x

“Huh? … No, it’d be a waste of our time,” Ridley replied, his eyes widening whenever she touched him. “She’d never agree to it.”

“Nothing’s a waste of time, Riley,” she said. “And that’s why we got Bliss.”

Becca remained stiff, although she appreciated that Gabriel tried, even if she didn’t think she’d ever have Lionel beat. “Fine. Whatever,” she said with a sigh. 

“Hey, lighten up,” he said. “I mean it.”

»»»

“Sorry, I should be used to surprises by now. I’ve had a lot of patients, and some of them I’ve been more uh… intimate with than I care to admit.” Dr. Flynn trailed off and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Please don’t hold my entrance against me, let’s just move on. Start again?”

Putting on his usual ‘doctor’ smile, Parker tried again by reintroducing himself. “Miss Lovely Bythesea, my name is Dr. Flynn. We’re going to run a full physical exam as well as some blood tests.” Parker sat down on a rolling chair and scooted closer to her, “Now, would ya prefer a different doctor before I get started?”

“You can just call me Love, it’s okay,” Love responded, ignoring him at first. She didn’t mind that he was a customer, it was bound to happen. But this time was a bit more awkward than normal. “...No, I mean. You’re capable, right?”

»»»

“Of course.” Noah didn’t hesitate to accept the mission because he knew he had no choice. He wasn’t happy to do it, but he would do it for her. “Is there any other information you can give me before I go?” If all he had to do was locate the family, then he could hold that information close to his chest until Safiye asked for it.

“Her name is Love, that’s as much as I’ve been able to discover. I don’t know anything else,” she said honestly. 

“He distracts you everyday.” Becca deadpanned, crossing her arms over her chest as she sat down on the edge of his bed. “If I weren’t around you’d probably be married with kids by now.”

Grinning, Lionel waved his hand around dismissively. “That’s bullshit, Pilgrim. I’d wait until we were eighteen to get married, and then when I graduated with my PhD I’d pop out a few of his kids.”

“God. I knew you were actually a girl.” she replied dryly.

Gabriel sighed, moving to wrap his arms around his girlfriend before things got too heated. “Look, you’re making a big deal out of nothing,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “Let’s just relax.”

“She doesn’t see it that way,” Ridley said. “And she’s stubborn, so it’d be hard convincing her.” That definitely wasn’t true, but he still had a few wits about him to not let that slip.

“I think we found ourselves our first project together!” Arden exclaimed, placing her hands on the other’s cheeks with a big grin. “I mean, why not? The more the merrier, kids, you know her, it’s the perfect first convert!”

“It’s… Different for her. She has kids,” Ridley excused. 

“Aaaaand...? You’d want kids with the Father when the Collapse happens.”

“… Romantic,” Lionel said with a snort as he shook his head. “Don’t you think you’d be more help if you were out here with me?”

Becca stared at his best friend, “Unlikely. You’d just distract him the whole time while I was made into some handmaid or whatever the fuck they do to the girls there.”

“I mean, Ellie couldn’t distract me,” Gabriel said, looking at Becca for a moment. He turned his attention back to the other man, shrugging. “I don’t know. Maybe I’d be more help inside.”

“What about you?” Ridley asked, raising an eyebrow at Arden, then scrunching his nose up. “What? No, no, I just… We were friends for a long time, so, y’know…”

“I’m not nice,” she said bluntly. “...Yeah? Some friend, if she hasn’t joined the family with you.”

“She wasn’t a bitch, really,” Ridley tried defending. “She was a lot nicer than other girls who were like her.”

“Yeah. H’Okay. There’s no such thing as a nice pretty girl. They’re all nasty deep down, you know?” Arden said, uncaring of his defense. “You still want to bang her or something?”

“Of course,” Becca murmured, casting his best friend a disapproving look. “You would want me to get kidnapped by them crazies. Then you could have Gabe all to yourself.”

Lionel shrugged, “Goddamn, Pilgrim, you figured out my master plan.”

“And if he really knew me, he’d know there’s no way that I’d let you get kidnapped alone. We’d be together.”

“Can’t blame her for it. Her whole high school career was based on her looks, no wonder she started only seeing others for it.”

“I mean, you easily can blame her for it. You don’t have to be a bitch if people think you’re hot.”

“Yeah,” he said with a small chuckle. “I don’t know. Maybe not. I don’t think that if she hadn’t been with me before she would.”

“Sounds like a real bitch, honestly,” Arden replied. 

“Ye of little faith,” Lionel said with a small sigh before catching Gabriel’s wrist. “Just saying. If you ever need to practice on someone, you can always disappoint me first.”

Becca walked back in, tucking her phone into her pocket. “Did I miss anything?”

Gabriel frowned at the other for a moment, hoping to not appear anxious about it at all. “I’m good,” he mumbled, before looking up to his girlfriend. “No, not really. Just Ellie saying we should stay at Vices and get kidnapped by the cult members.”

Ridley didn’t even notice his blush whenever she leaned in closer. “I guess… My last girlfriend, she dated a lot of guys who weren’t all scarred.”

"Yeah, I mean. Most guys aren’t all scarred up,” Arden shrugged. “Makes them boring. No life stories to tell. Or... are you saying she’d never date a guy that was scarred?”

“You’d love it if I saved you, shut up. Gotta take a rest from that hero complex eventually,” Lionel teased. “I think that’s about as much as you know. When you get in there, you’re gonna be totally lost, trust me.”

“I wouldn’t love that. Shit. You’d get your ass killed the second you even thought about trying to save me  ——  and that’s more trouble than it’s worth.” Gabriel rolled his eyes, pushing the other’s shoulder. “I’ll be fine. Worry about yourself, dude.”