Chapter Text
Five stuck the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she focused on putting the finishing touches on the large sheet cake she was icing. With an improvised pipette made from a Ziploc bag and a pen cap, Five had been doing her best to create the suggestions of spiraling pink vines and flowers with heart-shaped petals across the white frosting. And while it was certainly apparent at which corner she had begun, she was starting to be proud of the way it looked, even as she tried to hurry. She’d promised to meet Sam after she finished her turn in the kitchens for the day, and her eagerness to see him was fighting a spirited battle against her perfectionism.
With a final drag of frosting, Five finished the last coil and set aside the bag, evaluating her work. The cake covered half the table, and was the kitchens’ small way of celebrating Valentine’s Day in this post-apocalyptic world. They’d be serving it with dinner tomorrow, on the day, but the icing needed to set before it could be cut, so it had been prepared the day before. Five smiled and nodded once at the completed cake. It wasn’t perfect, but it was festive. Cute, even. She wished there were enough resources for individual pastries, or even just cupcakes. She’d love to be able to decorate one specifically for—
“Ah, now that looks just wonderful, Runner Five.”
The familiar dreamy voice cut Five’s thoughts, firmly in her head but as clear as if the speaker had been standing at Five’s shoulder. Five stiffened as if she’d been punched in the gut, gripping the edge of the table in front of her tightly enough her knuckles turned white.
Moonchild.
And of course, she was still talking.
“What a fitting tribute to Mother Gaia for such a lovely festival. I’m sure you remember this is all based on the feast of Lupercalia, don’t you, Five? We had such a lovely conversation about pagan rituals when we were—”
“SHUT UP!!!” Five yelled suddenly, flinging the icing bag down into the sink as hard as she could. Its quiet plop on the metal was so unsatisfying Five unconsciously cast about for something else to throw or break or kick – just anything to shut up the voice—
“Ah, don’t be rude, Five! We’re such good friends, you and I.” Moonchild crooned. Suppressing a scream of frustration, Five turned and fled from the kitchen, pressing the heels of her hands to her temples as if she could squeeze away the auditory hallucination.
“Just stop it!! Go away, leave me alone!!” Five chanted under her breath, trying desperately not to listen. In her agitation she nearly ran straight into the man who had been walking towards the cafeteria—an impressive feat, given the bright orange hoodie he was wearing.
“Five?” Sam asked, immediately alarmed at the expression on Five’s face.
“Sam!” Five cried, stumbling forward to hug him, burying her face into his chest. Sam draped a protective arm across her back, instinctively looking around for whatever might be distressing his runner.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with concern. “Is someone hurt? What’s going on?”
He felt Five shake her head against him, felt her shoulders rise and fall as she took a steadying breath. She released him and took a step back, eyebrows still drawn together in deep frustration.
“No, everything’s fine, I’m sorry. I just—I heard her again, Sam,” Five replied. “Moonchild. In my head. I can’t even decorate a damn cake without hearing her, Sam!” Five’s voice was getting higher, the words tumbling out faster and faster, her fists clenched at her sides. “I can’t even live my life without having to constantly drown out some psycho—”
“Five, Five, it’s okay,” Sam soothed, settling his hands on Five’s small shoulders as if to physically ground her. “Hey, look at me, yeah? Just listen to me instead.”
Five stared up at Sam, searching the kind face, seeing both concern and confidence in his warm brown eyes. She nodded slowly, willing her brow to unfurl and her heart rate to go down.
“Oh you think you can just ignore me, Five?” Moonchild’s voice was mocking, cruel in its feigned casualness. Five screwed her eyes shut again, and she could feel Sam squeeze her shoulders gently. After a moment, she felt him turn her slightly and she opened her eyes again.
“Come on, Five,” Sam said. “I’ve got an idea how we can drown the hippie out.” He started to lead Five towards the quad near the comms shack where people tended to gather in the evenings. “On the way, why don’t you tell me about your day? I mean, you’ve still got some frosting on your arm, there, so I can guess which rotation you’ve been on…”
Five pushed away from the continued muttering in her head, imagining the words bouncing away without even being understood in favor of answering Sam’s question. As she finished, and Sam started recapping the day’s missions in that immensely reassuring voice she loved so much, Moonchild’s voice did sound quieter, more distant. But was still there—Moonchild didn’t half go on.
Sam kept the conversation going as he and Five walked together towards the distant sounds of chatter, crackling flames, and soft guitar strings. Sam sighed with secret relief; he’d been banking on the fact that on most chilly nights like this one of the several musically-inclined residents of Abel would strum along by the bonfire. It was one of the things he loved the most about this township – no matter what was going on outside the walls, little flames of life persisted.
And everything was going his way, because as they entered the common area, he spotted a few scattered couples dancing gently together in the falling twilight to a slow acoustic ballad. Five had made a companionable space between them as they walked, so Sam reached out again for her hand.
“May I have this dance?” he asked, giving Five his cheesiest grin. She looked up in surprise, and the cheerful gleam in his eyes was enough to spark something else in her chest – something more tender than the helpless rage that had been spinning through it before. Glancing around them and finding nobody watching, Five nodded bashfully, although she hesitated when she actually reached out for his shoulder.
“We used to dance, you know?” Moonchild hissed at the back of Five’s mind, and she stepped back from Sam, panic sweeping through Five’s entire body. She jerked her hands back.
“Sam, are you sure—I mean, she’s here right now, still…What if she tries to get me to do something?”
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Sam said, taking and placing Five’s hand onto his shoulder and pulling her in closer. “But maybe just try to focus on dancing? For me.”
Five nodded and closed her eyes for a moment, letting Sam guide them both into a simple, swaying kind of movement. The guitarist had shifted into a slower song, one that was at once melancholy and sweet. A female singer with a beautifully breathy voice joined in, singing of olive branches and Babylon over the merry snaps and pops of the fire. And although Five was listening hard, that and the sound of her and Sam’s footsteps on soft earth were all she could hear. Sam could feel the tension in her shoulders but kept up the dance anyway, urging her in slow circles around the fringes of the quad. By the time the song had ended, the line between her eyebrows had eased, and she seemed to be stepping more on the beat, as if she had finally been able to tune in to the song.
Five looked up at Sam again with a cautious smile. She’d caught him staring at her, which make her chuckle slightly. An immensely relieved smile spread across his face, and he raised one of Five’s hands to draw her into a twirl. Five obliged with a determined enthusiasm, spinning tight and fast enough on the ball or her foot to get her hair to whip around her as she turned back to Sam. The music had changed again, picking up into something faster and more cheerful, and there were even a few muted claps on the downbeat.
Smiling widely now, Five stepped back to Sam in time, and the couple began to dance in earnest. They drifted closer to the bonfire, joining the small crowd of people stepping or bobbing with various degrees of skill and enthusiasm. As Five giggled through pulling Sam into a clumsy spin of his own—he was so much taller than her that she had to let go of his hand for just a moment or smack him in the face—she realized that in the midst of the noise, her own mind had gone quiet.
Whatever it was Moonchild had been doing, it seemed to be at an end for now. Warmth spread through Five’s chest as she realized that Sam had quite literally danced her through…well, whatever that was. She looked up at him again, adoring the way his cheeks had grown slightly flushed from the proximity to the fire and the chill night air. Sensing her watching him, Sam looked down at her and laughed before pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head and sending Five out for another spin. Maybe it wasn’t quite Valentine’s Day yet, but it didn’t matter to Sam and Five. They danced tenderly together, lost in each other, until darkness fell and the gathering drifted home for the night.