White Lilac-Youthful innocence.

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After losing Torako, the group moved out. They'd been planning to leave for a couple weeks now. They'd found a fully working truck and looted gas and gathered supplies. They got super lucky that the shooter hadn't hit the truck's gas tank. The situation could've ended up a lot worse. Kinzou could've been, at the least, hurt severely and permanently handicapped. Pieces of the truck could've pierced the house and hurt the kids.

Rin was thankful they hadn't lost everything. They went by the camp of his and Marshal's captors one last time to raid it for supplies before taking off in a convoy of vehicles. Rin led said convoy on a Motorcycle with Ryuji sitting right up against his back, arms wrapped around his boyfriend's middle. Kinzou, Yukio, Izumo, Tsukumo, Sachi, Shiemi, and Shura were all packed into a navy blue minivan behind them, then Marshal driving a Jeep with all the meat and milk they'd gotten from the farm animals, Chelsea on that wild horse that wasn't so wild anymore, and behind them was Shima, Konekomeru, and more supplies in an old Ford Fusion that was an ugly shade of seafoam green.

Rin was desperately hoping he wouldn't flare up at the wrong time while riding with Ryuji. Over the last week, the flares of heat had gotten frighteningly frequent. They were small, compared to the meltdown back in the field right before the tornado. But they were noticeable enough for Rin to worry.

Riding a motorcycle with no traffic to slow him down and his boyfriend right there with him was satisfying, though it would've been even better with Izumo riding with them. He suddenly had the image of Izumo crammed in a small sidecar next to them and snickered. "What's funny?" Ryuji asked in his ear. Rin shivered at how much the man was pressed up against him. He could feel the teen's body heat like a sixth sense.

"Just thought of something funny." He responded, going even faster to feel the cool wind against his face.

§~•~§~•~§

They stopped on the side of the road so Rin, Shura, and Shima could hunt for dinner. Rin scored a young buck and found some wild blueberries and dandelions. He could make something out of that. He could carve the antlers into weapons. And he could get Shura to make some kind of clothing from the hide of the deer. Maybe he could get a dress for Sachi out of it? Or a coat for Tsukumo.....

As he pondered what could be made out of the buck's skin, he heard a whistle that didn't blend in with the birds chirping in the trees. He listened for it again and took off in the direction it came from.

"Rin! Over here! Shima found something!" Shura told him excitedly. She was holding open a hatch. He looked down inside the opening and saw Shima give a huge grin, holding up two big cans of baked beans. Rin stared down at him and the cans in betrayal and disgust and that grin only seemed to grow wider.

"Are there any more cans?" He asked shortly. Shima cackled like an evil Disney witch and disappeared for a minute before he brought back two cans-tropical fruit mix and peaches. Rin sighed in relief. "How many cans are down there and how big?" He pressed.

"Uh, lemme see." The boy disappeared back into the bunker and after a few minutes of Rin and Shura playing rock paper scissors to pass the time, he came back to the opening. "There's enough for us to eat healthy portions of every meal for a week and a half here, dude! It's mostly fruit, green beans, creamed corn, and some little rings in red sauce called Spaghetti-O's." He called up. "Woah, shit, did you say Spaghetti-O's?!" Shura jumped up. The boys looked at her weirdly. "You guys don't understand, we gotta give those to the kiddies! I used to love Spaghetti-O's when I visited America as a kid!" She told them seriously. "Ooookay. Guess the kids eat Spaghetti-O's tonight." Rin agreed.

"Is there enough room in there for us all to fit down there to sleep?" Shura wondered. "There's plenty of room as long as no one minds cuddling." Shima answered. "Nice. Stay there, Shima. We'll he back with the others and then you'll help me and Ryuji camoflage the cars. Then we can eat dinner and sleep." Rin decided.

It took until well after dark for Rin, Shima, and Bon to camoflage the cars and supplies effectively and Chelsea to tie the horse securely to a tree near the bunker without the animal flipping out, but once they did, Shiemi offered them plates of cooked deer meat. Marshal gave them decent portions of corn. Blueberries and dandelion stems were dessert. It was actually a pretty good meal considering they were living in the Zombie Apocalypse and mostly ate animal meat and whatever berries they could find that weren't poisonous. Rin savored the dinner with his family. He knew well to savor things like this when they came along at this point. He wished Torako was sitting across from him and Bon, spoon-feeding Sachi and telling embarrassing stories about either Ryuji, Konekomeru, Shima, or their adventures as stupid little kids together.

It is what it is. Only look back to learn, not to wish.

When they settled down that night, Rin had Sachi in his arms, Bon's arm acting as his pillow. Izumo had Tsukumo between her and Bon. Everyone else cuddled up in their own little piles-with the exception of Chelsea and Marshal standing guard above in the trees around the bunker-and Rin smiled at the calm sight before closing his eyes and letting himself drift away.

§~•~§~•~§

"You didn't eat much. You never skip on meals." Chelsea noticed as she and her twin stood guard in the trees. Marshal frowned. "I can't keep much down these days." She admitted, looking out across the forest floor.

"Is there a specific reason for that that you know of?" Chelsea wondered quietly.

"Chel, I love you, but please don't ask me, I will puke." Marshal pleaded, a rare whine on her voice as she did so. She dropped into a crouch, sat down on her branch, and hugged her knees to herself, rocking slightly, but not enough to fall off her branch.

Chelsea could tell her sister was internally panicking. She usually curled up like that when she was trying to convince herself everything was fine and nothing bad was happening. Marshal was never one for denial. She went straight for acceptance. But she would try to make things feel like they were okay instead of just accepting that things were happening and Chelsea wished she wouldn't.

She knew Marshal knew what she was doing. Marshal was good at Psychoanalysis. She'd been majoring is psychology to be a Psychologist one day, maybe become a Therapist. The Therapist path was a very slim chance only because Marshal's patience for people who ran away from their problems even when an expert told them they had said problems to their faces was very low. Marshal was more likely to just slap the person rather than waste any more time trying to help them after a couple months of sessions with no progress being made.

"I'm sorry Mar. I won't push it. But I'm always here. And so is everyone else. You don't have to bottle everything up like you used to. There's literally no point in judging people in this world, we all wear nasty clothes that smell like sweat and dirt and let our hair turn into greasy messes." Chelsea tried to do what Marshal usually did for everyone else-cheering them up with humor.

Her twin finally cracked a smile and sighed, looking up at the sky where stars glimmered. "I know, Chel. I just wish I at least got a pretty wedding, someone who loved me, and some fun out of this bullshit. I'm already over it, of course. Always am. No point in being angry over it when I can't do anything. Still hurts though. Feels like good things come and then at least three bad things right after to hurt me for being happy." Her eyes were glassy as she peered up at the three stars that made up Orion's belt. It was her favorite constellation and gave her comfort. Not because she related to Orion or anything like that, but because it was stye only constellation she could ever find in the sky when they were little.

She couldn't even find either of the dippers, but she could always find those three stars of Orion's belt and then the rest of the constellation. That fact had always made Chelsea laugh. Marshal was simple to understand if you stuck around long enough. She was a picky eater, but what she liked were very simple and easy ad cheap, back when money mattered. Things she liked were simple things. Her understanding of things was on point and she would do her best to simplify it so she could explain it to others without all the uneccesary and complicated words she'd picked up from reading big books in most of her freetime as a preteen and teenager.

Chelsea loved the way her sister was different from her. It made them fit together well. It made them get along well, too. They liked different things and had different styles and beliefs. Marshal was very passive when it came to politics while Chelsea was very invested in them. Chelsea was loud, but softer than Marshal. Marshal got anxious when people yelled unless the situation called for it, but she was also tougher than Chelsea when push came to shove. That difference was because where Chelsea chose to feel everything even if it hurt her, Marshal had a defense mechanism of getting emotionally detached from things if they stressed her out too much. That was due to the fact that she valued feelings and felt them too strongly when they were younger, which resulted in her always getting hurt by people.

The two were very different, but Chelsea was fine with that. So, when her way of doing things didn't work, she could try Marshal's way, and vice versa. She would crack all the dumb jokes and terrible pick up lines she needed to if it made her twin feel better instead of hugging her like she desperately wanted to. Chelsea liked comforting people physically, but Marshal was a touch-me-not and didn't like being touched unless she initiated it most of the time.

Chelsea looked up at the sky and found those three stars. "I can't believe you still can't find the Big Dipper without help." She said quietly. Marshal let out a sudden bark of laughter at the comment after such a long and thoughtful pause. Out of the corner of her eye, Chelsea saw her wipe at her eyes. "It's not my fault! The pattern was too complicated for me to see as a kid!" Marshal protested. They joked around the rest of the night, telling each other the hilariously terrible pickup lines they remembered finding on the internet in that one Math class in Sophomore year when their teacher let them have freetime on the computers after classwork was done.

They stayed awake the whole night watching for corpses, staying quiet to hear them shuffle and groan, or to hear their rotting bones clack together. Waiting for the smell of rotting flesh to waft towards them.

It never came, and they slept half the next day, dreaming of a time when things felt simpler, but were really much more complicated than they'd seemed to two little girls in a small house in New Jersey with a Mommy and a Daddy that were still together.