I only looked at it for a few seconds before Michael showed up so…”

   As his words trailed off into silence, Kate found herself unbelievably stuck. Though her body and movements were still stiff, she was able to shuffle her feet a tad and sit down on the stairs of the porch, looking out at the farm with a vacant stare. Ash followed her lead and sat down right next to her, unsure of where to place his gaze. 

   It honestly pained Ash to see Kate like this, so utterly lost and confused. It could even be described as hopeless, but god he didn’t want that to be so. To him, she was the beacon of hope that the survivors in the fog needed. No matter what, she was always so optimistic and cheerful, even in the face of danger, and that kind of optimism and kindness was infectious. He’d be the first to admit it himself that he was a certified asshole. A selfish, arrogant, narcissistic asshole who sometimes dabbled in misogyny. And before he showed up in the fog, he was damn proud to be just that. But then he met Kate. In the beginning, he flirted with her like he did with all the other female survivors of an appropriate age, but talking to her more made him realize just how much he loved spending time with this girl, even if it wasn’t going to lead to him getting laid. He always called girls one of a kind in order to get into their pants, yet this thought he had concerning Kate stayed just that: a private thought meant for only him. He actually cared about her and wanted to actively try to be a better person and it seemed like that’d involve helping her killer friend with a crush of his. The plan intimidated him when Kate first brought it up. He had no idea how they could possibly help with something like this. Despite all this, he still wanted to help. For Bubba’s sake and for her sake.

   “Ash?” The sound of her voice quietly calling out to him brought him out of his own head and back into reality.

   “Yeah?” He responded just as softly.

   “Do you...do you think this is pointless?”

   His heart sank realizing that his fears of her feeling hopeless were proven to be right.

   “What? You- Kate…c’mon, this isn’t like you at all.” He scooted closer to her, wrapping a comforting arm around her. “Why would you go and say something like that, huh? You’re starting to sound like me , which we both know is not a good thing.”

   Kate gave a small sad smile at that and shrugged.

   “It’s just...I don’t know what to do. I promised Bubba that I would help him, but I don’t know how and I don’t know what any of this means. Just our luck that Bubba fell for the least expressive and most mysterious killer here.”

   Though she promised that she had no clue on what it all meant, something deep within Ash was telling him that she did have something in mind. Maybe it could be called a hunch or just that he knew her so well.

   “You’ve been doing a lot of thinking, haven’t you? I can tell.”

   She stayed silent as her eyes fell to the bottom steps of the stairs she was sitting on.

   “You can tell me, Kate, please. I’ve got completely nada going on up here and you know it. But you? You’re a smart cookie and I know any theory you’ve got will be better than no theories.”

   She scoffed, finally looking up at him for a split second. “It’s stupid…”

   “Try me.”

   His surprisingly serious tone alongside his equally earnest expression had Kate’s eyes linger on him for a longer period of time before her own expression loosened up.

   “Okay...okay yeah.” She took a deep breath. “So...I think it’s safe to say that Michael’s never really been shown any love. At least, love that he can remember. I’m sure when he was younger, he was given some from his parents.”

   “Yeah, wearing a fucked up Star Trek mask and swinging a knife around doesn’t really tend to make you all that lovable.”

   The beyond stupid comment was met with a short lasting smirk from Kate before she continued. 

   “So, he probably doesn’t really understand how love works. He wouldn’t know if it was shown to him or what to do if it was shown to him...and he probably wouldn’t know if he was feeling the emotion himself. What if...what if him writing down Bubba’s name means that he’s thinking about him a lot and the drawings- ...have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt?”

   “Depends. Are we talking about heartache or something a little lower down-?”

   “Ash-” And there’s that exhausted and annoyed tone he loved and missed so much. 

   “‘Cause I’ve experienced both.”

   She quickly moved past that.

   “What if Michael is experiencing heartache and this is literally the only way he knows how to express it? All he knows is violence and since he’s hurting, he’s showing that he’s hurting through his art and- and I’m sure that detail about the multi-colored blood further proves that what he’s feeling isn’t rage or hatred towards Bubba.”

   As she spoke, Ash could feel the corners of his lips slowly turning upwards and his heart rising back up after initially sinking. This didn’t go unnoticed by Kate as her face twisted in confusion, yet she smiled back.

   “Wh- What? What’s that look for?”

   “Oh, just that you were whining and complaining not two seconds ago about how you had no clue what any of this could mean, yet here you are...solving the mystery of Michael’s weird ass art before my very eyes.”

   Clearly embarrassed, she laughed, looking down. “What? I wouldn’t say that . I could be completely wrong. In fact, I probably am. It’s just a dumb thought.”

   “Or maybe you’re just that good with people.” He rebutted. “You have a way with people, Kate. Even someone like me can see that. Whether they wear their emotions on their sleeves like Bubba or don’t wear them at all like Michael...you always give really good guesses about them and you always know how to help them if they need it. Bubba’s really lucky that he ran into you on this farm and I know that we’ll do our best with this wingman mission- that you’ll do your best.”

   Kate truly had no idea what to say. Ash and the concept of words always had a complicated relationship. He either always said the wrong things or somehow knew exactly what to say to make her feel lighter than air and the fact that the look in his eyes told her that he meant every word only had her melting even more.

   She didn’t even think before leaning in and hugging him, burying her face deep into his chest.

   “Thank you so much, Ash. That really means a lot to me.” It came out muffled, but Ash understood all of it and gladly hugged her back.

   “Don’t mention it, girly. Just stating facts, that's all.”

   A chuckle vibrated against his chest and he prayed that she couldn’t hear just how fast his heart was racing.

   Eventually, when she pulled back and looked up at him, it only just then clicked how close the two were, still wrapped up in each other’s arms. The moment spent staring into each other’s eyes didn’t feel awkward. It only became that way when Kate cleared her throat and pulled away.

   “Um...I should go back inside and help Bubba with the cooking.” She looked back up at him. “You...can stay and join us in having lunch if you want.”

   “Good, ‘cause I wasn’t planning on leaving and was gonna raise some hell if you tried to make me leave.”

   And just like that, any awkward tension melted away as they exchanged smiles and got up to go back inside. 

   The rest of that afternoon was spent cooking, eating and laughing, not as a killer and survivors, but as friends. They even got into a mini food fight when Ash got the bright idea to fling a small spoonful of soup Kate’s way. Despite Bubba’s scolding, he couldn’t fully wipe the grin off his face as he cleaned up any messes they made. And once the food was finished, it was delicious. As they ate in the dining room, they talked about anything and everything they could. It gave off the illusion that everything was normal, even while Bubba was wearing a mask made of skin. At that point, the two didn’t even register it as a mask anymore. All they saw was their friend.

   They were so wrapped up in eating and laughing that they didn’t even notice the dark shape located a far distance away from the house, only slightly obscured with the help of a broken wall.

   He didn’t dare to move an inch from his spot.

   Instead, he just watched, the sound of heavy breathing echoing from within his mask.

   Watched and waited.

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