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ma-ri-yana · 2 days

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Castaways

A/n: helloooo. Thank you once again for checking this out! As usual, I hope you enjoy and have a great day :D lmaooo I almost forgot to add chapter links.

Warnings: a little bit of cannibalism because the ghouls have to eat sometimes.

Brief summary: you are an alien on your way to visit another planet when your space ship is attacked and you crash land on Earth. The Ghoul is hunting down his next pay check and finds you. The story is set thirty years before season one.

Chapters

1 2 3 4 5 6

You’d made it out of Wyoming after a few days and travelled along the border of what used to be North and South Dakota. Along the way, you’d encountered a few raiders and cannibals, some other bounty hunters still trying to cash in on Elena Zakharova’s person; but you didn’t really have to lift a finger, the guys had you covered on that front. That was mainly because your brothers felt it necessary to “keep you out of the way” so you wouldn’t stop them from outright killing people. The way you did that night when you had pressured them to welcome the two irradiated humans into your group. Your brothers and the ghouls made sure to aim for the head whenever an attack occurred to prevent you from getting any ideas about helping the aggressors. It was just another way they held you back from your “naivety” as James liked to call it.

You weren’t going to lie and say you were okay with all the death that seemed to drown you. You’d argued with them tirelessly; worried they were giving up their morals and ideals. Maybe they weren’t as attached to them as you were. It bothered you that the simple change of location was enough for them to drop their principles. The things they were taught, the things they grew up valuing. If you were to think back to the comfort of your own home, a place where rules existed and society felt obliged to assist one another —to an extent—, you would not have dreamt of even holding a conversation with a murderer. Yet here you were, travelling with and trusting your life to four of them. Maybe you were too harsh in your train of thought. Too judgemental. You weren’t home, after all. You were stranded on a planet over a hundred light years away with no way to communicate with your people without giving away your location and risking your lives. You had to understand, to some extent, that you were all doing your best, even if you didn’t agree with the methods.

You bit your lip as you continued to ponder, walking along the sandy landscape. It seemed all the fighting brought the men together because the further along the wasteland you all travelled, the friendlier they were to each other. They even joked about their kills. It made your face twitch in irritation. You’d expected it from the humans, but not your brothers. They were raised differently. It must’ve been some kind of a trauma bond kind of thing. Or maybe it was simply your brothers finally coming to terms with your situation and letting go to their circumstances. More so Nikkand’r than Dimiil. Dimiil always held himself up to some kind of standard of decorum, even if this situation was unbecoming of him.

The terrain of the Earth that you’d gotten to see so far was… boring. At least in comparison to your home planet. But you still marvelled at it as you passed. You found a lot of the mutations to be gross, you weren’t going to lie, the grossest being rad roaches, of course. You squirmed every time they came into your view. They’d always laugh at you for it. Well, they all did, except for the Ghoul. That man always looked out for you. He’d immediately shoot and kill them the moment he’d caught them in his line of vision. Luckily, because of this, you didn’t see them as often as any normal human who’d lived in the wasteland would have. And while you weren’t a fan of death, you also weren’t a fan of being eaten by those things. For all the judgement you passed along to your companions, maybe you weren’t any better than them.

Neither of you had spoken about the moment you’d shared in the lab, the one where you’d almost kissed. But the two of you seemed to have an understanding of sorts, of how much you cared for one another. You didn’t need to talk about it because he showed you with his actions. The way he protected you from everything; not to the point where you were left ignorant to the world around you, but he comforted you when you felt uneasy. He knew he wouldn’t be doing you any favours by shutting the world away from you, but he always made it known he’d be there for you. He knew you were a pacifist, and while he didn’t hide you from the violence this world forced onto its people, he made sure you wouldn’t have to act as a result of the violence. He knew you wished to help people and he didn’t necessarily get in your way, but he made it known to you after some time that he wouldn’t outwardly assist by working on the people himself. He’d advise you against it, as the rest of the group did, but he wouldn’t stop you the way they did. The two of you had a deep, mutual respect of one another. He felt as if you connected him to the man he used to be before the Great War and shortly after. Back when he wasn’t so jaded.

When he and James had left for the younger ghoul’s ranch for the horses, he had picked a white one for you. It was very rare to find a spotless, white horse, especially in the new world. But the moment he laid his eyes on it, he thought of you. You were too chicken to ride her on your own, of course, so he let you ride with him. But you kept the horse with you and cared for her anyway. Since you weren’t riding her yourself, everyone loaded their items on her, naturally. When he’d brought the horse to you, you pointed out how the life forms on Earth seemed so mundane and expressed how much you loved that. The Ghoul chuckled to himself because he knew that was far from true and that it was just another one of those things you’d learn sooner or later on your journey. Anything on this planet was far from mundane.

You were halfway across the state when you came across what used to be the Standing Rock Reservation. He told you all to remain cautious and do that “x-ray thang” with your eyes as your horses threaded through the reservation carefully. Luckily, the area seemed as though it had been abandoned. At least for the first hour or so of passing through.

That was when you heard it, the sound of a child crying. Your brothers caught it when you did too but the two humans couldn’t. It was too far and quiet for their ears to register the noise. You looked around but couldn’t see anything. You instructed the Ghoul to have the horse continue walking in the direction you heard it coming from. He expressed his confusion and you just told him to trust you. He nodded and directed the horse towards the path you’d pointed out to him. The rest of the group followed scrupulously. They didn’t have to be too cautious, the area wasn’t heavily wooded, but that didn’t mean the creatures in the place couldn’t hide anywhere, either. Between the few trees that populated the area and the giant hills and mountains here and there, there was always room for some human interaction that could range from somewhat positive to downright abysmal.

“Stop,” Dimiil commanded, you let out a sigh in annoyance as a result. “It’s an ambush.”

“So what? You’re gonna let that kid get killed?”

“Better her than us,” Nikk scoffed.

“Sweetheart, what’s goin’ on?” The older bounty hunter turned his head to look at you as best as he could.

“I take it your sweetheart is gon’ get us killed with that lil’ nice girl act she’s got goin’ on, that’s what,” James pulled out a cigarette to smoke. “Ain’t that right, sweetie?”

“Darlin’, we can’t go ‘round savin’ everybody… You’re askin’ us to get in a whole lotta trouble for what—“

“Incoming,” Dim announced, putting up the forcefield the aliens had used on them when they first encountered the very humans they travelled with. A considerably large bullet shell bounced off the barrier.

“See what I’m talkin’ ‘bout, hon?”

“I got this,” James announced, pulling out his pistol and pointing it at one of the natives he’d seen running in between one of the scarce trees.

“No! Nononono!” You and your fellow aliens yelled in unison to no avail, the human had already fired a shot. He had aimed at your attackers but the bullet simply hit the barricade and ricocheted back in their direction.

They moved out of the way as quickly as possible but James took a hit to the shoulder. He didn’t seem too phased by the pain and simply took out one of the chems you’d prepared for him out of his pocket and plopped it into his mouth, “I’m gon’ need some more of these later, girlie.”

“Do not, I repeat, do not shoot at them while this,” Nikk pointed at the forcefield, “is up. Or you will fuck us.”

“Well, I say to hell with that thang and let’s kill us some smoothies. I’m hungry,” James twirled his pistol by the trigger circle in his index finger. The motion—and his words—made you feel uneasy.

“We will not kill anyone,” you protested as more bullets bounced off your invisible wall.

“They’re shootin’ at us!”

“We’ll be fi—“

“Enough. We’ll take care of this,” Dimiil nodded at the two humans. He then turned his head toward you. “You can stay and take care of the horses.”

“Oh, fuck you,” you crossed your arms. “You’re just gonna have me sit here while you fuckers destroy an entire village?”

Dim and Nikk turned their heads and nodded at each other, “yes,” the eldest alien answered calmly. “Unless you’re willing to partake?”

You grumbled and looked away, focusing your eyes on yet another native that shot at the forcefield that shielded you all, “I will not.”

“Okay then. You can stay here.”

“Can’t we just… go through?”

“You know very well this doesn’t last long,” Nikk answered telepathically, not wanting to risk anyone having that information. Not the ghouls and definitely not the humans shooting at you. While you knew no one understood your native tongue, there was no guarantee in your minds that you were entirely safe to freely speak your thoughts.

You sighed, “fine. But promise me she’ll be safe.”

“Girl, for all you know, they could be usin’ her as bait for suckers like you. She’ll turn on us the moment she sees her friends are dead,” James spat his excess saliva on the ground.

“How could you be certain?”

“I can’t. But I ain’t gon’ risk it for the sake of your little experiment,” he shrugged. “We goin’ or what?”

You stayed quiet as the older bounty hunter jumped off his horse and helped you down. He ruffled the top of your head, messing with your disguised hair. “I’m sorry, bunny, I can’t promise you nothin’…”

You fixed the hair that framed your face, tucking a big strand of hair behind your ear as you looked away from him. “Yeah yeah,” you muttered.

“Thank about it, sweetheart, the more mouths we gotta feed, the harder it’ll be to get where we need to go,” the younger ghoul took another puff of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. “We’ve already got all these fuckers to feed, includin’ ourselves.”

You nodded, not wanting to keep the argument going any longer, wishing it would all be over already. You watched as the forcefield went out for a second to allow the males to step out of it, guns blazing. That invisible shield went back up the moment they’d stepped out. You leaned on your horse as you watched them blow those poor people’s heads off. Grimacing as you watched the scene play out in front of you. You didn’t quite understand how they all managed to remain stoic—how the two humans seemed to enjoy themselves, even smiling as they pulled their triggers. But something you understood even less was how your brothers seemed so unphased at the prospect of taking those human lives. You grew up in the same household, after all. But then again, their training in the military back at home was slightly different than yours. Theirs was more combat oriented—yes, you were all trained to be spies first and foremost, but they were trained to be more combative while you were trained in more intelligence based fields such as chemistry and stealth. That kind of explained their nonchalant attitude. Even if you had just rationalised everything in your mind not too long ago, their blatant disregard for the lives of intelligent beings still took you off guard.

You watched as they advanced to the centre of the town, surrounding themselves in the town’s population. “Ghouls! Kill them!” You heard the townsfolk yell, prompting your confusion. Did the Ghoul know these people? Why were they yelling his name? Had he been there before? You wouldn’t be surprised. The humans told you they’d tracked Elena around all over the place, this could’ve been one of her stops before the Anthraxans cut her thread of fate.

The yelling didn’t last very long, silence engulfed you in the matter of seconds. You held your breath. You sighed with relief when that girl’s crying resumed. You dropped the forcefield and ran over to meet your group, opening the container that was placed in the middle. The container the girl had been stuck into by her fellow villagers. “My name is Jessie,” you heard her mutter to herself. The Ghoul shot you a sorrowful look but you were unsure why. His eyes told you he knew more than he was letting on. “My name is Jessie,” she repeated, her head shook frantically, growling in between. You pulled her out and hugged her, the Ghoul stepped up only to be held back by James.

“She’s gotta learn,” he mumbled to his friend.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jessie,” you smiled softly at her. “I’m Y/n.”

“My name is Jessie,” the girl repeated, her growls becoming more agitated, furrocious. That’s when she made a move to attack you but before the little, irradiated girl could strike, the older bounty hunter shot her in the head. Her blood splattered all over the left side of your face, blue tears started to stream down your cheeks.

“Why? Why would you do that?”

“She was gon’ kill ya, darlin’,” he answered you softly, a pitiful look on his face as he walked closer to you and tried to pull you into his arms. You backed away. “She was goin’ feral. This is what happens to people like us when we’re not properly taken care of. We go nuts and start attackin’ anyone and anything in our path.”

“We could have helped her then!” You screamed, enraged and overcome by your grief for the girl you never got to know. “We could’ve medicated her! Like I’ve been medicating you! She was sick!”

“That’s different, honey… She was too far gone. Once the process starts, ya can’t reverse it. What I did just now was a kindness, believe me. It ain’t right to let people live like that.”

“I warned you,” James chuckled. “Don’t expect everythang to be peaches n’ cream. This place ain’t been nice to nobody for two hundred years,” he looked up at the sky ruefully.

The older bounty hunter held his hand out to help you up but you didn’t take it. You pushed yourself off the sandy ground and wiped your blue tears off your cheeks, sniffling and pushing past him to get back to the dead irradiated human girl. You stroked her stringy hair, some of it fell out in your hand as you did. You felt Dimiil place his hand on your shoulder, “we need to go.” You ignored him and continued to cradle the girl in your arms. He shook you by the shoulder and forced you to get up by dragging you up himself. “Nebby. Let’s go.”

“Girly don’t wanna leave without burying the whole village, does she?” James cackled and shook his head, “we ain’t got time for all of that. Not unless you feel like adding more bodies to the pile. I got a feelin’ that ain’t all of ‘em. I suggest ya move whatcha momma gave ya.”

The Ghoul held his hand out to you again. You wiped your tears and sighed, letting him lead you back to his horse and letting him help you climb it. He climbed up right after and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. He turned to wipe the blood off your face. You stayed quiet as he did so. You didn’t want to look at him, not right now, at least. He then put his handkerchief back into his pocket and grabbed your hands from behind him, placing them on his waist to make sure you were holding onto something before the horse started moving again. “It’ll all get easier with time, sweetheart. You’ve just got…” he sighed, “a lot to learn.”

After having ridden for a while, you finally let your anger drop, your head along with it as you leaned on the Ghoul’s back. You found yourself crying again, “she wasn’t going to do anything…” you insisted.

The Ghoul turned his head to try and get a look at you, but he couldn’t see much aside from the top of your head that you’d buried into his back. “She was going to and I couldn’t let her try,” he answered patiently, looking ahead again as you all continued down the Standing Rock landscape.

“It’s getting dark,” Nikkand’r spoke, “let’s set up camp.”

“Alright. I don’t know about you fireflies, but I’m gettin’ me some shut eye tonight.” James climbed off his coffee coloured horse.

Nikk nodded, “you humans can get some sleep tonight. We’ll keep watch.” You started setting down two blankets on the ground for the ghouls to lay on. “You get some sleep too, sis.”

“I slept last night, though.”

“And you’ll sleep tonight too,” Dimiil cut in with a smile. “It’s not fun picking on you when you’re sad.”

“Look at the bright side, at least your face didn’t get chewed up. Just imagine, if she would’ve chewed your face off— your exposed teeth showing through your ripped up cheeks. Ooo—“ he shuddered obnoxiously. “That would’ve been gnarly.”

“Thanks, Nikk. I needed the visual.” You rolled your eyes.

“See? I made it fun… for myself. It’s all about perspective, Dim.”

“Praise be to Yevnologin for not making you any more insufferable than you already are,” the elder alien muttered, raising his arms in worship as he looked up to the stars.

“Is that a challenge I hear?” The youngest was never the religious type.

You scoffed, Dim kept ignoring his annoying brother’s attempts at jokes and turned to you. “Seriously, rest. Get yourself together. We’ve got a long journey ahead and can’t really afford for any one of us to ‘go nuts’ as those humans would say.”

“I’ll try to if I don’t end up having nightmares about the poor girl splitting my head open,” you glared at your younger brother who simply snickered in response. Boys are gross, you thought to yourself as you pulled a third blanket from one of your bags and set it on the floor. You laid down and stared up at the starry sky. You couldn’t fall asleep for the life of you. Between the thoughts that raced your mind and the cold nighttime air, you were struggling. No one prepared a fire that night. The aliens didn’t feel like it was necessary and thought it smarter to leave the world in darkness in order to avoid unnecessary attention. As a result, you shivered in silence but took advantage of the darkness to turn off your disguise. You listened as your brothers paced your little camp. They were close enough for you to hear their footsteps and chatter but far enough for it not to disturb anyone’s slumber.

“You chilly, doll?” You hear the Ghoul whisper to you from his spot on his blanket.

You ignored him, turning your body in a different direction so you wouldn’t face him. You didn’t need to answer, he could see you shivering and hear your teeth chattering. You heard him sigh and walk over to you. You felt him place his frayed coat over your body. “I could’ve grabbed another blanket for myself,” you grumbled to yourself. That’s when you heard some more shuffling and felt one of the blankets that were packed cover you. He didn’t mind the attitude, he was happy to hear something. Even if it was for much, he was grateful you hadn’t become mute.

“You warm now, sweetheart?” He asked you, not really expecting an answer. He made these gestures without the assumption of getting anything in return from you. He just wanted to make you comfortable in a world that ripped comfort away from its inhabitants. You ignored him again. It wasn’t that you didn’t appreciate his simple deeds, you were just upset that he wasn’t upset the way you were. That he could do these things and not bat an eye. That he’d killed the girl knowing you’d only wanted to help her. He walked in front of you and sat a foot away from your face. “You understand why I did what I did, right?”

“Good grief, I’m tryna sleep here, people!” James groaned, stirring in his slumber. The Ghoul sighed and bore daggers into his head with the look he shot the man.

You turned the other direction to indicate that you didn’t want to speak to the irradiated human. You heard him sigh. You don’t think he left that spot either since you didn’t hear him get up. You didn’t hear any shuffling or any footsteps to indicate that he had. Instead you heard him dig into one of his pockets and smelled the change in the air; he was smoking a cigarette. Those two men kept each other’s smoking habit alive much to your chagrin. Your olfactory receptors were not accustomed to that habit of his, you didn’t have those things back at home. The things people smoked on your planet were either scentless or flowery in scent. Of course, you could smell the charred undertones but that came with anything that was lit on fire. But that was rare. Only the puritans smoked the old fashioned way. Most chose to smoke through inhalers and the product within the inhalers didn’t burn, they boiled. Much like the way that the Ghoul had previously ingested his chems before you took over making them for him.

If you were honest, you couldn’t exactly pinpoint why you were upset with the Ghoul specifically. Aside from the fact that he had shot the little girl who sat in your lap, her blood spattering on your face. He had explained why he did what he did. Logically speaking, you understood his reasoning. Was it because you wanted nothing but to reach out to him for comfort? But you felt wrong for seeking his comfort? You wanted him? The heartless human who killed others like him without sparing a thought for them? That wasn’t true. If he were completely heartless, he wouldn’t have treated you the way he did. Or did he coddle you because he felt indebted to you for convincing your brothers not to take his life? Why did it matter to you? It’s not like you were compatible with his lifestyle. He was accustomed to the filth and toxicity of his environment and you weren’t. You grew up in a world where your life was stable and privileged; a place where laws and values still ruled it’s society. A world where you had a right to live. In this world, life was something one fought for and earned. And how much of a fool were you to get so attached to this stranger you’d only met weeks ago? You only knew him as Ghoul and you weren’t entirely sure that was even his real name.

You couldn’t sleep like this. Not with him watching you like he was afraid you’d fall apart if you fell out of sight. You didn’t take any pleasure in avoiding him. You considered him a friend, your rock. You were just confused. Why were you even angry in the first place? It wasn’t really new information that he killed people. You groaned, aggravated with yourself. You took the blanket that the Ghoul had placed on you and brought it over your shoulders as you got up and stomped off to where your brothers were. You needed some kind of a distraction.

“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep, sissy?” Nikkand’r called out once you reached his line of vision. You shrugged and told him you couldn’t sleep. He didn’t need to ask, he knew you too well not to know what was going on in that brain of yours.

But Dimiil beat him to the punch, “you’re being a hypocrite, you know that, right?” You crossed your arms, you didn’t argue with him. He was right and you knew it. “We’ve been killing people left and right and you haven’t once flipped out on us?”

You purse your lips and hesitated to make your admission but went ahead anyway, “it’s not like I haven’t been upset with you guys.”

“I know,” he paused, “and yet, here you are speaking to us instead of the man you’d rather be with.”

You scrunched up your face, “what the fuck are you on about?”

Nikk interrupted and spoke as crudely as he usually did. You feigned shock anyway, trying to pretend that what he said was unfathomable and wrong. “What he's saying is that you obviously have a crush on him and you’re sexually frustrated and making it everyone’s problem. He likes you too, you doof. Go and talk to the guy so we can stop hearing you cry about this shit.”

“You talk to Wanda with that potty mouth of yours?”

“Of course not. She’s my angel. You’re a gremlin. Now go. We gave you the night off so you could get your shit together.”

“Speaking of Wanda, how is she?”

“Stop trying to change the subject and go,” Dimiil cackled. You grumbled to yourself. They were right.

You walked back to where the rest of your party sat and slept. The two humans were in the same spots as when you’d initially walked off. James was snoring from his spot on the ground and the Ghoul was looking down at his feet as he smoked that horrible cigarette you hated so much.

“I suppose…” The Ghoul heard your soft voice ring in his mind as you sat back down on the dirty ground in front of him. He looked up at you, curious to hear what you were going to say. You didn’t look directly at him, opting to alternate your gaze between his hat, his bare hands, the nasty stick he held between his fingers. You weren’t bad at apologies but you weren’t particularly enthused about admitting you were wrong, especially about this specific topic. “That you were right to do what you did. I’m sorry for having been rude to you for it…”

“I’m sorry for upsettin’ you, darlin’,” he lamented sincerely, he reached out and placed his bare hand on your cheek. You leaned into its warmth.

“That poor girl…” You weren’t quite ready to let go of the grief you felt for the girl. But you were ready to forgive him for putting her out of her misery. Maybe it really was the most humane thing he could do for her.

“She was dead already,” he caressed your chin. He could feel the tears streaming down from your eyes and moved his hand up to wipe them away. You made a move to climb onto him and straddle his lap but he placed his hand on your shoulder and stopped you. He shook his head and you could feel your heart fall into the ground and shatter into a million pieces. “I respect you too much…” He could tell by the look on your face that you were devastated and he took no pleasure in it. You moved back and covered yourself again with that blanket, using it to comfort yourself from his rejection. You looked away, embarrassed and dejected. You didn’t notice him leaning over until he’d moved your head back in his direction by the chin. He slowly brought his lips closer to yours but he stopped short of actually kissing you. He resisted his urge to, though it was getting increasingly difficult by the second. “I just want to make sure you don’t do anything you’ll regret, sweetheart.” He whispered, his eyes darting back and forth between your violet irises and your plump lips.

“Why would I regret this?”

The Ghoul shot you a look of despair, he didn’t tell you what he was thinking. His insecurity was what held him back from touching, kissing and feeling you the way he wanted to. How could you look upon his scarred face and find any semblance of someone to love? It didn’t make sense to him. You snaked your hand to the back of his neck and moved up to catch his lips in a kiss. Your kiss had a sense of urgency to it, you pulled him down to bring him closer to you. He almost gave in to his desires and met you with the same sense of haste, he felt his pants get tighter; but then he slowed the kiss down, softened it. He pulled back in spite of his growing bulge, “sweetheart, please don’t take this the wrong way…” You slowly opened your eyes, afraid of what he was going to say. “It’s not that I wouldn’t love the pleasure of your company in… this kinda way. I’d just… like to do right by you. I don’t want to rush you into anything. And you deserve so much more than this dirty sand.” He stroked your hair and pecked your lips softly. He desperately wanted to feel them crash against his scarred lips again but maintained his self control.

The snoring stopped. “Uh-uh,” James protested loudly. “If y’all are gon’ get to fuckin’ each other like some fuckin’ rabbits in heat, I’m gon’ kindly ask you to either let me get in on the action or knock it off so I can get some sleep. I can hear y’all devourin’ each other from here, fuckin’ animals,” you heard him grumble.

The older ghoul rolled his eyes, “we weren’t doin’ none of that, ya degenerate. She’s a lady.” He yelled out and winked at you, letting his scarred mouth crack a smile at his own statement.

You leaned up to kiss him on the cheek, “thank you.” You whispered. He wasn’t sure how to take that. Were you grateful he’d stopped you from having sex with him? Were you grateful that he stopped you from making the worst mistake of your life? Were you embarrassed that you might have been linked with engaging in a sexual activity with him and grateful that he’d stopped the idea from spreading? It was almost as if you were listening to his thoughts because in that moment, you spoke again. “Thank you for always looking out for me.” You clarified and pecked his lips. You stood up and bent down to take his calloused hand in yours, leading him to the blanket that had been sprawled on the floor earlier. You laid back, using your elbow to prop yourself up and patted the spot next to you. “Will you at least keep me warm, Ghoulie?”

How could he resist you? He shook his head and his worries away and kept that lopsided smile on his face as he climbed into the spot you’d cleared for him. He wrapped his arms around you and you did the same, laying your head against his chest. “Did you know those people?”

“Hm?” He had already started falling asleep when you blindsided him with your question. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I heard those villagers screaming your name, I was wondering if you’d met them before.”

The old ghoul snorted, “no, sweetheart. I’ve never met ‘em.”

“Then how did they know who you were?”

“Whatchu mean, sweetheart?”

“They were yelling your name…” You repeated.

Then it clicked for him, for some reason, it hadn’t the first time. “My real name ain’t Ghoul,” he chuckled softly. He then sighed, the smile falling off his face. “Ghouls are… well, what I am.”

“Irradiated humans?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“Ah…” you mumbled, finally drawing the connections in your mind. “Then what’s your real name?”

He kissed your forehead, “you can keep calling me Ghoul for now.” You pouted but you weren’t going to keep pushing the subject. Clearly, he didn’t want you to know. You weren’t sure why. A name was a name, it wouldn’t do him any harm to tell you who he was but that wasn’t your decision to make. You shuffled in your space a bit to get more comfortable, your index finger traced circles around his chest as you found yourself drifting into sleep. He spent the next few minutes, wrestling with his thoughts. Debating with himself why he felt the need to keep that part of himself hidden when he wanted nothing but to share himself with you. It wasn’t like he was trying to erase his past—no, he wanted to remember it. No matter how painful it was, he needed to remember who he was. It was part of the reason he was able to maintain a friendship with James. He realised his hesitance was futile. He wanted to build something honest with you and he needed to be honest to do that. He cleared his throat and just as he was about to speak, he heard a faint whimper escape your lips. You had already fallen asleep. Then a question popped into his head that tanked his mood: what was the point if you were just going to leave him anyway? It’s not like he’d be able to convince you to stay, would he? He sighed. Maybe he’d just go along with this and try to enjoy your company anyway.

The next morning, you woke to the harsh sun beating down your face once again. You stirred in your sleep as you were pulled out of your slumber by the merciless star. You didn’t want to get up, you wanted to sleep a bit longer. You had gotten plenty of sleep but you still felt like you could use some more. The world was heating up around you and the layers of fabric that covered you made the heat unbearable. You threw your half of the blanket off and sat up. The human’s eyes snapped open as soon as you did that, immediately noticing the absence of your touch. He watched you adjust to your environment and saw you look down at him. He gave you his lopsided grin. You smiled back at him softly.

“Rise and shine, motherfuckers,” Nikk’s voice boomed, loud music blasted from seemingly nowhere. He danced around your forms like he was performing some kind of a ritual. James groaned and yelled at your brother to turn that goddamn noise off and sat up, as did the Ghoul. The younger ghoul grabbed a rock and threw it at the obnoxious alien. Unfortunately for the human, he missed. The younger human told him once again to turn it off so they wouldn’t attract any Dakotan wildlife to the group. The alien assured him no one could hear his noise but them. Much to their chagrin, the music kept blasting and the alien continued dancing. James muttered something about this being some kind of CIA torture technique. He piped down when Nikk then started to throw random chunks of meat at the two ghouls that they caught midair with ease. It became apparent to them that your brothers had gone back to the village and cut up the dead bodies at some point in the night to feed the humans. Nikkand’r wasn’t big on sharing his food and was tired of the ghouls stealing his chips. Did he have any confidence they’d keep their calloused fingers off his snack stash? No. But he figured minimising their appetite would help.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” You looked him up and down judgmentally. You were still grouchy from having just woken up; you weren’t much of a morning person. You definitely weren’t in the mood for the ruckus this early in the day.

Your younger brother shrugged, “maybe the sweet taste of violence has rejuvenated me!”

“Where’s Dim? He’s given you way too much creative freedom.”

“Here, just had to walk Marge.” Dimiil came back into view with his pet wolf by his side.

“Can’t find time for a girlfriend but he makes time for a dog,” Nikk crossed his arms and leaned on his left foot.

The ghouls were only partly invested in the conversation at this point. They were more interested in devouring the tasty pieces of bright red meat that laid in their laps.

“That’s what happens when you don’t listen to your sister. You end up fumbling a pretty girl and become old and alone with ninety dogs.” You teased.

“For your information, Jaina and I were gonna go on our third date before we got stuck in this shithole—“

“This is our shithole, thank you very much. I’m very proud of it, actually,” the Ghoul jested as he chewed on the raw meat, waving the chunk of meat around as he spoke. He liked to talk with his hands. Human meat was a delicacy, —or so he convinced himself— it didn’t need to be cooked or seasoned, in his opinion, at least. But he wasn’t in the mood to eat the skin, so he pulled it off before taking another bite.

Dimiil chuckled, “no offence.”

“Offence has been taken,” James added, speaking with his mouth full. You marvelled at him, it was a wonder the food didn’t spill out from the exposed parts of the man’s cheeks.

The look of surprise on Nikk’s face was priceless, but he wasn’t paying attention to what had captured your eyes. “What? Why didn’t you say anything? This whole time we thought you pussied out and didn’t even try calling her—“

“Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.”

“That is the lamest thing I have ever heard come out of that crusty ass mouth of yours—“

“And we’ve heard you say your fair share of corny shit, dude,” you cut in as you and Nikk laughed hysterically, high fiving each other. He high-fived you and mumbled something about being happy you were back. You rolled your eyes at him.

“Oh, like you’re one to talk, Y/n.”

“Ohhhhhh shit,” Nikk put his hand to his mouth. “It’s a showdown,” he danced to the annoying music he played.

“Seriously, are you on something right now?” You side eyed the alien.

“Hey, don’t take your anger out on me, take it to the source! Are you just gonna let him talk to you like that?” The youngest instigated, howling with laughter. His music still blared in your minds.

You saw a bright white ray of light shoot out and pushed your brother to the ground. As a result of having pushed him down, a strand of your hair was cut by the ray of light as it passed. The Ghoul raised his bald eyebrow in confusion, whipping his gun out in an instant. Dimiil noticed another light fly toward him and immediately brought his wrist up so he could use his watch to put up the forcefield that had protected you on and off in the past. Your antennas emitted a blue light. “It’s them, isn’t it?” He said to no one in particular. He was frightened. The three of you were, you knew what you were up against.

The two humans weren’t necessarily as frightened, maybe it was because they were confident in their ability to fight for their survival. Or maybe it was because they were simply ignorant to their new enemy. In any case, no one answered the eldest alien, too focused on getting their own weapons ready. Not that they particularly needed to, he was just trying to alleviate his mind of the stress caused by their impending doom.

The three aliens looked at each other. You mouthed some words at your brothers, the Ghoul couldn’t make out what you were saying, but your intended audience seemed to understand you perfectly fine. He watched as the three of you ran in the direction of the light bullets. He tried to follow but found that he and his friend were trapped by the invisible barrier.

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