"V?"
"Hey Cyg. Welcome to the world of the living once again."
"How long was I asleep for?"
Virgil looked at the clock and winced. Three in the afternoon. Cygnus wasn't going to like this. His boyfriend followed his gaze, looking at the time, and bolted upright with an almost comical air.
"What! How was I- God, that's almost an entire day gone! How did I sleep so long?"
Virgil smiled kindly at his partner, settling a hand on his shoulder and guiding him to sit back down.
"Do you want the comedic answer or the truthful answer? Trick question, you're getting both. The funnier answer is that you had Wesley basically led on top of you, and good luck staying awake when he'd draped over you."
"And the 'truth'?"
Virgil sighed a little, but stayed smiling. Honestly, how could someone so smart ignore the protests of their body for so long?
"The truthful answer is that you slept for so long because you needed to. We both needed to take a longer break than normal for a whole mix of reasons, but the end result is that you slept through most of a day and I spent some time in the garden with Madison and Wesley. No offense to you, but I'm not going to complain about that. Anyway, there's always tomorrow. We'll head out again tomorrow love, but we don't need to go as flat out as we have been anymore. I know we still need to head out regularly, but we've got two full fridge-freezers, a set of full cupboards and a mostly full pantry, and we're not at risk of running out of cleaning supplies anytime soon. We can take our foot off of the accelerator for a little and start relaxing a little more."
Cygnus looked up at him, almost seeming scared by the prospect of doing nothing, and Virgil sighed internally. Ah, he's having one of those days again. A lifetime spent desperately trying to make himself busy and prove that he 'wasn't useless' couldn't just be forgotten after a few years of far healthier living. Bad days still happened, but they were much rarer nowadays than they once were, which was good.
Virgil pressed a hand to his boyfriend's head and smiled down at him
"Okay Cyg, I'm vetoing you doing any work today. Please, take the rest of today to do nothing. The others will always understand, Cyg. You know it, deep down. I know what's going through your mind right now, but I promise you that everyone here genuinely wants you to take more breaks. After all, everyone left you asleep for so long, didn't they?"
Cygnus gave him a small nod, looking uncertain but so full of trust in Virgil's words. Christ, how could Virgil ever have thought this man was cold and dismissive?
Virgil gently kissed his boyfriend's hand. He'd talk with Sterling and Lyla today; talking with others about work probably wouldn't do him much good today.
"I'll go talk with Sterling and Lyla. I'd like to spend some time with the two of them today anyway, so I'll bring it up then. I'll spend some time with them, observe them a little, and most importantly I'll ask them what they want to do moving forwards. If they're happy to start training then we'll make a start in a few days. That's enough of that for now though; get yourself a documentary or series on the television whilst I make you a cup of tea, then I'll deal with everything else."
Cygnus nodded at him as he left, but spoke up as the sound of the kettle being switched on with a 'click' could be heard across the kitchen and living room.
"Could I have- not tea or coffee, something sweet?"
Virgil gave him a smile.
"Of course, dear. Your normal drink for these days?"
Cygnus remained silent but just nodded again, so Virgil smiled and put the teabags away. Instead he pulled out a large mug and a jar of honey. He heaped a large spoonful into the empty mug, then waited for the kettle to reach its boiling point. When it did so he poured the water into the mug and then heaped another spoonful of honey inside before stirring it carefully, letting the honey dissolve into the water. When it was done he tapped the spoon against the rim of the mug, put the honey away and refilled the kettle for the next person to use, then walked back out into the living room and handed the mug to his partner, who took it with a grateful expression. There was an ocean documentary on the television and a light blanket around Cygnus' shoulders, which was so unusual. Virgil frowned internally, but decided against saying anything. He'd broach it with the others in the garden while looking for Sterling.
It took him only a moment to poke his head out into the garden and step outside upon seeing Madison and Wesley, both looking as though they were just finishing up their day's chores.
"Hey, is Sterling on the roof or in his room? I need to talk with him for a bit."
"His room, I think. How's Sea?"
Virgil grimaced a small amount.
"He's... he's alright. I think his old habits are flaring up again and that's why he's been adamant we keep ourselves busy. Probably why he tried heading out yesterday afternoon when we were all settling down to sleep. I've talked him out of it with remarkably little protesting from him, so I'm very proud of him for that, which is why I'm gonna go speak to Ster and Lyla. He was going to originally, but I don't want him to do any work today."
Madison looked mildly worried for her friend, which didn't surprise Virgil at all, and Wesley nodded at him.
"Yeah, that's probably for the best. Anything we can do to help? He's your boyfriend, but you're both our friends as well. We wanna help if we can, ain't that right Mads?"
Madison gave Wesley a resolute nod.
"Of course. Is there anything we can help you with, Virgil? I can speak to Sterling and Lyla if you tell me what it is you need to talk with them about?"
He shook his head in response, thankful for the offer anyway.
"Thanks for the offer, but I need to talk with the two of them myself. Me and Cyg want to ask them about helping out with doing the occasional supply run, since we'll be able to grab more shit if there's more of us. In terms of helping in general though... how long are you gonna be out here on the garden?"
Wesley looked to Madison, who shrugged.
"I think we're basically done, to be honest. Why?"
"That's good. Could you both go in and watch the documentary on the tele with him? Preferably actually with him on the sofa; he's got a blanket round his shoulders again, so I think that having three people basically led on top of him and then waking up without anyone is making him feel mildly touch starved."
Wesley gave him an understanding look and puffed himself up.
"Well, if you need someone hugged then look no further! I don't know if you're aware, but I'm something of an expert when it comes to hugs. Madison ain't too bad either, so he'll be in good hands until you're done."
Virgil smiled, barely stopping himself from laughing. He was very lucky to have these people, they both were. Now he just needed to make good on his end of things and spend some time with Sterling and Lyla. He felt a little guilty, not being with Cygnus at the moment, but he knew his boyfriend would feel worse if so small a task was left uncompleted all day.
"Thanks guys, it means a lot."
He'd join them soon enough, but first of all he needed to go and spend some time with the others.
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"So, tracked you down at last, have I?"
Sterling looked up at him, a minute smile on his face.
"Hello to you as well, Virgil. I hope you're well? Sorry about this morning again, I didn't mean to be rude. It will... it will probably happen again. Sorry."
Virgil nodded, still smiling.
"I get you Ster, don't worry. I actually had a few things I wanted to ask you about, so I was gonna ask if you wanted to play football for a bit on the roof while we chat. Just so we have something to do, I mean."
Sterling nodded, the minute smile growing just the smallest bit wider.
"Yeah, that'd be nice. If you don't mind, I mean. Lyla's been pretty busy recently so we haven't been able to have a kickabout in a while, so it'd be nice to have a game again."
"Fair warning, I was never bad at football but I haven't played it in like, two years. Basically just know that you're definitely going to win. I mean, you probably would have won anyway, but you're definitely going to win now."
Sterling didn't smile any wider, but there was a definite hint of amusement and enjoyment in how he carried himself.
"I'm not above the pridefulness of winning. There's no shame in admitting that you're going to lose, especially not when the outcome is a forgone conclusion like this. Here, I'll grab a ball and head up to the roof. We'll probably just be kicking the ball back and forwards to each other, since I don't trust you not to punt it off the roof if we play proper football."
"Oi, watch it!"
Virgil's joking offence made Sterling quite visibly almost laugh, so he took that as a win. Besides, it really had been quite some time since he'd last played football, so Sterling probably wasn't wrong to be cautious in that regard.
After perhaps ten minutes had passed Sterling made his way up to the roof. He'd changed into a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt, probably the closest thing he still had to one of his old kits trapped at his family's home, and rolled the ball towards Virgil. The two of them spent a minute just casually passing it backwards and forwards, moving at light jogs to catch up with the ball if ever a pass went a little wide. Virgil hadn't played in a while, but he actually didn't seem to be doing too bad, so he'd count that as a personal little victory.
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It was fun, all things considered. He probably should try and join Sterling and Lyla more often when they did this, if they didn't mind of course. The only real hitch came about thirty minutes in, when Sterling gave the ball a little too much lift and it went 'thud' right into Virgil's chest. He doubled over and then moved to sit down, breathing heavily as a thrum of pain went through him. Christ, were his ribs ever sore. He hadn't even worn his binder last night, but then he guessed he had been wearing it most of yesterday and parts of today.
"Shit, Virgil are you alright? Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you or anything, I-"
Virgil cut him off, patting the spot next to him and gesturing for the boy to sit down.
"Nah, don't worry, it's just-" he let out a large exhale of air "-just that my ribs are still sore, that's all."
Sterling gave him a somewhat guilty look, but Virgil smiled and waved it away. It had very clearly been an accident, and Virgil had no reason to assume that Sterling felt any way other than terrible about it anyway. He'd much rather reassure his friend and make sure Sterling didn't spend the rest of the day beating himself up over it, all things considered.
"I was gonna call for a break soon anyway, to be honest. I've got good stamina, but that doesn't mean I intend to run myself to exhaustion on one of my days off. Besides, I asked you up here to talk to you as well, didn't I?"
Sterling nodded, still looking guilty but now seeming somewhat relieved that Virgil was moving past it.
"Yeah, you did. What was it you wanted to speak with me about?"
"Well," he started, "to put it very simply me and Cygnus think it would be good to get you or, well I suppose 'and' works there as well as 'or', Lyla to come with us on our trips out into the town. We can always use an extra set of hands, so both of you would be preferable, but yeah. That's the short version of it. We'd like you to start coming with us when we make supply runs."
Sterling looked at him, not quite shocked but certainly a little surprised. Surprised, and... well, damn his eyes but it looked almost like Sterling was hopeful.
"You want... me? To help? Cygnus as well?"
"Yes, to all three questions. You've got good stamina, you're pretty fit and healthy, and you're able to recognise when a situation is serious and to follow the leader when needed. It'd be good to have you with us. You wouldn't be with us constantly, probably for half of our journeys, and we'd need to train you to make sure you're able to keep up with me and Cyg when it comes to things like firing guns and that sort of thing, but generally speaking you seem pretty well equipped to dive right in. It's up to you though, of course! We'd never try to pressure you into something like this."
Sterling nodded, a larger smile on his face than any he had worn that day.
"I know you wouldn't, Virgil. I think I'd like to start helping you and Cygnus out in the city, though. I'm in."
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"So, what do you think? You up for heading into the town with me, Cyg, and Ster?"
Lyla had been surprisingly easy to talk to about this idea. She'd just hopped onto a low wall and... well, told him to get on with it. Lyla was very straightforward with her way of thinking and talking.
"I thought you'd never ask! I can't wait to head out with you guys into the city. Well... I mean, I really do want to, but... how 'constant' would this be?"
Virgil raised an eyebrow.
"Constant? You mean like, how regular would you be out with us?"
"Yeah. I mean, I take it I won't be with you guys constantly; no offence to you or Sea of course, but I don't wanna leave my brother alone all the time. Madison as well; she'll be rushed off of her feet if Wesley's the only one around to help her, and you and I both know Wesley's going to ignore his body's protests until he drops to try and help Madison out around the apartment."
Virgil nodded. Out of all the concerns she could have held, this one was perhaps the most reasonable.
"Don't worry, I understand your concerns on that part of it. If it helps put you a little more at ease you wouldn't be heading out with us for every expedition. If me and Cyg were headed out somewhere that was too dangerous then you'd be staying back, at least until we knew you had enough experience to deal with more dangerous environments. But just generally speaking anyway, you'd probably be headed out with us every other excursion. You'd still be able to give Madison plenty of help, and me and Cyg will still be able to enjoy our 'alone time' without the rest of you around us."
"Oi," Lyla responded to the last part of his explanation, a smile on her face as she punched his shoulder, "that's rude. I'm a delight to be around. And yeah, that makes sense to me!"
"So, I take it that you're in then? You seem pretty up for it at any rate."
She beamed widely at him, mischief in her eyes.
"Fuck yeah I'm in! Right, run down everything for me one more time. Stamina training, reaction times, general observation skills, orienteering, and firearms training?"
Virgil nodded.
"There's a little more to it than that, but that's the gist of it. Of course most of those skills won't ever be used when we're out there, but they can come in handy in a tight spot. Still, most of the job is just walking for hours until we get to our destination. It gets pretty boring sometimes, especially since you can't completely zone out since you need to make sure you've got some level of awareness when it comes to your surroundings."
Lyla looked as though she were deep in thought at his words, then all of a sudden started smiling again.
"Here, I heard my brother ask you about some sort of execution you did the other day at the school. I'm not gonna ask you about that in particular, since I know for a fact your social interaction there will no doubt haunt your dreams for the next five years, but I would like to ask what it's like to kill one of the creatures. I wanna know how to do it."
Virgil raised an eyebrow, ignoring the jab she'd made at his earlier discussion in favour of focusing on the question she'd presented him with.
"You wanna know how we kill them?"
"Well, yeah!" She exclaimed, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "If I'm headed out as well then it'd be best to know what to do when I come face to face with one of the monsters, right?"
He nodded at her words. It made sense, and he vaguely recalled thinking that putting down a monster would be easier with more people firing at it, so he recounted the usual steps he and Cygnus took to gun down a creature from out of his weirdest fever dreams.
"The first thing we always do," he started, raising a finger for each point he made, "is scope out the area. When we've heard a creature we first check out the area around it to make sure there aren't any others who might be drawn to the sound of gunfire in the immediate vicinity. Of course this also includes getting as good a look at the monster and the terrain around it as possible. Second, we run through all our checks one last time. The obvious ones are things like your pistol's safety being off and the ammunition properly loaded, but also things that admittedly sound silly or small, such as making sure your shoelaces are tied up properly and your hair isn't about to go into your eyes. You need to be able to focus entirely on the task at hand when making a kill attempt.
"When that's all done, the attempt itself will begin. You'll have taken up a position relatively close to whatever monster you're fighting, but that keeps you out of its sight, prior to moving in. When me and Cygnus have given each other the signal so that we know we're both ready, we burst in quite literally 'all guns blazing'."
Lyla looked on as he recounted their basic tactics, seemingly completely enraptured in what he was saying.
"What next?"
"Well," he continued with a small smile, appreciating that she genuinely seemed interested in this, "when we burst in, the very first thing we do is both take aim and fire four shots each in rapid succession at whichever creature we're facing. We should be close enough that pretty much every shot is a guaranteed his in this opening barrage, since the monster shouldn't have had the time to react to our entry and gunshots. If it's had the time to react then you've taken too long, 'cause you should have fired all four shots within about two seconds of opening the door.
"That's enough to take down most of the small to medium sized monsters, but the medium to large ones require a little more work. Some of them are pretty tough, so if it hasn't gone down in the opening volley the first thing we do is split off behind cover but in different directions to start circling it. Most of the creatures are pretty abysmal at keeping track of more than one target, especially in the opening minute of a kill attempt, so this helps to keep them disoriented. We take individual shots at the monster from our positions of cover, waiting for it to get close to the other person before firing a shot at it and making enough noise to get its attention, at which point the other can slink into the next spot of cover and wait to repeat the process.
"Generally speaking we continue like this until it's dead or we're at risk of burning through too much ammo and decide it's best for us to leave and try again in the future. These creatures don't really seem to heal, or at least if they do then it's an extremely slow process, so I'm not too worried about letting them get away and then finding them again at some point. Generally speaking we like to spend one magazine each on a kill attempt, for one because fourteen rounds is enough to be deadly to the creatures if spent properly, but also because we only tend to carry two magazines with us and we like to keep a full magazine each for the road back home. Makes sense, right?"
Lyla whistled in response.
"Well, that sounds like a shitstorm to deal with. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the thought of that sort of thing more than a little fun though. Do you think there's any chance of me and Ster being involved in kill attempts moving forwards?"
Virgil gave a weird sort of half-nod as he quirked an eyebrow.
"Moving forwards? Definitely. On your first couple of trips out? Definitely not. You need to remember that we only ever fight the monsters on our terms, that being when the terrain is good with plenty of cover and we can get the drop on them. If they've seen us, or it's in an open area, then we're not going to try anything. It's too dangerous for me and Cyg, and we've done this for quite some time now. Still, at some point you'll be involved in them, I'm sure of that. It'll make my life a lot easier as well, since twelve or sixteen bullets in an opening volley will doubtless be more effective than eight. Well, provided you can hit the broadside of a barn anyway."
"Oi, that's also rude! Watch your tongue young man, respect your elders!"
"Lyla," he snorted, "I love you, but you're only like... what, seven months older than me? I don't think that's eligible for 'venerable elder' status."
"Hey, listen here young whippersnapper, I've been in this world far longer than you have! Show me some respect!"
Virgil couldn't help but laugh at her 'old-timey' voice, which set Lyla off laughing as well not long after. After somewhere around five minutes spent laughing, pulling themselves together, taking one look at each other, and then breaking down into laughter again, Virgil was finally able to pull himself together properly. Wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, which was impressive since the joke that had begun the laughter fit wasn't even that funny, he looked at Lyla and got himself back on topic.
"So you and Sterling are both up for this, huh? I'm glad to hear it, though you can imagine how worried Cyg is about this whole idea. He's agreed to make sure you're both ready to head out into the town and join us if that was what you wanted though, and I've never known him to go back on his word where one of our group is related. I guess in that case it looks like me and Cyg have a weapons run to make tomorrow."
"Get me the biggest gun they have!"
"You will be getting a pistol, the same as me and Cyg. Sterling will be getting a pistol as well."
Lyla gave him a mock pout, crossing her arms and looking away.
"You're no fun sometimes."
"I'll vote for your choice of movie tonight."
Lyla immediately launched herself at him, clinging to his side like a barnacle on a ship.
"Virgil have I ever told you that you're my favourite person ever?"
"That's funny, I seem to recall you telling Madison that she was your favourite person ever. And Sterling. And Wesley. And Cygnus."
"Yeah, but right now you're my favourite because you're going to vote for Watership Down."
He stopped trying to move from her grip and looked down at her, unable to stop a small smile from spreading on his face.
"You're not serious, are you? God, you are, aren't you?"
She nodded at him and winked conspiratorially.
"You wanna watch half the group turn into blubbering messes?"
"As much as I enjoy that film I am going to be one of the blubbering messes by the end."
"Yeah, but that just means that Sea is gonna be extra attentive to you tonight."
He chuckled a little.
"You conspiratorial little shit, I'm in!"