8: Survivor's Guilt

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"Alright! What did we get?" Eden asked as the group gathered together.

"Ace and I didn't get anything, however, we were focused on looking out incase those robots headed here. Ace stayed with me." Levi informed the others as he glanced at the window that showed them the outside city. So far, no robotic bears were around, which relieved him. The group wouldn't be put through any danger for now.

"Eden and I found enough clothing for us all. So, incase we need to change, we got these." J said as she held half of the clothes they collected in her arms, Eden carrying the other half. Levi hummed, eyeing the clothes closely. He wasn't going to discard them, not at all! He just wanted to make sure they'd be comfortable.

"You should put them in these bags then." Charles spoke as he handed the two two backpacks. Eden squeaked, nearly dropping the clothes as soon as the chemist handed the bag to her. Thankfully she didn't.

"Ah- Thanks Charles! This is useful!" she beamed as she struggled to open the bag. J easily opened hers, carefully placing inside the clothes.

"What did you two find?" Ace asked as he watched Eden open the bag.

"Enough food to last us for a few days." Teruko said as she showed them the bag with food "I guess we got lucky here. Surprisingly..." she mumbled to herself.

"That's good..." Levi mumbled.

"Nice job, Levi! You really did score a big goal!" Eden beamed. The brunet just nodded, a small smile on his face. He was happy that he was able to help his friends.

"What do we do next?" Teruko asked "I mean, those bears are surely going to find us sooner or later, so we need a plan. We can't just waltz outta here and hope nothing bad happens to us." she had a good point. Those bears would end up finding them eventually, and they would have to start running from them again. And it would end up turning into an endless game of cat and mouse, the victorious one finishing the enemy. And knowing the brunette's luck, Teruko suspected the survivors would end up being the losing mouse.

"Well, we could always use this place as a temporary shelter while also gathering enough supplies." Levi mused "We also need to figure out where exactly are we... this doesn't look like our city at all." he added.

"You're definitely right. This does not look like any city in America. At least, not how I remember..." Charles agreed, mumbling the last part. It's true that his memory was fuzzy. So was everyone's. Could Rose have been  right back then? Well, the mastermind did confirm they were missing memories, but how many wasn't specified.

"Well... what the fuck do we do now? Do we sleep now?" Ace asked, breaking the silence.

"That seems like a good idea, yes. I think we are all tired from that chase." Levi nodded.

"My legs feel like noodles, yeah i do wanna fucking rest." J complained, sitting down.

"Yeah, let's get some more rest. It seems like the better choice." Eden smiled as she carefully laid down. Soon enough, everyone was in comfortable positions before they all fell asleep.

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"Status report." a woman spoke, ominously looking outside the window, watching the chaos unknown.

"The survivors escaped the Monokumas we planted around the now destroyed building and hid somewhere in the southwest area of the city." a man informed, kneeling down in front of the woman. She scoffed, her eyes narrowing.

"Of course." she grumbled, clenching her fist "Make sure those Monokumas find them. And kill them. Painfully." she remarked, turning to glare at the man. He froze, sweating nervously as his body trembled in fear.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" he said, bowing down and hurrying out of the room. The woman stared at the door for a second before turning to look outside the window.

"Hmph."

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"Are you awake, Levi?" Ace asked while the others were asleep. Levi hummed, turning to his boyfriend.

"Mhm. Is something the problem, Ace?" he asked. Ace just nodded, scooting closer to the taller man.

"Just... thinking about shit in general..." he mumbled, looking at his gloves. Their gloves. Levi frowned.

"Are you still regretful of not being able to apologize to them?" he asked, wrapping an arm around the other. He nodded.

"I just- I feel really fucking bad." Ace sighed "I was an asshole to them. Yeah, they did try to kill me. But it's because I drove them to that point. I made them want to hurt me." he admitted, resting his head on Levi's chest. He found it difficult to talk about Nico, it felt like a taboo topic. Not only that, it was difficult for the jockey to open up to people, he never does. He is someone who always keeps to himself.

"Ace, it's not your fault Nico was murdered." Levi said, running a hand through Ace's hair. The jockey melted into the touch.

"I know, but still... I feel really fucking bad. I could have been nicer to them. But I wasn't. I was an asshole because I was so fucking insecure and jealous of them." he ranted, his eyes trailing off to Nico's gloves yet again "I revealed their secret without their permission, too! I just... what was I thinking, Levi?!" he asked in exhasperation. He cringes at his old self. He was such an asshole to literally everyone. And he still was.

"I understand that you regret your past actions, Ace. But I think that what you are describing to me is Survivor's guilt." Levi spoke. Ace raised a brow, looking up at him in confusion.

"The fuck is that?" he asked.

"Survivor's guilt is a response in which someone else experienced loss, but you yourself did not. It normally is implied to be a response to the loss of life, it could also be the loss of property, health, identity or a number of other things that are important to people." Levi explained "You feel guilty because Nico died, but you survived. Those guilty feelings are proof of it. This could also lead to you suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as survivor's guilt is a symptom of PTSD." Ace stayed quiet during the whole explanation, listening to it closely. Now that he thought about it, it did make sense.

He kept thinking about why he was the one to survive, and not Nico. He has trouble with moving on from the events they all went through in that place, ever since witnessing Xander's body. He has a lot of flashbacks about seeing the horrible state of Nico's body, along with Arturo's. And putting all of these facts together, along with what Levi described, what his boyfriend said made sense.

"...Yeah, I... think you might be right." Ace whispered. Levi nodded.

"But you don't have to worry." the taller said with a smile, causing Ace to look up at him in confusion "I'm here to help you through it." he assured the redhead. Ace's eyes widened, staring at Levi in surprise. He then nodded, burying his face on Levi's chest, hiding the small smile that was forming on his face. Levi chuckled, hugging him back. The two ended up falling asleep like that.

"Survivor's guilt, huh..." Charles whispered, opening his eyes. He had listened to the small conversation, what Levi said peeked his interest.

Perhaps that was why he felt so guilty he lost Whit in that killing game.

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I'm sorry, I really like Acevi, they might have a lot of moments in this book ;-;

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