Chapter Text
Niko stared at the ceiling in the dark.
Thinking about Moss.
Why was he so kind to him.
Why didn't he just outright kill him while he was unconscious, A painless death would have been a great kindness to him.
What must Moss be thinking about right now.
What's going on in his mind.
The questions floated in his mind like the smell of poop that you can't get off your fingers after you put them up your ass A metaphor that's appropriate for this situation.
He didn't know why.
But the thought of it brought warmth to him.
The thought of Moss taking care of him.
Reassuring him.
Holding him close.
Petting his head.
And um-
He should really get some sleep.
He tried to adjust his position but his hands were still bound.
He managed to scoot the pillow closer to his side and push his body against it.
With enough attrition he slipped the blankets over his head.
Niko closed his eyes.
It's funny.
He was always taught to fear demons.
That they were monsters that got off on hurting people.
But really they're just people like him.
The only person to treat him as a person was from the one he least expected it from.
He got what he wanted too.
Somewhere warm to sleep.
Food he could eat.
No one yelled at him or called him slurs.
Or tried find excuses to kill him or get him executed.
Things got really bad during the last days he was there.
Worse moral got due to a lack of communications and panic from higher up the worse people used him as an emotional punching bag.
The legal process for a court martial or execution is long and complex due to the high amount of suicides and deserters in the military.
So the fact that so many resources were wasted on giving him a "discharge" wasn't extremely surprising but even old shitty cars and small amounts of gasoline matter.
Cars had all mandated to be left off when the driver exited the vehicle to conserve gasoline.
He heard some units started being forced to use horses.
Thank god he wasn't there anymore.
He was or at least felt safe.
He held himself close to the pillow and felt warmth spreading around his body.
Niko slowly closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Moss looked to the alarm clock on his right.
It read: 2:43 AM.
He adjusted his sleeping position. Despite staying up far later than usual due to his "unexpected guest" he still could not sleep.
He played around in his mind for a while.
Thinking about everything.
What was the chance of Niko finding this bunker.
What kind of moron would decide first thing to do upon finding a military establishment was to lay down and assume no one was there.
He really shouldn't have done that to Niko.
The fact that Niko will even talk to him is somewhat of a kindness he has given.
Still himself is in control here.
He needs to figure out what to do here.
Can Niko just stay here?
He doesn't have any problem with it.
Gets fucking lonely doing the same thing in the cold everyday.
Niko is somewhat of a prisoner of war.
Though there isn't much law left in the world at this point.
Also he isn't checked up on much.
He has somewhat of a "Honorary Position" he's been with the AUR long enough past that he can get away with taking a support position.
And honestly who knows how much longer the world will be able to last in this state.
Things are alright right now and he should be happy about that.
What will he do with Niko tomorrow though.
That's a nice thought.
Moss closed his eyes and drifted to sleep as well.
Awaking he heard the alarm clock make that same annoying noise.
He shut it up and laid there a bit longer.
But it was happening now.
They came for Niko.
There was nothing he could do.
Tied up with no weapon.
They were behind him.
With a gun to his head.
Niko heard the monologue recited in front of him by an individual with no face.
He would pay for his actions.
He deserved this.
And no one was coming to save him.
He felt the cold snow on his knees.
The sound of the judge speaking.
The cold metal pressed against the back of his head and the breathing of the executioner.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Oh who am I kidding no one wants to hear you voice."
"Fuck off to hell Niko."
"Niko"
"Niko"
"Niko?"
"Niko are you alright? Your sweating profusely."
It was Moss.
"Moss?"
"Oh god I- I-"
"Niko are you okay?"
Niko hugged Moss as hard as he could.
He also just realized his arms were no longer bound.
Moss didn't know why Niko was hugging him but he must have needed it.
He gently put his arms around him.
Niko started quietly sobbing.
"Its okay Niko. I won't do anything."
"Did something happen?"
Niko started crying harder.
"Thank you." Niko quietly whimpered to Moss.
Niko stood there like that hugging Moss and crying for a minute or two.
After Niko started collecting himself he regained the ability to think properly.
"I had a dream" Niko said.
"There was a gun pointed to my head."
"And there was a person there reading my sins to me."
"They wanted to kill me Moss."
"In the dream they were going to but."
"They really did want to."
"They wanted me gone so much they wasted resources just so they could abandon me in the middle of nowhere. Hoping I would die."
"They probably think I'm dead already."
"I would have been if not for you."
Niko hugged Moss a little harder then sat down.
Niko started to calm down.
Thank you Moss.
I'm sorry I got tears on your uniform.
"Its fine Niko."
"Are you okay?"
Niko was still sniffling but was feeling much better.
"I'm feeling better now, th- thanks Moss."
Moss looks around then at the clock.
"Niko are you hungry? Do you need any water or something?"
"I'm kind of thirsty." Niko said.
"Come on Niko let me show you the pantry." Moss said as he stood up.
Niko got up and followed Moss on his way to the pantry.
"Here Niko you can get water from this tap its connected to the plumbing."
"Where does the um— Water— um Come from?" Niko asked raising his finger with a confused look.
Moss pours some water into a cup and takes a long sip.
"Ah" Moss makes a refreshed noise after drinking the water.
"We aren't going to talk about that."
"Ummm— why not?"
"Because it would take me a long time to explain the full ramifications of where the water comes from and I don't want to give you too much else to think about right now."
Niko decided to listen to Moss and not think to hard about it.
"Niko I have some work I need to do, as boring as it does get around here and as much idle time as I get there is still some work to do." Said Moss.
"I guess you can do whatever for now until I decide what to do with you."
Moss's wording concerned Niko "What do do with him" Moss wouldn't give up Niko would he?
"Well uh."
"Have fun I guess Niko."
Niko looked slightly sad.
"W- Wait can I come with you?"
"Really?"
"I wouldn't think you'd want to honestly."
Moss showed Niko the communications equipment room.
"So uh."
"Let me give you the tour I guess." Moss said.
"So these are the cables that connect to the satellite dish outside." Said Moss.
Niko interrupted.
"There's a satellite dish outside? I didn't see one."
"Well its more of a rectangle kinda shape."
"it doesn't stick out that much."
"And this is the computer that the programs and stuff run on."
"Well. Any modern desktop computer runs programs."
"But the weather software and stuff runs on here."
Moss reaches his hand to the power button and turns on the machine.
The Hard Disk makes a whirring noise as it spins up and the system read the boot loader file.
The screen displays a background showing an image of the landscape surrounding the outpost.
Snowy hills raise like trigonometric functions over the white ground.
Moss opens a console on the desktop, it lays in the center of the screen and takes up a large portion of screen space.
He opens the weather application.
The blizzard has mostly calmed down but its not completely finished yet.
Niko watches from a corner in the room.
Moss looks at the diagnostic information does nothing with it and decides that the weather is fine, nothing looks amiss everything is normal.
Well that was boring.
"Okay Niko the weather stuff is finished I have other things to do today but that can be put off for later."
"You seemed awfully interested in my books earlier do you want to look at them again?"
"Umm. If its okay with you." Niko said.
"Alright."
"Come on then."
Moss opens the door out of the mess of cables and into something actually interesting.
Niko approaches the bookshelf once more with Moss beside him.
Niko looks shy at the books on the shelf and looks at Moss non verbally asking if he may touch them.
Moss gestures for him to go ahead.
Niko looks at the book on Linux and BSD systems once again.
The cover is minimalist, with a yellow tainted shade of white.
Flipping through the book Niko finds nothing of interest.
The novel with the two boys winks at Niko as he looks through the bookshelf.
He bends down to look at some of the books on military strategy on the lower shelf.
There's only one that he's really interested in at the moment.
Niko looks at the book on electrictiy but he's still drawn to the romance novel.
He decides just to take a little look at it.
He glances at Moss whom returns a gesture to go ahead with whatever he's planning on doing.
He timidly puts his hand over the novel and slides it out of the book case.
He inspects the cover. He feels an odd yet pleasurable effect in his stomach.
Then he looks at Moss and feels it again but stronger.
Niko blushes then puts his hand to his face to cover his expression.
"f- fuck"
"You okay Niko?" Moss asks looking concerned.
"Yeah I- I'm fine I just need to use the bathroom."
Niko runs to the bathroom.
Wait.
Where is it.
Niko couldn't ask again. He couldn't talk to Moss again he just couldn't.
Niko decideds to open the first door on his left.
Inside is a room with a bed fit for one maybe two people if they got close, a nightstand, and a large oppressive light fixture.
Niko figured it must have been Moss's bedroom and closed the door. How rude of him was it to intrude on Moss's space like that.
Niko closed the door and checked the other door on the right.
Opening it, it was the bathroom and thank god it was because he could not talk to Moss again looking like that.
Niko went inside and locked the door.
Looking in the mirror his face was extremely red.
"Oh fuck oh no."
"I don't like Moss do I?" Niko thought to himself.
"No I- I can't."
"What would Moss think of me."
"Surely he would kick me out of the bunker."
"He would hate me."
Niko started sobbing again.
He made sure to try and be quiet not to make any noise to attract Moss.
"Why am I like this."
"Why am I so broken and malfunctional"
"Why can't I just be normal."
Niko sensed Moss's presence outside the door.
This can't be good.
"Hey Niko?"
"If you want to talk about something."
"I promise I won't judge you."
Moss's words were reassuring but Niko still didn't completly beleive him.
"Y- You promise?"
"Promise."
"O- Okay."
Niko opened the bathroom door. Moss looked at him concerned.
Moss wasn't sure what to say so he just stayed silent while trying to interpret Niko's expression.
Niko left the bathroom but still couldn't make eye contact with Moss.
Niko didn't really have anywhere to retreat to so he just went to the living area.
Moss didn't follow him and stayed behind while he processed Niko's actions.
What could cause Niko to do that?
Moss thought about it for a second.
"Does he like me?"
He would need to be more sure of such an assumption before he could act on it.
Moss went to the living area to attempt to revert Niko's mental state to what it was before this.
"You alright Niko?"
"Yeah I'm uh f- fine."
"You can read that book you know."
"I won't judge you for it."
"It's mine after all not like you need to hide it or something."
"Its not that I have to hide it." Said Niko.
"Its that you don't have to."
"I spent so long trying to hide who I was from them."
"Even then it wasn't enough."
"They were still going to find out eventually."
"Do you know how that feels?"
Niko started sobbing for the third time today.
"I can't even be who I am."
"My fucking existence is some kind of threat for some reason." Niko cried to Moss.
Niko pulled his body closer to him for comfort.
Moss wrapped his hands around Niko's body.
He laid his head against Moss's shoulder.
Niko looked up at Moss's eyes. The desperation and sadness in them was apparent.
Moss looked at his expression and held him tighter.
Moss slowly ran his hand through Niko's hair to comfort him.
Niko's sobbing had been reduced to whimpering.
"Its alright Niko."
"I won't let go."
Niko stayed against Moss feeling the cloth and nylon his uniform was made against his face.
After a while Niko let go of Moss.
"Do you want to lay down for a while to regain your composure?"
"Yeah. That would be nice."
Niko followed Moss to his room and laid down in his bed.
"Here Niko. Lay down."
"You can rest for as long as you want."
Niko held out his hands for Moss to tie him up again.
"Don't worry about that."
"If I thought you were a genuine threat at this point I would have just locked you in a room and kept you tied to a wall or something."
Niko laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.
"Do you want the light off Niko?"
"Y- Yes please."
Moss turned out the light.
"I'll be here if you need anything, okay Niko?"
"Okay."
Moss left the room and closed the door. He had some more work he need to do.
Niko slowly drifted to sleep thinking about Moss.
Hours later Niko woke back up.
He didn't know where Moss was.
Stumbling to try and find the light he tripped and feel.
"A- Ah shit."
Picking himself back up he found the light switch.
Niko adjusted himself and opened the door.
Checking the living area Moss wasn't there.
Niko checked the kitchen to find Moss doing the dishes.
"Oh you're awake."
"Good I was about to go to sleep."
"W- What time is it?"
"It's 9PM."
"Oh."
"I'm about done here so I'm going to be going to sleep now."
"If you want to use my bed tonight I suppose I can sleep on the couch."
"Well I d- don't want to take your bed."
"Don't feel bad about it, it's fine."
"Can we um."
"Could we maybe."
"B- Both sleep in the bed?"
Moss turned out the light and got into bed with Niko.
There wasn't much room so Niko laid against Moss in bed.
It was a good thing it was dark because Niko was blushing extremely hard.
It was unfortunate for him that demons have exceptional night vision.