Large doe eyes stared back at him in fear and even hidden as they were behind her curtain of muddied yellow hair he thought they were quite beautiful. Twin orbs of bright emerald that shined even in the dim bathroom light, coated as they were in barely suppressed tears. They were absolutely enchanting and he took a brief moment to admire them, perhaps just a tad bit longer than was deemed polite before checking out the rest of her.

And just as quickly as it came his levity died as he took in her full appearance. She was a small thing, only 5'3 or so compared to his 5'9, with torn and dirty clothing. Closer inspection told him that her hair was actually coated in a thick and quite frankly disgusting amount of congealed blood, while bits of flesh or other miscellaneous body bits caked her shoes up a quarter of the shin.

His displeasure must've shown in his face as the small waif of a girl gave a loud squeak and wrapped her arms around the top of her head before burying it within her knees. Considering how she was swatting on the toilet seat it would've made a very humorous site if he wasn't so exhausted both physically and emotionally. His anger drained out of him at the pathetic site and strangely enough, he even felt a bit bad, it wasn't like him to lose his temper like that, especially not on someone who didn't actually deserve it. It was unbecoming behavior for one such as himself.

"Just... Just get out of there, please." He said in an almost exasperated tone. He took a step respectable distance back to not only give her room to get out of her ridiculous defensive position but also showed that he meant her no harm. A few moments passed with her peeking between her legs at him and ducking back down like an ostrich whenever she caught him staring. Still with much more good humor than before he merely let her go through the process.

Finally, after a few minutes, she obliged his request and gentle got down, stumbling as she did and leaning against the wall for support. She wasn't injured as far as he could tell, but perhaps she had sprained something? A darker voice in the back of his mind told him she might be hiding a bite wound, or perhaps the infection was air or waterborne after all? He kept up an amiable smile on his face even while subtly tightening his grip on his metal rod.

"D-Don't hurt me, please." She pleaded with him, and with the way her eyes water and her lips kept quivering he was certain she was doing her best not to break down into a mess then and there. At least she seemed aware and wasn't going into shock, well not yet, so that was a point in her favor. He had absolutely no intention to bring along extra baggage after all, so maybe he would end up keeping her after he got all the information he needed out of her. He placed down his rod by the sink to help her calm down but making sure it was within arms reach in case she suddenly turned on him.

"I don't want to hurt you, miss..?" He trayed off meaningfully while making sure to keep his voice as gentle and soothing as he could. Perhaps it was his polite demeanor despite his earlier outburst, perhaps it was how clean his appearance was with naught a hint of blood on him, or perhaps it was his seemingly relaxed position casually leaning against the wall with one hand in his pocket. It could've been any or none of these carefully calculated factors, but she quickly seemed to regain her wits about her enough to actually talk to him like a proper human being. Thankfully she caught his hint and quickly enough provided him her name. 

"Victoria Whitten" 

He gave a charming smile before offering her his right hand for a shake while his left fingered the scissors he had taken from the toy store. Her hands were slimy and the grip was weak, but he pointedly ignored it in favor of reading her body language and expressions.

"A beautiful name. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Whitten. May I call you Victoria?" 

 "I- er, yeah. I mean, O-of course!" 

It seems she was still scared of him from earlier. No matter, he could use that to his advantage. He was a firm believer in the carrot and stick method and while he didn't know whether or not she would be leaving here with him it was convenient to start on the foundation of their relationship. Like most things in life, especially the establishment of a hierarchy, the sooner the better.

"You can relax, as I had told you earlier, all the zombies nearby have already been taken care of by me. I'm about to make some food, why don't you join me and I'll fix you something up? I have a few questions that I hope you won't mind answering in the meantime, and I'd be more than happy to answer any of yours."

Her eyes immediately darted to the corner leading towards the exit with obvious fear, as if there were a horde of zombies waiting just outside ready to ripe her to shreds. Before she could give a reply he got up and picked up his weapon, resting it on his shoulds as if a baseball bat, and walked out. His back slouched ever so slightly, his gait as carefree and leisurely as possible as if he was going for a walk in the park instead of zombie-infested space. His steps were purposefully measured, slow, and loud. Humming along to a song he had hear on the radio weeks ago, but had forgotten both the name and lyrics as if he really hadn't the slightest care in the world.

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Whether it was the undead or the little girl he had left behind. 

He didn't even manage to count up to 5 in his head before the sounds of hurried footsteps followed along. Hook, line, and sinker. Although she had been shaking in his presence not even five minutes ago, now she clung to him like a koala to its mother. Mentally blanching at the metaphor's image he corrected himself hastily. Or rather, clinging to a rope in the sea.

Yes, much better.

"Wait for me!" She shouted before all but crashing into him. "Please, wait, don't leave me behind." 

"You don't have to worry, Victoria. I'm not going to leave," Not yet at least, "I was only checking to make sure there weren't anymore undead lurking around nearby." With a reassuring smile, he gently patted her head before making a show of rubbing his belly.

"So! I don't know about you but I'm absolutely famished, but how about you clean yourself up first before I get us something to eat? Wait here for me I'll be right back with some clean clothes" he said as he leads her to sit near "Master Wok" a popular Chinese restaurant.

He went over to the men's bathroom where he had placed his backpack and pulled out a neatly folded change of clothing sans underwear. It was nothing fancy, just a small sweater and some jeans, but it was miles better than the bloodied rags she was wearing. He placed them on the table for her before a sudden scream made him race out.

There Victoria was with two zombies closing in on her. One was a small kid probably 12 or 13, the other an old grandma whose teeth he was sure had rotted away long before she decided to hokey pokey her way in and back out of the grave. She stared at them frozen in fear as they approached her at a snail's pace, only breaking out of her trace when the kid was lunging at her within arms reach. Another scream before she tripped and fell. Fear and adrenalin overcame the pain of her sure to be bruised behind as she scrambled back in a pathetic display. 

He stared with a dispassionate gaze bordering on boredom and disappointment.

"G-Grey! Help!"

With her eyes glued on the two zombies, Victoria didn't see his frown deeper ever so slightly. He was sure even the average anemic kid could handle if they were careful, however within the blink of an eye he wiped the look away and replaced it with panic and worry, making a show of dropping the clothes and running into "peril" and braving the dangers in order to save her with no regards to his own well being. With exaggerated efforts, he somehow managed to vanquish the two evil zombies!... Or something. Even though he wrote this script he couldn't help but feel a sense of embarrassment.

After all, he made her sit there precisely because he knew she would attract the two undead. He did still have a surveillance perimeter set up after all. 

He did it to first test out her reactions and to say it was a bad showing was an understatement. However, he wasn't going to write her off so soon, who knows she might surprise him later or maybe she had some other talent that wasn't related to fighting. His second goal was to indebt her. If society really is collapsing like the thought then people with specialized skills such as mechanics or farmers would be incredibly valuable and it would be far easier to gather them and acquire their loyalty in the early stages.

It would be even easier to do, if slightly annoying if he had to protect her. As long as she needed him, as long as he could become her pillar, then she would move according to his will. After all, it doesn't take much for physical dependency to quickly include emotional. All you need is... a little push. And he was more than happy to oblige.

Once more he found himself having to comfort the sobbing mess of a girl, patting her back and whispering soothing words as if comforting a child. However unlike in the restroom this time she recovered much faster. Whether she was simply getting used too it or she was simply tougher than he gave her credit for she stopped crying. When she lifted her face he cupped her cheeks. They were pale and cold in contrast to her puffy red eyes.

He wiped her tears away with his right hand, his weapon dropped and rolled away to some far off corner. Grey softly rubbed her cheeks, long and slender fingers trailed along her smooth skin with a tenderness she couldn't believe had come from a man whose fury was so intense mere moments ago.

Staring into his intense blue eyes she lost her voice. Mistaking it for fear he pulled her closer to his chest, his chin resting neatly on the crown of her head and he rubbed small circles on her back.

"There there, don't be scared. I'm here. I'll always be here." 

The promise within his voice soothed all her worry, letting its hypnotic tone take her, the exhausted girl was lulled her to sleep with the scent of honey and lemons. 

...

...

This bitch really fell asleep on me... The fucking nerve. Yet even with all his indignation he still continued his motions until he was sure she was deep within the land of Morpheus.

The young boy carefully placed her down before grabbing his backpack. He pulled out the many change of clothings he had stuffed inside before making her a makeshift bed, cringing internally at the thought of his clothing being dirtied.

"You're lucky you're cute." He muttered bitterly. Sure, he just stole those, and there was literally an entire store full of them five minutes away, but he absolutely hated people messing with his stuff, to say the least of actually getting bloody and zombie gore on them. He wasn't a germaphobe! He just enjoyed cleanliness and a certain standard of living!

He fixed the tables and chairs Victoria had knocked over before hopping over the counter of Master Wok. He thoroughly washed all the pan and knives along with his hands before starting to cook. He didn't know what Victoria liked to eat, but she was asleep so fuck waiting for her opinion he wanted garlic chicken stir fry. He'd make enough just in case she wanted some.

And so humming the song he had back in the restroom Grey started cooking while looking through his facebook, the two newly made corpse and the wall splattered with their brains ignored and forgotten about.