Work Text:
In todays afternoon chores, Meagon and Rotation were out scavenging while Mike and Grayleigh were at home trying to cook and tidy the place. Mike's work was done already, so he decided to look for Grayleigh. After he took a look at all of their rooms, he went to the roof and saw Grayleigh sitting there at the edge of the roof, leaned to the stone that was next to her. Mike slowly walked towards her.
"Hey, guess we both got our job done faster than the scavengers, huh?" he joked.
Gray got startled and turned around, then relaxed as she saw Mike and let out a little nervous chuckle before started talking:
"Yeah, let's go, Capitol, right!..."
Her voice was weak; it was nowhere near her usual voice that felt like a glimpse of joy, Mike thought. As he turned his head sideways to look at her face, he saw little tears that shined in the light that came from the dimming sun.
Mike immediately sat down.
"Hey, are you okay? Why are you crying!?" he asked, concerned.
Grayleigh took a moment to get what he was talking about and then quickly wiped her tears.
"Oh, it's nothing. I mean, I didn't even realize I was crying, but like, c'mon, you have seen me cry when we lost that cheer competition, too, you remember right? I mean, uhm, no need for worry!"
She spoke in a happy voice as much as she could, but Mike didn't buy it.
"Dude, I know, but it's not the same, and you know too... You don't have to, but you can tell me what's wrong, okay?"
Grayleigh looked at Mike, and slowly showed him her bitten arm that was aching like hell.
Mike let out a sad sigh.
"Oh... does it really hurt?"
Gray looked at her, trying to hold her tears back again.
"It hurts, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger every day, and... it's beginning to turn a weird green," she said with a little sniffle.
Mike felt his heart sink. He looked at Grayleigh and put his hand softly onto her hand, looking into her eyes with a mix of soft sorrow and determination.
"It's gonna be okay, Grayleigh, trust me... I'm going to save you and Rotation both from this, okay, I promise..."
Gray lightly squeezed Mike's hand.
"I'm so scared, Mike..." she spoke without lifting her eyes from their hands.
Mike squeezed back.
"Me too... but it's gonna be fine. You trust me, right?"
Grayleigh lifted her head to look at Mike in the eyes and nodded.
"Yeah... I do."