Bonding Time

"So, what happened on the trip yesterday?", Sabrina asked while moving her spoon in a circular motion in her cup with the intention of assisting the flavour of the teabag to seep quicker into her drink, because she really wanted some tea.

She had woken up early today and assisted with the preparation of breakfast before Riley and Archer left to gather supplies for Cody's birthday.

She really wanted to go out but had to wait until tomorrow. Also, she enjoyed Cody's company. His cheery nature and the constant smile on his face helped her forget about all the bad things that were happening above, in the world. It made her wonder how strong this boy was, how he still managed to be this optimistic little ray of sunshine and lift everyone else's spirits. After Riley telling her that they were from an orphanage, she couldn't help but feel that Cody was the least to deserve that.

He was an angel.

"Not much. We just walked a mile east from here and found this lonely cabin at the side of a dirt road. It would have looked pretty cozy if not for the broken windows and chipped paint job. The house looked like it had been robbed but it was still so full of things. Guess no one raided the house since Vision's guys took everyone back to the camps."

"Right, the camps. Do you know why he's taking people there?", she grit her teeth.

"On a different raid, we overheard some of his lackeys talking about some code. They're taking all people in to try and crack it. I don't know what code they were talking about though," Cody answered stabbing his fork into his pancake.

He wasn't frustrated or anything, he just put too much syrup on it so it was slipping off his fork. Sabrina smiled at him. He reminded her of Jason when they were younger. He always tried to make everyone laugh and he succeeded. It was difficult for anyone to not like Jason. She still wondered what happened during that fight and what happened to him after.

Where did you go Jason?

"You good there, Lia?", Cody asked his friend, worry seeping into his tone.

She smiled at him and took a sip of her tea, "Yeah, just thinking of something."

"Like what? If you don't mind me asking."

She put her cup down on the kitchen counter and looked at him. She couldn't hide things from those curious eyes. She felt bad for lying to him. She didn't want him to feel betrayed once he found out.

"You just remind me of my brother."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

An awkward silence ensued. Neither of them knew how to break it without bringing up painful memories. Cody didn't want to bring up the fact that Sabrina lost her family and Sabrina didn't want to bring up the fact that Cody didn't have one to begin with.

Unable to take the quiet much longer and the blank expression on the blonde's face, she stood up straight and turned. Her elbow knocked over the long forgotten cup of juice that she poured the day before.

The contents spilled all over on the counter and the floor but narrowly missed her clothes as she jumped out of the way with a yelp.

Cody, being the person he is, instantly lit up and started laughing at her misfortune, nearly dropping his plate that was now devoid of any pancakes.

She soon joined in and all the tension in the room had vanished.

"And here I thought that I was the clumsy one," Cody teased with a smile.

"I swear this normally doesn't happen," Sabrina shot back with her wide eyes looking at the mess she made.

He walked over to a draw near a microwave and opened it. He pulled out a cloth and walked to the sink to wet it, before wringing it so that water didn't drip from it and threw the damp cloth to Sabrina who caught it with her right hand.

She began wiping up the juice trail from where it fell to the floor in order to stop more from following the trail and then proceeded to wipe the floor.

"I'm sure, it doesn't," Cody said sarcastically as he propped his head on the palm of his hand while his elbow and the other arm rested on the dry part of the counter.

She rolled her eyes and continued cleaning up the mess and then started on the countertop.

A less awkward and more comfortable silence settled before Cody started humming a tune.

"You seem to like that song. What is it?", Sabrina inquired while walking to the sink to rinse out the cloth.

"It's nothing. Just something Riley used to sing to me when I was younger. It makes me happy and calms me down," he explained looking up at the ceiling as if reminiscing something.

Sabrina nodded slowly and made her way to the couch, patting the seat next to her for Cody. He smiled and accepted the invitation. They soon began chatting and getting to know each other more. They also found out that they had a lot in common, both being science and technology-loving nerds.

"Wait, so you reprogrammed the computers of all the bullies to autofill their essays with utter nonsense right before they turned it in?", Sabrina asked in disbelief. She was on the verge of bursting out in hysterical laughter because why had she never thought of that when she dealt with bullies?

"Yup. I enjoyed looking at the score sheet at the end of the terms," Cody bragged, crossing his arms behind his head and putting his legs on the little table there. Unfortunately that attempt failed as his legs were too short and were unable to reach the table. He tried playing it off by just crossing them as well but it wasn't very smooth which made them both giggle.

Sabrina then decided that she loved hanging out with Cody and would make sure nothing happened to this precious bean of hers.

He is officially my little brother.

Their laughter was cut short by the telltale sound of the vending machine opening. An exasperated pair of teens walked in sloppily and threw four sacks to the corner of the room before tossing themselves onto a seat, each.

"Are you guys okay? What happened out there?", Cody asked worriedly. Sabrina got up to retrieve two bottles of water for her friends. She noticed that they both had their weapons in full view, which she found strange as they usually concealed them to avoid starting conflict with other parties.

"We're fine. Sentries," Archer panted.

"Sentries," Riley agreed.

"Where about?", Sabrina questioned handing the bottles to the exhausted pair. They took it gratefully, nodding their thanks. "Not close to here but they were on our usual route," Archer explained as he and Riley both opened their bottles.

Sabrina sat back down next to Cody, watching him looking at them patiently with his eyebrows pinched in worry.

Archer and Riley chugged down the liquid as if they had never known what relief it offered. Once they were done, they capped the bottles and laid it on the table.

Due to this action, Cody caught a glimpse of red trailing down Archer's hand and a long, dark patch stretching across the sleeve that covered his left forearm.

"You're hurt," he said.

Archer winced. He probably didn't want him to know but well, the cat was now out of the bag.

"Yeah. A bullet. It.. uh grazed me. But it's fine," he said in a poor effort to console the smaller male and leaned his back against the chair.

"Let me see it. Riley, could you please get me some disinfectant and some bandages?", Cody said, his tone serious. It's something Sabrina has never heard before, and to be honest it caught her way off guard.

Archer didn't dare refuse Cody and rolled his sleeve up, not meeting anyone's eyes. They all could hear Riley stifling a laugh from somewhere.

Sabrina watched with wide eyes as the blonde boy walked over to Archer and took his arm in his hands, inspecting the wound with that rare seriousness and utmost concentration on his face.

"This is still pretty deep, but you should be fine. After I dress this, you two need to tell us what went on during your raid," he lectured while taking the various supplies from Riley who had just gotten back.

He began to disinfect the wound gently, but it still stung. Archer hissed in pain but tried his hardest not to move.

Sabrina looked at Riley, her expression full of shock while Riley just looked amused.

Cody began wrapping the bandage tight enough to help stop the bleeding before he snipped the end and secured it with medical tape. He picked up the supplies and went to put it away but not before before he called out, "Be sure to change that bloody shirt of yours."

Sabrina looked at Archer's face. She didn't know whether he was embarrassed or actually scared of the younger boy. She smirked at him when he looked up at her.

"What do you want, Lia?", he seethed

"Never seen you shut up and listen to someone else like that without any protest."

"Shut up."

He got up to change his shirt while Riley sat in his place and the two girls began chatting.

"What did you and Cody do today? Was everything okay? Was he okay? Is he suspicious?"

"Okay. Wait. Calm yourself. Breathe. We didn't do much, just hung around and talked. Turns out, we're both geeks. Everything was fine. Great, actually. Yes, he was okay. No, I don't think he knows about the plans. Does that cover it?"

"Yes."

Sabrina chuckled and said boy entered the room with Archer following close behind him. He now had a white, short-sleeved shirt on. Sabrina noted that he was quite fit by looking at his muscles and then quickly looked away.

He didn't seem to notice and they took their seats: Cody next to Sabrina and Archer next to Riley.

Cody waved his hand, signaling them to start talking and they obliged.

"We were using the usual route but went further than that cabin that you guys visited yesterday," Riley began. "Everything was going good. We found this little shop with some cool things like fancy knives and stuff and some other weapons which we gladly took. We didn't take that much though, because we didn't want to, like, y'know, make our bags heavy and stuff. So anyways, we kept walking and found some supplies and food items, as well as some other luxuries, like deodorant. We also got more bandages and band-aids."

Archer rolled his eyes at the long story but didn't interrupt while Cody and Sabrina listened intently.

"We filled our bags and headed out and on the way back, like just before the cabin, we heard multiple weird humming noises so we hid behind this little thing. I don't know what it was but it was there so we hid behind it."

"It was a dumpster. A weird looking dumpster," Archer supplied.

"Thank you for that. So we hid behind the dumpster and peeked around it and there were around six sentries just standing around the cabin!"

"Six?", Sabrina repeated.

"Yes. Six," Riley confirmed.

"Why would six sentries be looking around an abandoned cabin?", Cody asked.

Archer shrugged, "Don't know, but these weren't normal sentries. They seemed more advanced. We tried to sneak out way around them like we usually do, but they picked up on us right away and began attacking. We managed to get away, as you can see, but it was really difficult. We had to hide out in the woods until they went away. They were too big to fit between the trees and not get tangled in the vines. Well, one did. Don't know what happened to it after but it managed to nick me as we were getting away."

"We had to leave one bag behind, Archer couldn't carry it with his arm. It was the one with the weapons."

"It's okay, as long as you guys are safe. We can pick it up tomorrow," Cody supplied.

Sabrina, Archer and Riley shared a glance.

"Actually, I was thinking that you could stay back and take care of Archie, while I take Lia out on her first raid-"

"I've been on a raid before," Sabrina interjected.

"- I mean like, with us."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Oh okay," Cody said looking slightly disappointed. Archer saw this and walked towards him and nudged him with his shoulder.

"Surely I'm not that bad company, am I, buddy?", he said jokingly.

Cody smiled up at him.

"Nah."