"I mean," I pipe in, "you basically did just tell him that you trust a couple of complete strangers." 

Dani glares back down at me, more annoyed than anything. "I said that I trust Leon and his choice. I personally don't trust you at all." 

I grin. "Maybe," I muse. "And yet, you haven't raised much of a fuss over being our bodyguard. Or letting us lodge with you and your brother." 

"Would you rather have some random camper make sure no one here kills you?" Dani returns. 

"Fair point, but why would you care?" I raise an eyebrow, but Dani doesn't rise to the taunt, dropping the subject. Surely she has more of a reason other than just following orders. I drop the subject, too; however much fun it is to poke fun at her and rile her up, we have a gate to rebuild. 

Needless to say, working with Ethan and his men throwing glares my way, whispering to one another, and continuously being under suspicion is not my ideal way to spend the day. However, Sparrow makes it a point to crack jokes and keep things light as we hammer away at the gate. Felix and Octavia enjoy the manual labor, and I honestly can't believe how happy they look at building something. 

Putting it into perspective, I suppose that, because we've been on the move for most of this time, doing something with your hands that doesn't involve bashing in skulls is a very welcome change of pace. Admittedly, I'm beginning to enjoy it as well. There's something enriching about using your skills to build something up and help, rather than tear something down and destroy. We've gone so long with being forced to kill to survive that I almost forgot what it felt like to be part of a community. 

I wonder how long it'll last...

After working on the gate until nearly sunset, sweating and hammering away - and dealing with old man drama - we finally get the gate to look more like a gate than a brush pile. 

"Alright," Dani breathes, taking a moment to look over our work. "This should be fine for now. We can reinforce it tomorrow after some rest." 

"Oh, thank God..." Sparrow heaves, slumping down to sit in the trailer, covered in sweat and beet-red.

Ethan and his crew give the gate a once over, glancing over at my siblings and me as we rest by the trailer. "I suppose these kids are good for something," he grumbles, shaking the wood shavings from his hair. 

"That almost sounded like a compliment, Ethan," Sparrow gibes. 

"Don't push your luck, boy," Ethan growls. "Earning their keep is the least they can do for what happened yesterday." 

Dani bristles at that, standing straighter. "I already told you, they had nothing to do with the attack." 

"Save it, kid," Ethan dismisses, waving his hand. "They can change my mind by killin' all of those spider bastards." And with that, he stalks off towards the mess hall, his buddies following after him. 

"Well," I sigh, rubbing the new sores on my hands, "guess I'm not eating inside today."

"Aw, don't be like that!" Sparrow chimes in. "We can have a little get-together at Josh and Dani's place! Have some food, play some games, get our minds off of everything for a while."

"Heck yeah!" Octavia pipes up. "That sounds like a party, and I am all for it!"

"Whoa, hold on," Dani backpedals. "I didn't agree to this." 

"Did someone say party?" Josh's voice sounds from behind Dani, and Dani groans, rolling her eyes. 

"Yeah!" Octavia answers him. "At your cabin! Get some food, play some games, maybe some music!" My sister wiggles her eyebrows at Dani, who is preoccupied with glaring at Josh to notice. 

"We have work to do," Dani insists. "Making blueprints, getting the vehicles ready, you know, planning for an attack?" 

Josh grins and slings an arm over his sister's shoulder. "Oh, lighten up, Dani. When's the last time you had friends over?" He glances over at me, winking. "Or friends in general?"

"Ooo, burn!" Sparrow cackles. 

"I don't need friends," Dani growls, swatting Josh's arm away. "What I need is for you to take something seriously for once instead of just goofing off and dicking around whenever you feel like it."

Dani stalks off, grumbling under her breath, and Josh noticeably deflates, sighing deeply. 

"What's her problem?" I ask, watching her head to the main office, likely to report the gates progress to Leon. "Even when she's on our side, she's against us."

"Don't mind her," Josh says. "We might have been here for a while, but Dani's..." He watches as she disappears inside the building. "Just give her some time to get used to you. She's like a cat when you bring another pet home." 

"Yeah," I huff. "An angry, feral, street cat that finds joy in scratching people's faces off." 

"Only yours," Sparrow chuckles. 

"Wait," Octavia says. "Are you calling us 'pets', or did I mishear that?" 

Josh laughs. "You heard me right. I honestly think having you guys around her will do Dani some good. A few fresh new faces might entice her to open up more and make connections that aren't completely antagonistic." 

Felix sighs. "Even in the apocalypse, everyone needs a friend..." 

"If anything, now is the time where we most need a friend," Josh agrees. "So why don't we go ahead and grab some food from the mess hall? I'll see if Jocelynn wants to join us tonight."

"Sounds good to me," I shrug. Even though we're not sticking around very long, it can't hurt to be a little friendly, right? The good-byes are going to suck, but then again, when do they not?

Felix, Octavia, Sparrow, and I follow Josh to the mess hall and grab plates of food to take back to our shared cabin. Ethan and his crew eye us as they murmur amongst themselves, so I decide to ignore them; there's no need to rile up someone who actually wants me dead without good reason. Josh spots Jocelynn almost right away and wanders over to talk to her. She brightens up at the mention of a get-together and nods our way as she grabs her share of food before following us out.

We make idle chit-chat as we walk back to the cabin, plates in hand, and I'm surprised to see that Dani isn't here yet. 

Josh notices too. "Huh," he notes, glancing around. "Guess she'll be joining us later tonight then." 

Sparrow shrugs. "Eh, her loss. I'm sure she'll show up eventually."

Despite their flippant attitudes, I find myself actually worried. "Her injuries from the attack were pretty bad," I mention. "Maybe something's wrong? She was working on the gate with us all day today." 

"She would have said something, though, right?" Octavia asks, sharing my worry. "You know, other than bitching about having a get-together."

Josh laughs. "Knowing her? She'd rather die than let it show that she needs any help. I'm sure she's fine."

I stare at him. "I understand that you know her better than we do, but that doesn't exactly sound like 'she's fine' to me."

Josh opens his mouth to respond, but the cabin door creeks open, and in walks Dani, holding her side and looking exhausted. She pauses, looking up at the gaggle of us staring at her, and straightens up. She takes a deep, labored breath as she closes the front door before carefully making her way to the back bedroom, where she closes it right behind her with a little more force than necessary. 

We all exchange awkward looks before Josh sighs, shaking his head. "I guess that means she won't be joining us."

"Uh, you maybe wanna check on her?" I ask, staring after her. It looked a lot like she wasn't doing too hot. 

"I mean," Josh shrugs, "if you want to go in and poke the bear, you're more than welcome to, but it's probably best to give her some space when she's like this."

He might be right, but my worrisome instincts kick me in the ass, and I can't let it go. "I'm going to at least see if she wants anything to eat. I don't think I've seen her eat anything today besides breakfast, and that was hours ago."

Josh smirks. "Aw, someone's getting attached!" 

"I will literally shoot you in the knee."

Josh and the others bust out with hearty laughs. "Alright, alright. We'll wait and see if you come back alive before we start anything."

I roll my eyes, grabbing my plate, and heading towards Dani's room. "I'd appreciate it."

Stopping in front of the door, I take a deep breath and give the door a sharp knock. "Dani? You awake?" 

There's a pause, and for a moment, I fear that I may have woken her up, but there's a light shuffle, and her voice returns, "Yeah, what do you want?" She sounds tired, her voice strained as though she's fighting back tears of pain. 

"Can I come in?" 

Another pause. More shuffling. "Fine." 

Well, it wasn't a very happy response, but I'm here anyway, so I might as well go through with this. I crack the door open and peer inside, seeing Dani sitting up on the side of her bed, struggling to take her boots off. 

I grapple with coming up with a creative greeting, and the only thing that manages to come to mind is, "Hey." 

Dani glares up at me, but I know it's not me she's pissed at. At least, I don't think it's entirely me. I close the door behind me as I step inside, unsure of how to proceed now that I'm here. "What do you want?" She repeats, looking more and more exhausted the longer she struggles with her boots. 

"I just wanted to see if you were hungry," I tell her, setting the plate down on the bed beside her. "Do you, uh, want some help with that?" 

"Fuck, no!" She hisses immediately, and I flinch back.

Damn, Josh wasn't kidding about the whole 'would rather die' bit. I'm starting to see why she has so few friends in camp. 

Dani notices my awkward expression and sighs, giving up on her boots and hanging her head. "I'm... sorry," she grunts. "That came out a lot harsher than I intended."

I wave it off. "It's no problem," I nervously laugh. "I'd have said the same thing in your shoes." 

That was an unintentional pun. God, I hope she didn't notice that. 

She shoots me a look that tells me she got the pun anyway, and I inwardly kick myself. 

Leave it to me to open my mouth and piss everyone off when I'm trying to be nice this time.

"Anyway," I drawl, trying to buy time while I think of how to talk to her. "Josh and the others were wondering if you'd be joining us later tonight? In the living room, just..." I sigh, giving up on my words halfway through and gesturing vaguely towards the door. "You know, chill with us."

She watches me with an infuriatingly blank expression, and I have to stop myself from groaning and walking out. Damn it, Dani, I'm actually trying to be nice here!

She doesn't say anything for a long while, telling me all I need to know. I shrug it off. "It's cool if you don't; I was just worried - er, concerned? - about your injuries from last night. It's whatever; I'll leave you alone." 

My hand is on the doorknob when she finally speaks up. "Why are you so concerned about me?"

I pause, the answer not even really clear to myself. I open the door, giving myself some more time to mull over my words before responding with, "Despite our... exceptional first impressions of each other, I don't hate you." I glance back at her. "We were both trying to protect what's important to us. I just figured it would be nice getting to know someone like me. You know, making friends."

She stares at me for what feels like an eternity, clearly unable to process what I said. She scoffs, rolling her stormy, clouded eyes and looking down at the floorboards. "I'm nothing like you." 

There's no bite to her words. 

No harsh tone, no sarcasm. 

Just... loneliness.

There's something overwhelmingly painful about her expression, about the way she refuses to look at me, how sincere she sounds. I almost ask her outright what she means by that, but fear of her answer stops me. 

"You'd be surprised," I finally say, offering a small smile. Her eyes flick over at me for a split second before she turns away.

I take it as my cue to leave, softly closing the door behind me before rejoining the others. Dani doesn't join us that night, and I find myself mulling over her words for the entire get-together before we eventually turn in for the night.