6:27 am, November 12th, 2045

My (e/c) eyes flutter open as I slowly wake up. I glance around the room, first looking across the room at the other bed. I realize quickly that it is empty. I look down to find Paula sleeping soundly, her head rested against my chest and my fingers intertwined in her hair. Her mask must have fallen off of her face as she was sleeping. My face grows warm and my heart begins to speed up.

Fuck, here we go again.

Damn it, why do I always do this shit? Yet again, we're probably going to die soon, and my brain decides it's the perfect fucking time to fall in love.

Her light grey eyes flutter open as she wakes up. After a moment of realization, she lifts her head off of my chest, her face slowly beginning to fade to red. She must've noticed her face heating up the same as mine because she quickly picked up her mask and covered it.

"Y/n, I am so sorry. I-I didn't mean to fall asleep on you.."

"It's fine, Paula, I don't mind," I assure her. "It actually reminds me of when you used to fall asleep on me back at Grand Valley in the library."

"Well, uh, I'm going to go start cooking breakfast. Meet you in the town in a bit, bye," She says quickly.

"WhydidIdothat?WhydidIdothat?WhydidIdothat?" Paula mutters to herself as she rushes out the door.

I force myself out of the bed, not even allowing myself to process the prior situation. Throwing on my clothes, I notice a note and what felt like a film that had been put into the pocket of my jacket. I pull it out and examine it.

Hey Y/n, have a good night with Paula? ;)

Shit.

The picture is of Paula and I. Her head is laid on my chest as my arms are wrapped around her protectively. My face is already searing with the heat of my embarrassment. I sigh before placing the note and the picture back into my pocket. I throw my leather bag over my shoulder before heading over to the windmill.

As I'm walking through the town, I watch some of the children running around and playing carelessly. One runs up to me, holding something behind their back. I recognize them from the first hunt I had gone through. I had to save them from Luce's childish game.

"Hi, um, I made you this to thank you for saving me. I hope you like it," The child says in a soft-spoken voice.

They hold out the flower crown. It was mainly made of miscellaneous wildflowers, but in it were a few delicate iris flowers. Their vibrant blue petals stood out atop the other white and pale yellow flowers. I gently take the flower crown from the child and place it on top of my head.

"Thank you so much. It's beautiful, you did very nicely," I praise them calmly, patting their head. They look up at me with a bright smile and giggle before trotting off with their friends.

Their bright smile reminds me of Emma... I hope they have escaped safely by now. All of them. I know it's illogical to take them all, but they could at least take everyone 8 and above. That way they could pull their own weight, unlike the smaller children.

I continue walking toward the windmill. Its wooden blades can be heard creaking in the distance as the wind spins them slowly. The clicking of my cork-colored boots seems to ring out into the silence. I knock on the door and Adam lets me in. He shuts the door behind me, the chains of the lock rattling as he redoes it.

I walk into the room to see only Nigel sitting at the table, as Zack and Sandy restock the medical supplies in the back. I drag over an empty crate next to him and sit down. He's already busy working on the weapons for the next hunt, and it seems like he's been up for a while due to his rugged appearance. He's completely immersed in his work, not even noticing my presence.

His hat and jacket are both smeared with some sort of oil. The bags underneath his yellow eyes seem to be much darker than usual. Underneath his hat, his champagne-colored hair is messy and untamed.

I place my hand on his shoulder gently to greet him. Startled, he jumps and points the screwdriver in his hand toward me. He puts down the screwdriver and looks away in embarrassment as he notices that it's me. 

"What are you working on?" I ask.

"Just extra weapons for the next hunt," Nigel says. "We only need to endure about 3 months at most until we can finally act on the plan."

"We'll make it out alive. I'll make sure of it."

He nods with a smile full of determination. He begins teaching me the basics of building and repairing weapons.

~~~

1:49 pm, November 12th, 2045

My boots thud heavily along the brick-lined streets as I dodge through the alleys of the houses. For training today, Oliver said we would be training with a bit of stealth through hide and seek. The people hiding get a full minute before being "hunted," similar to how the monsters give us the music as a warning. No one has been told who the seekers are yet. Right now, the objective is to stay hidden and run from anyone you see.

I feel a pair of eyes on me and suddenly stop. I look up to see Paula on the roof of a two-story building. My (e/c) eyes meet with hers. I wave at her, and instead of returning the gesture, she just looks away.

I ignore the situation and quickly find a hiding spot. Seeing as she's not running after me, I'd say she's most likely not a seeker for this game. On my way to the hiding spot, I open a few doors and windows to throw off the seekers.

After a few minutes of hiding in a crate in an empty room, I hear footsteps outside. The noises grow closer and closer as I hold my breath and try to slow my heart rate. From the sounds they're making, I'd guess they're either frantically trying to find a hiding place, or they're a seeker trying to find their target.

The door swings open, slamming against the wall. They rush towards my hiding spot.

Just as I think I had lost the game, they jump into the same wooden crate, not even noticing I was in there. As my eyes finally adjust to the sudden light let in from the doorway, I recognize the frantic hider as Gillian.

"Gillian, what are you--"

"Shh! Paula and Violet are both after me!" She says in a hushed whisper.

"Wait, Paula's a seeker? She didn't come after me earlier.." I whispered.

"She didn't?? Why wouldn't she---," Gillian cuts herself off before giving me a look full of mischief.

"Why are you looking at me like that? What are you planning?"

"You'll see~" She coos. She then proceeds to jump out of the wooden crate.

She gets up and hurriedly starts messing around with random items in the room, purposefully making noise.

"What are you doing?! You're gonna get both of us caught--" I cut myself off, seeing Paula through the window.

Gillian hides behind a tall stack of boxes and wooden planks. Paula rushes in, noticing someone had obviously been messing with things. She walks over to my hiding place, each step getting louder as she grows closer.

Suddenly, Gillian runs behind her and pushes her into the crate I'm in. She places something heavy over the top of the crate, locking us in. Paula and I both push against it, but it didn't budge.

"I'll come back and let you guys out after the game's over! See ya!" Gillian calls out before running away. We both sigh in annoyance. The crate was barely big enough for me to fit in.

After Gillian leaves, we look at each other. I've only just now realized that our faces are inches apart. It seems she only just realized as well because she suddenly went tense. It probably doesn't help that she's on top of me due to how little room we have in the crate. I feel my heart begins to race despite the effort I went through to slow it down minutes ago. From what little I can see, her eyes dart away from me quickly, avoiding eye contact.

After around five minutes, she seems to relax slightly. More of her weight is now resting on my hips. My eyes finally adjust to the light. I look at her, only to catch her staring straight at my face. Although it seems like she wasn't staring me in the eyes.

Neither of us seems to notice as our faces grow closer and closer. After both of us being silent the entire time, she finally breaks it.

"..Can I--"

She gets cut off by a loud crash outside.

"What were you asking?"

"Oh, um... It's nothing, don't worry about it," She replies.

"Oh, ok.." I respond.

I already know what she was going to ask. In our situation, it's pretty obvious that both of us wanted to, but we're too scared to say it.

Moments after the crash, Gillian comes bursting through the door.

"Y/n! Paula! The game's over, time to go meet up with the others!" She says, lifting the kid off of the crate. After she takes off the lid, she races off between the houses, leaving us alone again.

Paula carefully gets off of me and steps out of the crate and I do the same. We walk back to the others, making awkward small talk as we do. Throughout the conversation, I notice her eyes frequently dart to my lips. The group is out in the small clearing out in the forest. We're currently walking through the forest, still hidden between the trees.

Right before we make our way out of the thick cover of the forest, I pull down Paula's mask quickly and peck her on the lips, darting off to the group afterward.

It might be awkward later tonight, but it was worth it at the moment.

~~~

At dinner, Paula and I didn't look each other in the eye even once. I wash my plate and put it back in storage for tomorrow. On my way back to the house, Sonya grabs my arm gently and pulls me aside.

"Hey, is everything alright between you and Paula? I noticed that you two didn't even make eye contact earlier. I know neither of you are super talkative or anything, but it's still kinda concerning that you wouldn't even look in each other's direction.."

"Yeah, everything's fine. Gillian kinda made it a bit awkward by locking us in a small crate together earlier, but I doubt either of us will remember after a while," I respond.

"Why would she--" Sonya cuts herself off and smiles at me the same way Gillian did. "Nevermind. I'm sure you guys will be just fine."

We both walk our separate ways, although I still wonder why two people have acted that way now. Is it that obvious?

I make it to the house, trying to enter as silently as possible. When I walk in, Paula is already sitting on her bed, reading the book from where we left off last night. She gives me a small wave, and I return the gesture. I sit on my bed, playing with a loose thread on the sheets, trying to do anything to distract myself.

"So, um, about earlier..." She trails off.

"Sorry. I won't do that again if you don't want me to. I should've asked first or at least made sure I wasn't misreading the situation.." I blurt out without even letting her say anything.

"No, that's not it.." She says, taking a deep breath as she prepares herself to speak. "I have something to confess..."

My heart and mind both begin to race as I start to think of all the possible things she could follow that with. She places the bookmark between the pages and sets it down. She walks over to my bed and sits next to me.

"I don't know how else to do this, so I'm just gonna say it," She says, inhaling shakily as tears begin to fill her eyes. "I'm in love with you. I have been since we were kids and I haven't known how to tell you. I only realized it because I was always jealous of Oliver and Gillian because they always got your attention.."

"I understand if you don't feel the same--"

I cut her off by pulling down her mask and kissing her quickly. Her eyes widen as her face turns red.

"Paula, I don't know what our future holds, or if we'll even have much of one considering our status right now. Though, there is one thing I do know, and that's that I want you to be in it. Whether you want our relationship to be platonic or romantic is up to you, as long as we're together, I don't care much how we define it."

"I'd say our best option is to take it one day at a time. It really doesn't matter to me either what our label is. We're happy with each other and that's what matters," She says, taking my hand in her own. 

~~~

~~~~~

{A/N~ For those who don't want to end up with Paula, just a reminder that there will be different character routes once I finish the main storyline. I decide to make the confessions in the main story not official relationships because of how I will be writing the rest of it. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, even though it was really just a filler chapter. I hope you all have a good day and make sure to take care of yourselves ( *' ω '* ) }