Chapter Four

                                    

                                          

One week of traveling later, Luz and I entered the town that would be the leading cause of change. Luz had been acting odd. Every so often I'd find her stopping claiming that she need rest. Something she had never asked of me before. I began to grow worried for her but after her reassuring me that everything had been fine I gave in. 
Maybe it was an effect of the experiments they ran on her. I couldn't blame her for acting differently after everything she must have gone through. So I wrote it off and tried to push it from my mind. Overstressing over things wouldn't get me anywhere anyway. If there was really a problem then Luz would find a way to tell me. 
We came into this town on foot after the car had finally run out of gas and we ran out of luck at finding any. After some time Luz asked for another break to rest and to keep her from feeling bad about it I tried to take her mind off of things through a lighthearted exchange. Trying to control the conversation enough that I could distract her from her troubling thoughts. I had gone into a story about my siblings and me. 
"So I walk into the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about and guess what I find?" I asked her incredulously and she looked at me with a small quirk on her lips. 
"What?" She asked me trying to hold in her laughter. 
"Those two idiots covered in flour and eggs!" I threw my hands into the air. "That's why I don't trust them to bake anymore," I mumbled before thinking back on the memory and smiling to myself at the image of my siblings standing in the middle of the then-ruined kitchen looking at me like two deers caught in headlights. Soon I'd found myself diving into another story and Luz listened to me intently. My rambling tangent only came to a close by Luz's sudden voice sharply cutting through the cool air and my thoughts. 
"I think you're my favorite person in the whole world." She mumbled with a small smile and a soft gaze in her eyes. This had been sudden, unexpected. 
"Really?" My voice cracked at how fast I'd said that before I cleared my throat. "Is that so?" I asked her shifting from my very expressive storytelling stance as I grew awkward from her comment. 
"Yeah, it is." She responded. 
"For how long though? Do I get to be your favorite person tomorrow?" I joked. 
"And the next day." She returned with her own joking intent. 
"And the day after?" I teased her. 
"That day and every other day too." She teased back. Though as we fell into silence the joking nature fell and I found myself staring at her as my reserve weakened. 
"You're my favorite person too," I told her with genuine care and she seemed caught off guard by the switch in my tone. 
"It's crazy to think how far we've come." She shifted to search through my bag while she continued to speak. "I definitely would have never expected anyone to say something like that to me in a world like this with the person I was." She'd mumbled this, pausing for a moment as a look crossed her features before she shook her head at herself. 
"Emphasis on was, but yeah. I remember you used to be so closed off in the beginning. Remember that?" I tried to change the conversation to feel more lighthearted. "You were all brooding and defensive." I joked scuffing her shoe with mine. 
"I used to be, yeah." She said then a smile grew on her face. "Not since I met you though. At least, not with anyone but you that is. And maybe Gus." Looking off to the side for a moment she shook her head before she smirked while moving to hand me a bottle of water. 
"Are you going soft on me?" I inquired while moving to take the offered bottle from her hand gratefully. 
"Maybe a little." She answered with a glint in her eye.