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Ch.3

She went into the cave to find everything just as she had left it, plus one oversized mutant with a can of beans and some water in the middle of it. "Here." he said, tossing the beans and water, which she caught by reflexes "Lunch." he stated. She nodded, muttering thanks, then sat down to eat, first warming up the beans a little by placing them over the flame of one of the gas lamps while Kevin did the same only placing them over his Pyronite arm, then taking off the top and gulping down the contents.

He looked over at her, expecting a look of revulsion and disgust, only to see her practically drinking down the contents just the same as he had, then wiping off the bean juice with the back of her hand. She wasn't like other people he had met or kidnapped before, she didn't cower, didn't back down, she had a spine and she wasn't afraid to show it, wasn't afraid to use her fangs to protect herself or those she loved, but she didn't show them otherwise, just if she needed them. Why she would bother ever retracting them was a mystery to him. In his experience, bonds were made for breaking, strong bonds were made for betrayal, and so-called 'eternal bonds' didn't mean shit. So why on so many occasions had she opened herself up for friendship, love, trust, when inevitably they were all going to be betrayed, feelings hurt, promises broken, and love turned to hate and loathing and disgust. Good feelings were a temporary thing, just a high that eventually always came crashing down into the sharp spikes, ripping claws and gnashing teeth of reality, so it was always a good idea to keep those fangs bared and ready for anything, just in case. Normal people puzzled him, people who had abilities of aliens or who were just plain not normal who pretended to be normal puzzled him even more. Why shun your power when you could embrace it and use it to stay a step ahead, give yourself an edge in society, use it to survive and even thrive in the fighting place of the jungle. People who used their power to help the people who would just scream and run and maybe even try to kill you were simply masochists, masochists with a broken cause. He almost felt sorry for them sometimes. But, you did what you had to to survive, everyone and everything else be damned if it came right down to it. Thing was when he saw her do it, when he saw her put her own life down on the line for people she didn't even know, it all looked so simple, just...correct for lack of better word. She didn't even have to think about it she just did it, with nothing in it for her, never even any recognition as Ben usually hogged the most of it and she never even seemed to mind his antics or anything. Hell, he'd barely known the guy for a week and he had tried multiple times to kill him. And furthermore, he'd seen her lose her temper, and lose it on guys who were even worse than him. But even then she didn't kill, she only beat them to a pulp, and how someone would go into a fight with no intention of delivering a final blow boggled him.

Gwen sat and watched as Kevin, absorbed in his thoughts, snorted again, muttering to himself- something about how someone does something or something like that- then went deep back into thought. A silence stretched out between them, and after a while she decided she couldn't stand it any longer, so she looked up and said, without even thinking "You know, plenty of other people have wanted to kill Ben too, myself included.". He jumped and looked at her, jarred back to reality then just stared "Huh?" he asked, a little lamely. She repeated herself "I've wanted to kill Ben too, I know that he can be a total dweeb at times and that he can be rash and short-sighted, believe me," she raised a brow and chuckled a bit, "I spent the whole summer with him, and I think he found more uses for that one darn watch than anybody could with their own two hands." . Kevin lifted a brow and shot her a dubious look, "Really now?" "Yeah," Gwen replied and before either of them knew it, they were talking just like old friends, laughing over jokes, arguing over views, and just talking. Kevin learned about how she wanted to go to college to get her major, about her big brother Ken, and how she had kept her abilities secret from her parents because she was afraid that they would freak out and throw her away like his folks had done to him. Gwen learned about his past, how his dad had been a Plumber, how he had idolized him and how he and his mom had been crushed when he was declared dead. When she yawned and checked her watch, she saw that they had been talking for about 3 hours, and decided to turn in. "Good-night, Kevin," she said as she took off her shoes and climbed under the sheets and for the first time, she shot a smile, a real smile at him and cuddled up under the sheets to drift off to dreams. Then a thought struck her, and she sat up "Hey, Kevin?" she asked just before he too went to sleep "What?" he asked, also sitting up. "When do we plan to move on?" Kevin thought for a moment, "We're going before dawn, it's going to be a long run." he finally said. Gwen nodded, going back under the covers.

When her breathing was even and he was sure she was asleep, Kevin gave up all pretense of rest and sat up to look at her. He didn't sleep, could never afford to while he was on the streets, so it was an ingrained habit now. They had talked, she had smiled, and for a few hours everything had just seemed right. For a few hours, she'd let her guard down, for a few hours, he had forgotten that they were supposed to hate each other. For a few hours, she had almost been like a friend to to him. No, she had been a friend to him. When she should have cowered, mistrusted, loathed, and hated him she was a friend. This was the first time in a long time that he had felt like a human being, been treated like one too. She didn't care about his physical appearance, he realized, she looked past those things to other things, the things inside you. Had she liked what she had seen? It had seemed so, she had shot him a real and honest-to-God smile. Shouldn't he be rotten and black to the core? Maybe not if she had liked what she had seen, whatever that had been. How had she gotten so much of his past out of him, and given so much of her life so freely in return? He knew she wasn't naïve, she was far from it, but then why had she trusted him enough just to go on and do that? Had he subconsciously trusted her as well? It was all so confusing, but around her things just seemed to make sense, and he didn't have to revert to the red madness that always clawed at his unstable mind. That madness had always been warm, understanding, accepting, encouraging him to do what he had previously thought impossible. She had done that, all of that, and he hadn't had any urges to kill, no outstanding need for survival, nothing but her. She did something to him, something that said he could let his guard down and not be dealt a crushing blow where it would hurt the most. She did something that said it was OK what he was, that he didn't have to fight all the time, something that made it seem almost overrated. She made him feel secure and protective at the same time, feel happy she was there, sad at the same time that she wasn't here by free will, such a barrage of emotions he hadn't even known until this time he had had. This girl did something to him, and he didn't know what to do about it, and that terrified him.

End Ch.3