Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer Part 10

Kira frowned, looking away. Luke was starting to scare her. He was Luke, right? She wasn't leading some crazy shapeshifter back to her house? She trusted Luke, the rest of the world, not so much.

Luke walked in silence for a second.

"Just joking~" he finally said.

Kira blinked back tears, half crying out of being upset, and half crying out of relief. "I-It wasn't v-very funny..." she sniffled, wishing she could rub her eyes.

"Oh-oh-I-oh-I-oh no," Luke managed to stutter , dropping his stuff and going to give Kira a hug. "I didn't mean to upset you so much, I'm so sorry."

"Y-You're not a m-monster..." Kira mumbled, hugging her bundle tighter as she tried to stop her crying.

"I was only pretending. I'm sorry, I was being stupid," Luke apologised, feeling awful.

"D-Don't joke a-about that st-stuff...please..." Kira mumbled, pulling away from Luke and setting down her bundle, before hugging him tightly.

"I won't, never again," Luke assured her.

Kira nodded, burying her face into Luke's shirt, and slowly calming herself, her breathing getting less shaky. For a moment, she'd felt all alone again, and that scared her. She didn't want to be alone again.

"I'm here for you, and I'll stay with no matter where you go," Luke assured her gently.

Kira nodded again, staying quiet for a moment, before speaking up. "Y-You're not a m-m-monster..." she mumbled into Luke's shoulder, her voice still a bit unsteady.

"I know," he replied, thinking 'not any more'.

Kira pulled back to smile at Luke. She didn't want him to think of himself as a monster, because then he might actually turn into one.

"Now let's get back to the house, eh?" Luke replied, trying to cheer her up but worried it might rain. He began to gather up his stuff.

Kira nodded, picking up her bundle, and continuing towards the forest, quickly reaching it.

"Really feels like my home now," Luke commented warmly when they did.

"Well, it's both of our home, isn't it?" Kira asked, sounding a bit confused. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we're past the point where you're just a guest."

"Yeah, but there's just a difference between the feeling you get when you go back to your flat and when you go back to say, a place you've been staying for a while. It feels like our house," Luke replied happily, not sure how to word it.

Kira smiled widely as a vine took her and Luke up into the treehouse, where she set her bundle down on the floor. "I guess...though I feel pretty at home anywhere where there's a lot of healthy plants. Might just be my Flow talking, though," she mused aloud. "But soon we'll have a real house, hopefully even better than this."

"That'd be awesome, this is already great," Luke nodded happily.

Luke stepped aside for them to pass as Ty walked down a sparsely furnished hallway to a small sitting room, where a hooded figure sat.

"So these are the tresspassers?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"Yes, Elder." Ty answered.

Joey nodded to the Elder as he entered. "We were just passing through."

The Elder let out a raspy cackle. "Nobody 'just passes through' the Badlands, dude."

Kira's smile softened as she looked downwards, smoothing out her dress. "I've never lived in a real house before..."

Bryant sat up straight in his bed, rubbing his eyes. He spotted Kriska knocked out on the couch nearby and frowned, looking around the room for the broken watch, even using the needle to make sure nothing was out of sight. ...That was a dream?