"This is where you'll be staying tonight." Grey pulled open the wooden carved doors and let Lucien step in front of him.

But when observing it carefully, the wooden doors looked quite different from the others, the intricate design made it appear somewhat special, like it was for an important guest.

Although Lucien had overlooked this, he had a look inside and the first thing that caught his eye was the incongruous bed that didn't match the rest of the interior's motif.

It stood out like a sore thumb against the rugged background.

Looking oddly familiar, the heart shaped bed in the center of the room made him think of the bed in his house at EVE, although the details didn't exactly match one to one, it could be assumed it was what they were going for.

Thinking about it this way, Lucien traced back to his memories of EVE and what happened during that time, he remembered thinking that his in-game partner was an old man. 

Seeing him now, he would like to apologize by kowtowing atleast 100 times!

I'm sorry for ever doubting you!! (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

In fact, the man who helped him through it all and stood with him until the very end of the world, until the apocalypse—had nothing but goodwill for him!

And he was quite the looker!

Lucien couldn't help but feel bad thinking about this when he unknowingly started displaying an aggrieved puppy-faced look.

Grey noticed Lucien's emotional gaze along with his pitiful expression, so he felt a little guilty. Could it be that he found out?

Hesitating for a second, he pushed his racing thoughts away and placed a hand on Lucien's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I—"

Lucien scrunched his eyebrows, not bearing it anymore; he said what was boiling in his mind.

"No, i'm sorry for ever doubting you."

These words came like a toy hammer squeakily hitting Grey's head, he was utterly confused.

Time passed, the man infront had paused and thought of something for a long time.

Lucien saw Grey's pensive expression turning into an unbelievably, soft and warm grin after a long tensive silence.

Instead of removing his hand, he inched closer and embraced him into a tight hug.

"So you knew all along."

Lucien: " ??? "

"All those obvious hints finally made you realize... That i've liked you all along. You weren't as dense as i thought."

A soft chuckle shortly came from him.

But all this made Lucien's face blush like crazy. 

L-like...?

What do you mean?

Lucien wanted to speak but he was petrified with what he heard just now.

"Since it's come to this, I'll leave you alone for now... But don't forget that im waiting for you."

He didn't exactly know the meaning of those words but what he did know was that the man Infront of him started inching closer and closer!

W..w..wwwaaaaitttt!!!!!

I'm not ready for this yet!!!!!!!!!!

Whoosh.

It was the sound of blowing wind and the sensation of a slightly cool breeze near his face.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Grey's amused face and the sound of unrestrained laughter.

"Hahahahaha, you really thought that i would do this immediately after confessing?"

He dropped a hand to his stomach to support himself from laughing too much.

"Don't worry." 

He raised the other near his chin.

"I know that you like it slow. So i'm willing to match your pace until you get sick of me."

Without another moment, Grey turned around and flicked the light switch off and said his goodnights. 

There, in the dimly lit room, sat Lucien and his sea of thoughts. Not a twitch of movement or a single blink came from him, until he finally felt a wave of drowsiness and slept with a loud 

pounding heart.

Morning soon came and the people had all woken up at the same time due to a simple routine and the repeated alarm sounding all around Grey's base.

This alarm was primarily set to build discipline and to make sure everyone was pulling their weight.

But a single sleepy prince was, however, not woken up by this and continued on with his dreams without a care in the world.

It was not until he was awoken by knocking at his door, and he had finally gotten enough of the banging so he grudgingly opened the door.

"Who is it....?"

What was shown within the reflection of his eyes was a man in a military uniform with a somewhat similar height to him. 

Seeing him face level made it so that he could make out the features of his face clearly.

Curly hair, freckled face, and a healthy complexion. His looks combined with his friendly demeanour made him look very approachable.

Due to this, Lucien eased in and lowered his guard, leaning on the side of the doorframe and rubbing his tired eyes.

"Um, excuse me. My boss told me to wake you up for breakfast, well it's already afternoon so I suppose it lunch time now."

Hearing his words, Lucien instantly swapped from a leaning groggy mess to a ruler-straight position standing very upright.

"What did you say??? It's already lunchtime!"

Crap! It's already afternoon! If i wake up so late, won't it mean that i'm not pulling my weight and I'll soon get demoted to those fighting off the frontlines!?!

He clasped his head between his hands.

My goal is not to die! It's simply to just hug a golden thigh. (⁠ ⁠；⁠∀⁠；⁠)

Despite this unrealistic conclusion, Lucien had genuinely thought that he would be zombie feed if he hadn't pull his weight, despite the obvious pampering and favouritism from Grey...

The military dressed fellow was confused when Lucien's face suddenly switched from panic to determination in an almost smooth transition.

OK, from now on I won't be such a heavy weight anymore, I'll try to fulfill my duties as best as I can!

As he declared this in his head, he closed his eyes and put a fist near his heart, showing his sincere determination.

"Um... Mister Lucien Hayes?"

Like a hallucination immediately dispersing, Lucien had swiftly opened his eyes.

"Yup, let's go!"

His sudden enthusiasm startled the other person, but it didn't deter him from his boss's orders, so he went on his way leading Lucien to the cafeteria.

"Today's lunch is pickled radish with sweet and sour braised fish."

"Oh and—"

The man pulled out a small and fluffy round sponge cake wrapped in sealed plastic.

"My boss wanted to give this to you, as a dessert."

Oh....

Lucien graciously took the sponge cake from his hands and grabbed a metal tray to line up in the que.

To think that i would almost forget that.... Well I feel uneasy thinking about it.... Why don't I just work all day so I wouldn't see him around? It's like I'm killing two birds with one stone. Perfect!

Lucien had once again proved himself to be the king of the apocalypse, well not physically nor resourcefully, but quite brainy as he himself has proclaimed.

Once he had eaten his fill, he went to the south exit to peek through the windows, and saw multiple men and women training with daggers, nunchucks, bats, and other close-ranged weapons against each other.

Since the base's leader wanted to train them in almost real situations, he had ordered them to spar with each other instead of those unresponsive wooden dummies.

Feeling quite excited, Lucien pushed open the doors and stepped outside to breathe the scent of the "fresh" apocalyptic air.

But when he opened his eyes again, wanting to come over and join them in training, he saw a recognizable tall figure in the distance.

It was Grey, he was training with the buffest man in the squad using only brass knuckles while his opponent handled a bat. 

It was an unfair match at first glance, but as the fight continued, the other guy had slowly lost some energy hence he had become sluggish in his attacks while Grey continued dodging in the same pace, while sneaking in a few successful punches on the side.

Seeing this, Lucien's face showed that of admiration. It was almost like he could see Grey's character, KillSwitch, in the real life him so the two figures almost blended together in his mind.

It's like... I'm back in the old times again.

"Ah! No!" Lucien slapped himself in the face.

We have to avoid him, remember?! It's your duty from the first place so don't yield so easily! You got this!

With his spirits in high again, Lucien walked back inside the base without turning his back once.

But once he did, Grey had stopped sparring with his partner by essentially beating him in one punch and ending the match.

It was almost as if he wanted to prolong the match so Lucien could approve of him.

Grey stood there, silently looking at his back with a deep thought.

Inside the cafeteria, Lucien spotted one of the canteen servers walk out of the glass barrier and walked towards one of the hallways.

Target spotted!

Without a second thought, Lucien quickly walked up to one of the servers and asked if he could substitute as a volunteer worker for the time being since he "couldn't" work in his assigned station for now.

The canteen server, without thinking much of it allowed him inside and gave him the standard uniform that they usually wore to maintain health protocols inside the serving area and the kitchen.

"You'll be serving the pickled radish for now."

She said briefly before returning back to her station.

Lucien tightened his apron and put on one of the disposable white masks, he was eager to get to work like it's the reason why he wakes up in the morning.

Since lunch time was coming to an end, not a lot of people were left in the cafeteria and it was mainly people who got to lunch late due to their hectic work.

It was the people fighting the zombies outside those concrete walls.

Lucien saw their bloodied uniforms and a slight smell of stale, putrid fish, most likely the stench of decaying corpses.

Just thinking about it made his skin crawl. 

But he had to put up an iron poker face, so the soldiers wouldn't think that he were disgusted with them when he really was terrified of the unsettling zombies outside.

One by one, they qued up in line and received their meal and ate together in the white lined rows of benches.

The doors to his left suddenly opened, and Lucien saw the sweaty and slightly bruised up people coming from the south exit.

It was the people sparring from earlier, and him.

Lucien actually wanted to hide under the serving counter but he was already beaten to the chase when one of the people from Grey's group had come to get some pickled radish.

He of course couldn't turn them down anymore and instead just served them anxiously while secretly waiting for Grey's turn.

When Lucien glimpsed to his left and saw Grey getting his tray of braised fish he subconsciously ducked his head and looked as if he was bracing for impact.

But when he looked up after calculating in his head when Grey would come he was surprised to see that he wasn't in the que but instead with his squad and eating together with them.

"Huh...?"

He didn't come?

Lucien couldn't accurately pinpoint why even if he felt a deep relief and dropped his shoulders in relaxation, he still felt a bit disappointed not seeing him there.

It was a subconscious feeling but he also couldn't control himself from sneaking glances at him when he wasn't looking in his direction.

Why is it... That I'm acting like this? Like a forgotten child that secretly wants just one look of attention while desperately wanting you to look at me... This feeling of being ignored feels so painful...

Lucien couldn't contain his inner thoughts from crumbling his previous resolve, it was just too powerful to restrain and his emotions even added more fuel to the fire.

More incomprehensible feelings started to pop up the more time he spent with Grey, and he wished he could gain even one drop of clarity.