Luke sat down in the makeshift camp they had made. Really, it was just an area that Michael had marked off with stakes, and then Eve had helped pile up some larger logs around it.
There wasn't time for much else.
Because the zombies didn't seem to be able to see, or at least they didn't feel fear, night was more dangerous rather than less. Luke could easily have guessed that, though.
The thing was, most humans saw a lot worse during the night than during the day, but the zombies' senses were the same, because they didn't require light.
Zoe had been sulking until a few minutes ago, when she had drifted off opposite from him inside the wooden boundary.
Kane had removed the blanket from around himself and settled it around her, and of course he was lying down between her and the outside, as best as he could. She had been leaning on one of the logs, so he had carefully moved her to make her lean on him instead, and now he was silently staring off into the distance, one hand resting at his side and the other on the wooden wall behind him.
Guardians didn't tend to sleep as much as their charge. Especially these two.
Luke glanced over at Eve. Sure enough, though she had promised and was trying, she was still wide awake, just pretending not to be, lying on her side and clenching her fists, squeezing her eyes shut.
She was so tense, it was a wonder she thought that he might not realize. Although to be fair, it was quite possible that she was just focusing on trying to shut the world out.
Her right hand was twitching. There wasn't even an attempt to try to hide that.
Luckily, Luke knew a trick for this.
He stretched out his leg and pushed her hammer a few inches closer. Immediately, her hand grasped onto it, and she fell asleep.
Luke smirked.
She thought he didn't know, but she couldn't sleep without it. Something else she didn't know was that Luke didn't want her to try to hide how strange she was.
Unfortunately, she was awake again a few seconds later, her eyes locked on him.
Luke sighed.
"Really?"
She nodded.
Luke pushed himself up and walked over, then he knelt beside her, holding his hand to her mouth.
Looking up at him as though daring him to protest, she scraped her teeth over the back of his hand, reopening a few small cuts, then she lapped up the blood that dripped out.
Luke wasn't going to protest. Even after all this time of quiet compliance, she was still afraid.
Afraid of being rejected. Afraid of being hidden away again like a broken vase, shoved in the back room when guests came over.
Luke wasn't going to hide her.
She was strong enough that she didn't need that treatment, even if other people protested her behavior. This apocalypse would be good for her.
Eve needed to remember Evelyn. That she was stronger than they gave her credit for.
And that that strength was not useless.
It was not useless because Luke was behind it. Any power that he had was useful.
She wasn't part of his hydra, but she was even better.
She was a part of him.
"Blood, huh?" Michael asked softly. "I was wondering what it was."
Luke looked up and over at him. He simply nodded. He didn't wonder when Michael had figured out something was going on with her. It was decently obvious, all things considered. Eve was a loner, but she was also an athlete. That didn't generally happen.
Michael was sitting on the near the center, staring absently up into the air.
Or at least, he had been.
Now he was looking down at Eve. She met his gaze for a few seconds, then lay back down and went still.
"So," Michael started slowly, after a long pause. "Gonna tell me what's going on?"
Luke chuckled softly.
"If you have to ask, you already know the answer," he responded.
"I figured you'd at least try to lead me on for a while," he said with a chuckle.
"No point," Luke said.
"I did notice you weren't surprised when I said I knew there was something," Michael said carefully.
"Well, there's always something," Luke said. "And I never even hoped that you wouldn't realize there was something going on with us."
Michael smiled at that, and finally lay back.
"Then let's the two of us stop lying to each other," he said, then he closed his eyes.
Luke didn't think he would be asleep that easily.
But his eyes were closed.
So, slowly, he smiled back.