The New Home

By the time all the unpacking was done, the sun was beginning to set outside.

Elliot informed Asher that the upstairs had three bedrooms—one of them belonging to the house's owner—but none of them had ventured upstairs to claim a room just yet. A lot of time was spent fitting all the cold foods into the fridge or the freezer in the cabin's rustic and spacious kitchen, as well as placing all the firearms and overstuffed backpacks across the largest couch in the living room.

After tossing the final bag onto the couch, Asher straightened up, gazing out the tall windows along the far wall, where the glow of the sunset shone inside, and the sun sank behind the treetops on the horizon, the tallest few buildings in the heart of the city just barely within eyeshot beyond the woodlands, sparkling in the dim orange shine.

Asher sauntered over to the right, where a sliding glass door led out to the corner of the expansive balcony that overlooked the landscape outside. He slid it open, stepped out, and meandered across the wooden deck, a gentle breeze gusting by as he reached the balcony's edge and leaned on it, gazing over the acres of terrain below him, a scene as peaceful as could be.

In fact, here and now, he was certain he felt more at peace than he ever had.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so at ease before now. Each time he looked upon the now vacant Knoxville, and especially here, gazing upon it all from farther away, in a rural and isolated stretch, tucked in a hidden nook of woodlands—he couldn't help but feel a sense of calm joy, which he wasn't sure he could even describe.

He'd spent a long time festering a growing resentment toward everyone else in the city—from the people at his work to the ones in his complex, and even everyone else outside of the two. It was one thing to butt heads with coworkers or neighbors, but quite honestly, his animosity toward people didn't stop there.

At bars and restaurants, on TV and online—everyone everywhere, for as long as he could remember now, was mostly and inherently negative.

He didn't understand it, didn't even know how to describe it—but it seemed as if he'd never seen anyone be basically decent for the majority of his adult life. The people at his work, the neighbors at the complex, the random folks in traffic, and everyone on all the forms of media he'd ever seen—it seemed as if all of them were simply mean and angry, as if no one had anything to them aside from their most primal and self-centered instincts, as if all of them were selfish and thoughtless down to their cores, regardless of what they were talking about or what goals they might've been aiming for.

He couldn't know if this was just human nature, or if something was deeply, terribly wrong with everyone around him—but he knew for certain he'd hated them all for it for nearly fifteen years.

After all, it was difficult enough to find a reason to live when his job was unimportant and he had no people to look after—and everyone in the world being so cold and selfish certainly didn't make him feel as if anything outside of him mattered. From where he stood, it seemed as if all people were too damaged and rotten to be worth a damn, and they were too wrapped up in themselves to ever fix any of it. In fact, he might've fallen into the very same category, but it didn't matter now.

No—now, everything in the world had changed, and he felt a great, cleansing relief now that all those people were gone.

It wasn't as if he wanted all of them to die—but having all of them disappear from Knoxville was, admittedly, a blessing for him.

Asher heard the glass door shift shut behind, and Olivia approached him, leaning on the balcony beside him and zipping up the black hoodie she'd taken from the supercenter, as the air was becoming the slightest bit chillier with the end of the day drawing near. She glanced up at him, then gazed into the scenery.

"I've got a weird question," Asher mumbled, his eyes still lost in the sunset.

Olivia glimpsed over at him again.

"How do you feel about everyone being gone?" he wondered, making a subtle nod toward the few visible buildings in the distance.

Olivia hesitated for a second, her eyes slowly wandering back to the trees, sighing deeply.

"Better," she said.

Asher turned and perked his brow at her.

Olivia stared into the steadily darkening sunset, looking distant now.

"Everyone's a question mark," she murmured. "And you have to keep your guard up around everyone… all the time. It's not good that a bunch of bad things happened… but, y'know… it's good that we don't have a bunch of question marks around us anymore."

Asher observed her, pondering on this and nodding mildly.

Elliot quietly pulled the sliding glass door open, eyeing them from behind and pausing in the doorway, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"I guess I'm not alone, then," Asher said with a faint laugh, watching as the sky began to darken into an easeful twilight. "That's good. I was wondering if I was a sociopath."

Olivia squinted at him questioningly.

Asher shrugged and made a sideways nod. "Well… I don't know if it's normal to be 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 about what's going on now. But, at the same time… I guess it makes sense. In my experience, most people are just rotten to the core, and they're so damn divisive about the most minor, basic things. I got tired of that a 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 time ago…"

"Yeah," Olivia agreed, folding her arms on the balcony and resting her chin atop them. "It feels like people don't actually care about anything anymore. Not for real. They just scream and yell about how much they care… and then they act like monsters…"

"Exactly," Asher affirmed.

"And when everybody doesn't care… it makes 𝘺𝘰𝘶 not care," Olivia mumbled. "I feel like me and you stopped caring a long time ago… because… nobody else cared, so why bother?"

"Ye'ap," Asher nodded, turning and narrowing his eyes at her. "Are you a mind-reader?"

Olivia met his eyes, flashing a wide smile. "Yeah, but don't tell anyone. Or I have to kill you."

"Okay. Good to know," Asher laughed. "I need an exit strategy."

Olivia giggled, then quickly fell silent, staring down and pondering on everything she'd deducted about him yesterday.

She was certain that, at some point shortly before meeting her, he'd been on the brink of ending his own life—and his little joke had just reminded her of that in full, making her laughs vanish and her smile morph into a grimace.

"I hope you don't go anywhere," she sighed. "You're the first decent person I think I've ever met in my life…"

Asher fell silent, turning and eyeing her, wondering if she'd feel the same way if she knew of everything he'd done.

But, seconds later, he realized she knew a lot of it already, and she didn't seem to think any less of him for it so far. No, more than anything, it seemed as if she simply got it, as if she just empathized with many of his troubles, leaving her no room to ever judge him for it, because she was often feeling the very same things.

"Well… I'm not going anywhere," Asher knew, gazing into the darkening sky. "I've got no reason to now."

Olivia smirked at him.

Elliot squinted interestingly at him from behind.

"Y'know what," Elliot decided to speak up, sauntering across the deck and propping his arm on the balcony on Asher's other side. "That's by design, y'know."

Asher and Olivia both turned, eyeing him strangely.

"Well… if there 𝘸𝘢𝘴 some big plan to weaken and demoralize the masses before enacting some population control… that's exactly how it would be done," Elliot explained, gesturing as he talked. "The slow removal of values from our society, replaced with vain ideals, like individualism, and self-worship, and doing whatever the hell you want without caring about consequences… that's how you weaken and scatter a population before a big final blow. The culture is steered toward degeneration more and more as time goes on. Traditional values… or 𝘢𝘯𝘺 values, really… they all go out the window, and then, everyone in society is just geared to serve themselves… because that's all they know how to do anymore."

Asher faced the twilight sky, sliding out his cigarettes and lighting one. Olivia, however, was staring into Elliot with intrigue, looking rather fascinated.

"And… y'know what else," Elliot added, gently nudging his elbow into Asher's arm. "I think there are people who know it's happening, even if they 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 know it. They can feel it… and they just can't stand it. They bug out… they go ape-shit… and they just wake up one day, hating their life and hating everyone else, never even knowing for sure 𝘸𝘩𝘺 they do."

Asher turned, exhaling a smoke cloud, his eyes narrowing pensively at Elliot.

"But… the people who feel that way are the ones who want something 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 to give a damn about," Elliot determined. "And they're pissed beyond all measure that the world can't hold up to that anymore."

"Yeah… okay," Asher sighed, flicking ashes over the balcony.

"Riiight… whaddo I know?" Elliot laughed. "I'm the whack-job."

"Yeah… you are," Asher agreed. "Even if all your beliefs were perfectly normal, you'd still be the biggest whack-job here."

"Fair point. But lemme just ask you one thing," Elliot said, leaning slightly closer and raising a finger, his eyes darting between Asher and Olivia. "Have you ever met a 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 person who came from a normal, functional home? With a normal, functional family? I know they still exist, but they're pretty damn few and far between anymore. And God knows none of 𝘶𝘴 fit that category."

Asher's fingers tapped along the balcony, inhaling another drag and shrugging. "My parents split before I lost 'em both, and neither of them were particularly warm and loving from the get-go. One was an alcoholic and the other was a narcissist. So… no."

"Well'p… my father bailed, and my dear ol' mommy didn't want me in the house anymore when I came back from serving, since it apparently scrambled my brains," Elliot uttered, looking to Olivia. "And you?"

Asher faced her, giving her a curious look as well.

Olivia's gaze shifted between the two of them, releasing a heavy cloud of breath.

"No," she mumbled. "My family's super insane… just like my exes…"

Elliot nodded, facing the scenery. "Well… then there ya' go. Destroy basic values, dismantle the family unit, attack all belief systems that might strengthen a person's spirit… and then you get a population that's so wounded and confused, they don't even know who they are, and they damn sure don't have any personal value or resolve. That makes people 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 easy to rule over… not to mention, really angry and dysfunctional. Angry and dysfunctional is the norm for folks now."

"I don't remember it being so bad when we were growing up," Asher uttered.

"Well… it wasn't 𝘢𝘴 bad," Elliot conceded. "We just got off the streets right before the age of the smartphone. We've got a little more reality to our personalities than a lot of other folks do."

"I like smartphones," Olivia murmured.

Asher and Elliot turned to her.

"Just 'cause… games," Olivia added, raising her hand and moving her thumb around, as if using an invisible smartphone. "I like all the games…"

Asher breathed out a laugh.

Elliot smirked at her. "Yup, me too."

"Okay… that's enough of philosophy for the insane," Asher disclosed, snuffing out the cigarette and flicking the butt off the deck. "We need to take the guns and the bags upstairs now."

The three of them strolled across the deck and stepped through the sliding glass door, Asher pulling it shut behind them.

Just when they entered the house again—across the enormous living room were Roman and Zach, just emerging from the hallway and slowing to a stop, gazing around at everything in the living room with raised brows and surprised looks strewn across their faces.

"Okay… 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘢," Roman muttered, leaning around the middle couch and eyeballing the many firearms on it.

"Jesus… are you setting up at a gun show, or do we 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 need to be worried?" Zach asked with a laugh. "I didn't think you could bring an arsenal to an Air BnB."

"Yeeeah, well… Mrs. Cooke didn't mind," Elliot lied, smirking and striding across the room, lifting one of the heavy bags. "We're here for a prepping thing… and this is Tennessee, friend. Guns are friends to Tennesseans."

"Where are you guys from?" Olivia asked the gamers.

"California," Roman replied.

Asher made a peculiar face at them, resisting the urge to scoff aloud. He traded subtle smirks with Elliot, and the two of them began lugging a couple of the heavy camping backpacks up to the second floor.

Olivia hovered over the couch, eyeing the firearms and trying to calculate how many she could carry up the stairs at once.

Roman slid his hands into his hoodie pockets, Zach doing the same in his sleek leather jacket, the two of them exchanging quick glimpses before their eyes landed on her again.

"You… need help?" Zach offered.

Olivia blinked, turning to them. "What? Oh… no, that's fine. Thank you, though. And, hey… we brought a bunch of frozen pizzas and pizza rolls. They barely fit in the freezer, so… y'know… there's plenty for everyone. Just save us some if you decide to have any, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… for sure," Zach nodded with a smile.

"What kind of prepper thing are you going to?" Roman wondered, his eyes narrowing at her.

"Um… it's just… kind of like a gun show," Olivia mumbled vaguely, unsure of what to say. "Hey… how come you guys came all the way out to Tennessee from California?"

"We were supposed to go to a gaming convention out here," Roman told her. "But… it's delayed now, because of… everything…"

"Oooh," Olivia breathed. "Okay…"

"Ours is 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 a convention," Elliot announced with a raised finger as he thumped back down the stairs, he and Asher approaching the couch again. "A doomsday prepper's convention. Hell—the last time I went, they had an ATV there! For all your zombie apocalypse needs! Hah!"

Roman and Zach nodded and muttered something in response, but Asher didn't hear them, his eyes fixating on Elliot from behind, feeling as if this doomsday prepper's convention was likely a real thing he'd attended in the past.

"I bet you were saving up for that," Asher murmured. "Weren't you?"

Elliot wheeled around, snapping and pointing at him. "Hahahah—maybe. So? Shut up. Don't judge me."

Roman and Zach snickered at this, Olivia giggling and tucking a few of the guns under her arms.

Then, Asher, Elliot, and Olivia began carrying all the firearms up the stairs, Zach stepping into the kitchen in search of a quick dinner.

Roman nearly followed his friend, pausing in the kitchen doorway and watching as the other three began to climb the stairs one by one. Asher was the last of them to reach the stairs—and Roman's eyes narrowed at him from behind, spotting the lumpy crinkle in the back of his suit where his pistol was always stashed, his suit crumpling up against it by accident as he walked off and carried things away.

Roman's expression darkened, slowly drifting into the kitchen after the other three were gone.

Zach stood on the other side of the kitchen's long, sleek bar, ripping open a frozen pizza and spraying a round pan with non-stick oil. He paused, looking up and spotting the uncharacteristic severity on his friend's visage now.

"What?" Zach uttered, peeling the plastic fully off the pizza.

Roman didn't reply at first, glimpsing at the doorway again, then back.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "I think that dude has a gun."

Zach stared at him. "Yeah, no shit. They have ten-zillion guns."

"No… like… he's 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 one," Roman clarified. "But it's not in a holster. It's… it's like… in his ass."

Zach's expression fell deadpan.

"Right 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦," Roman stated, whirling around and pulling up his hoodie, prying his pants back and revealing the upper half of his buttocks. "He has a gun like 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 here!"

"Yeah—𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴, Roman," Zach said caustically, slapping the pizza loudly onto the pan. "You know what gets me 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳 in the mood for some fresh hot pizza? Watching you whip your ass out in the kitchen."

Roman choked out a laugh, rolling his hoodie back down and facing him properly. "Seriously… I'm just saying… it looks like that dude in the suit has a gun back there."

"Did you see it?"

"No… but… there's 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 there."

"What the hell are you staring at his ass for?"

"I'm 𝘯𝘰𝘵… there's just… there's something 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!"

"Who cares? They're all going to a prepper convention. That's what they have those for—"

"But why's it 𝘰𝘯 him?" Roman asked, leaning on the bar and wearing a troubled face. "Why would he have one of them on him if he's just taking it to a convention?"

"I don't fucking know—we're in the 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩, man. These people carry guns just to go grocery shopping. They carry for literally no reason."

"In his 𝘢𝘴𝘴? People who carry all the time have holsters. Not ass guns."

"Ass guns. Wow. This is a 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 conversation…"

Roman busted with laughter, seeming to lose his train of thought as he dug around in the fridge in search of a drink.

And while the two gamers traded laughs and conversation in the kitchen—the other three lingered upstairs, having finally finished carrying everything to the second floor.

The hallway that branched into the rest of the house upstairs was shorter than the one downstairs, and it led to a corner where the homeowner's bedroom resided. Before the corner were two large bedrooms across from one another, and a bathroom sat perfectly at the end of the hall between them, the doors propped open as the three of them stood in the hall.

Elliot had just wandered out of the right bedroom, all of them having offloaded the guns and bags into this room, and he sighed deeply, pausing in the doorway and briefly stroking along his chest.

Asher eyed him. "El. You got your meds?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Elliot muttered breathlessly, nodding and straightening up. "So what room do you want? I don't mind taking this one and guarding all the goodies. And… we should probably leave that back one alone, since it's clearly not meant for the guests, and we have no clue if this lady's ever gonna come home."

Asher paused, he and Olivia trading eyes with one another.

"And… that room behind you… that one's technically the master bedroom," Elliot pointed out, nodding at the doorway behind Asher. "So… I figured you'd want that one. It's supped up to be a big-ass hotel suite for the Air BnB people, nice window view, plenty of storage space, big-ass closet and a gigantic cabinet in the corner. Olivia can bunk with one of us, or she can sleep downstairs somewhere…"

"No… no," Asher uttered, shaking his head. "She's not staying downstairs with a couple of strangers. No."

Elliot's eyes narrowed curiously at him. "You know you haven't known her for much longer than 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 have, right?"

"Yeah… but I know what I'm 𝘯𝘰𝘵 gonna try and 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭," Asher retorted. "I don't know what 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘭𝘭 try and pull. So no. She's staying up here."

"There's a couch in here," Olivia muttered, leaning into the master room and surveying it. "I can stay in here…"

"Well'p… there ya' go," Elliot said conclusively, clasping his hands. "Anything else? Or are we done for the day? What're we doing tomorrow?"

"Shopping," Asher replied, stepping into his new room. "But you're not going."

"What?" Elliot barked, looking disappointed. "Why not…?"

"Well… two reasons," Asher told him curtly. "One, I wanna make sure the dipshit duo down there doesn't come up here snooping in our stuff while we're gone. And two, your gimpy fucking heart is gonna give out if you're running all over Knoxville all the time."

Elliot grimaced, biting his lip and scratching along his chest. "I have meds for that…"

"Yeah… which you forget to take half the time," Asher reminded him. "Not to mention, knowing you and your doomsday brain, you're probably rationing them now. So… they're not gonna make much if a difference if you're adding extra 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 all the damn time."

"I did plan on getting 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, y'know."

"Yeah, well… I can do that for you whenever you run out."

"How?"

Asher paused, tilting his head and flashing a faint half-smile. "Shopping."

Elliot gave him a quizzical look. "How often are you planning on 'shopping' out there?"

"Always," Asher replied simply. "We've got the city to ourselves, El… and we've gotta get by. Not to mention, we have a giant isolated cabin, and 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 of room to store whatever we wanna bring back here. Olivia and I will take care of getting whatever we need, and you'll take care of the home."

"Okay… okay, good plan, but just… what about them?"

"Who?"

"The… the gamers. The dipshit dingle-dogs, or whatever the fuck you said. What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Why tell them anything?"

"Well… they're gonna think it's pretty alarming that we're bringing huge shipments of random supplies back here. They might not notice it right away, but they will eventually. Especially if they go out to the garage. The garage is gonna be a big storage space for us, ideally…"

"They're not gonna be out in the garage," Asher said certainly. "There're no cars here, which means they didn't bring vehicles when they came to Tennessee. That, combined with what I've seen of their personalities so far, tells me they were probably just taking Uber rides everywhere they went. And, since Uber's probably not 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 anymore, they'd have no reason to go out."

"They will eventually, especially if they plan on getting food. They'll try walking to a store if they get hungry enough. Anyone would."

"Well… they won't 𝘨𝘦𝘵 hungry enough. We brought a ridiculous amount of food here, on top of what was already here, and we're gonna be bringing in more and more every day. The dipshits ain't gonna starve."

"Fine… fine… but Asher," Elliot said seriously. "Eventually, we 𝘢𝘳𝘦 gonna have to tell them 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. They're gonna piece together that something's off about what we're doing, and when that happens, I need to know what to tell them."

Asher sighed, pocketing his hands and pondering on this. Then, he made a loose shrug.

"I really don't care," Asher disclosed. "I don't care what you tell them. Tell them the truth, for all I care. Then they can make their choice."

Elliot perched his brow, eyeing him oddly.

"They can choose. They can help us out, and keep on surviving here," Asher clarified. "Or… they can take their chances and hit the road. When they demand some answers, you can tell them what kind of crossroad they're at, and then they can just choose from there."

Elliot stared, slowly nodding and releasing a cloud of breath.

"Now… go take a nap," Asher ordered, jabbing a finger at Elliot's new room. "And don't start working on anything until your shitty heart calms the fuck down."

Elliot scoffed out a laugh, combing his hairs back and inching into his room.

"No… wait… hold on," he said suddenly, emerging in the hallway again and swatting the air. "I forgot… I still have to go back to my house and get everything I have there."

Asher sighed. "I can just do that for—"

"No—no, you can't," Elliot argued. "You don't know where all the traps are."

"You have to do that 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸?"

"I have to do that as soon as 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, yes. I don't want anyone springing the traps and blowing their legs off—and I also don't want my shit getting stolen."

"Fine… fine… okay," Asher exhaled, running a hand down his face. "All right… here's what we're gonna do. Olivia and I will leave early in the morning, and we'll just grab whatever we can from the stores closer to here. We'll be back before noon, and you'll have the rest of the day to head out there and get your stuff."

"Okay… okay, that works."

"Yeah. Now take a nap."

"Mhm…"

Elliot stepped into his room and shut the door.

Asher did the same on the other side, he and Olivia wandering into the master room and closing the door behind them.

The enormous bed was in the center, its headboard against the wall, the rest covered with blue down comforters and several pillows of varying cerulean shades. The drapes over the far window were a deep oceanic color, pulled to either side and revealing the serene night sky, and beside this window was a long green couch, a small table beside it and two square pillows propped against each of its arms.

A large flat screen was on the wall across from the bed, and everything was powered off aside from the single lamp on the nightstand giving the room a comforting glow, everything still and peaceful in a manner most welcoming.

Asher sauntered easefully across the room, examining everything before he turned on his heel and faced her.

Olivia met his eyes and smirked.

"This is awesome," she beamed.

Asher's half-smile began to return, this time softer than before, a calmer and more genuine smile than he usually ever wore.

Honestly, he felt truly pleased to see the look on her face, to know he'd pulled her into some of the most impulsive actions of his life, and it all resulted in her feeling joyful and arriving in a safe place to stay. Regardless of all the questionable things he'd done—when he looked at her, he knew for certain that he'd done at least one decent and useful thing in life so far.

And, he wasn't done yet—because this was only the beginning.

"It's gonna stay that way," Asher told her, his softened rasp of a voice carrying a sense of sincerity he hadn't spoken with in many years. "This is our new home now."

Olivia's smile seemed to grow, meandering closer to him and poking her finger to his chest.

"You… are just… insane," she grinned. "I can't believe you just 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 me… like a freaking stray! What're you gonna do if Mrs. Cooke comes back here?"

Asher shrugged and nodded sideways. "I'm just gonna tell her… we have nowhere else to go, and we're not leaving. It's not a lie. And I'm not about to just shoot some old lady, but… y'know… I'm also not gonna leave. What can she do? I doubt if the cops are gonna respond to their calls anymore."

"Aww… I bet you'd take 𝘩𝘦𝘳 in like a stray, too," Olivia laughed, lightly jabbing at his chest again. "You're a lot nicer than you think you are."

"Ah-huh. See, now I 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 you're a loonybird…"

"So are you!"

"What's your point?"

"Asher," Olivia smiled, snickering and swiping her bangs aside. "You were super nice to that old lady in your complex… and you took me in for no reason… and you're like… you're actually planning on taking 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 of those guys downstairs, whether you wanna admit it or not."

Asher's eyes narrowed, falling silent and wearing a thoughtful visage.

"You seem like the kind of person who only notices the bad stuff they do," Olivia figured, sighing and mindlessly flipping his tie around. "You never see the good stuff you do… like… with El, too. Elliot has some heart problem, doesn't he? And I can tell you were worried about him. What's wrong with his heart, anyhow…?"

"Oh… it's an irregular heartbeat, or something… I don't remember," Asher mumbled, scratching his cheek. "I know it's bad enough to make him keel over if he pushes too hard. He did that shit on my wedding day…"

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵…?" Olivia gasped.

"Yeah… I don't know how he got into the military, to be honest," Asher mumbled, gazing up at the ceiling as he mulled over the past. "Or… no, wait, he might've gotten the heart murmur thing 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 he served… or it got 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 after he served. I don't remember. All I remember for sure is that he nearly died the day I got married. Fuck, that was… over a decade ago. He was walking to the church, and he just stopped and hunkered down under a bridge, laying on the concrete and clutching his heart. He could've called me, or called an ambulance, but… no… he just laid there dying, not doing anything about it…"

Olivia's smile vanished, staring into him bizarrely. "Why…?"

Asher folded his arms and sighed. "He said he didn't wanna ruin the wedding day."

Olivia shot him a double-take. "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

"Yeah… the dumb fuck," Asher scoffed with a laugh. "He thought he'd just walk it off and waltz into my wedding after it 'wore off' or whatever. But… that's not what happened. If the other hobos around there didn't decide to call an ambulance for him, then he would've died right there. Oh, I gave him 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 for that. Me and Tammy 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 did."

Olivia nodded quietly, glimpsing down at the floor for a moment, then facing him again.

"Who's Tammy?" she asked.

Asher hesitated, releasing a heavy breath and running a hand down his face, sinking onto the edge of the bed and sitting quietly for a moment.

"Ex-wife," he told her. "She was part of the little gang, back in the day…"

Olivia sat beside him, giving him a curious look. "Why'd she… leave?"

Asher glanced at her, then shrugged and sighed. "She got bored."

"She got 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥…?" Olivia blurted thoughtlessly. "That's 𝘪𝘵…?"

Asher breathed out a laugh. "Well, it… it's the gist. Yeah. She got bored. She didn't wanna settle for less than she was aiming for. So… she left."

Olivia wore a baffled face, shaking her head once and giving him another look.

Asher spotted her expression and spoke on. "I had this 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺 ambition back in the day. When we were on the streets… I wanted 𝘴𝘰 bad to make things happen, and make everything work out. And… so… most of the time, I did. Most of the time, I got whatever I was aiming for in the end. But, whenever life actually started getting comfortable, and we moved into the apartment… I didn't act that way much anymore. I wasn't as driven, because I didn't really have to be… and she just got… distant. Time passed, and everything started getting really… mundane. I was saving up to buy this place for us… it was on the market back then… but I guess it was just taking too long for her. She said she fell out of love because my passion was gone. So… she left after about four years of marriage… and that's… that's it."

There was a long silence following his story, Olivia glaring into the dark carpet below her feet for several seconds as she allowed it all to sink in.

Then, she raised her head and stared at him.

"No offense to your ex… but that sounds like a really 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 reason to leave," Olivia chided. "You were literally gonna buy a gigantic 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 for her. What… did she think you were just gonna magic that money out of thin air?"

Asher chuckled, leaning back on his hands. "I don't know. But… to be honest… I saw what she was talking about."

Olivia's eyes narrowed. "You 𝘥𝘪𝘥…? Because I don't."

Asher gazed forward, looking fairly distant and releasing a deep cloud of breath.

He found himself staring into the reflection on the flat screen, showing him a dark mirrored image of himself, meeting his own eyes and sighing yet again.

"I saw the spark leave my eyes," Asher murmured faintly. "Life got mundane… everything got gray… and everything just started to seem… pointless."

Olivia stared at him, frowning and saying nothing.

"I kept going, naturally… because I had her to support," he mumbled. "But… after she was gone, I really didn't see the… point… anymore."

Another silence lingered in the air, Olivia fidgeting with her hoodie sleeves for a moment, pondering on everything he said.

"Y'know what," she uttered, facing him again. "It sounds like all your passion came from survival. So… when you didn't have to worry about that anymore… you didn't know how to feel purpose anymore."

Asher blinked, his brow hardening as he continued gazing into his dark reflection, feeling as if her simple statement had suddenly snapped all his complications into perfect perspective. He let out an astonished little laugh, shaking his head and looking over to her.

"How'd you do that?" Asher snickered. "I've been trying to figure out what the hell's wrong with me for a decade, and you just cracked it in five seconds."

Olivia giggled. "I speak loonybird. I always know what makes other people loony. It's my gift."

Asher smirked, nodding and facing his reflection again. "Well… good. I'm gonna need that."

The two were quiet for a moment, and he stared into the black image of himself almost trancelike, his mind beginning to wander.

"It was that," he exhaled. "It was definitely that… but… it was 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 than that, too. When we were on the streets… I had me, Lester, Elliot, Tammy, Lil' John, Dante… I had a 𝘭𝘰𝘵 of people to look after. And if I didn't… if I didn't think things through for them, and manage their money for them, and break up their fights for them, and ration out all the shit they got from the food bank for them… then I honestly don't think they would've got by. It wasn't just my survival. It was 𝘢𝘭𝘭 of ours."

Olivia nodded along quietly as he spoke.

Asher scratched along his jaw, still staring thoughtfully into the darkened screen.

"And El's not even wrong," he uttered. "Not about… the whole… society thing. It really does seem like people are just… wrapped up in themselves… and meaner than hell… and just broken and rotten to the core. But back then… back then, 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 of us were like that. Not to the core. We had a chip on our shoulder, sure… but we were always… 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 there for each other. Loyalty always trumped everything else."

"You miss that," Olivia murmured. "You miss having people like that around…"

"Well… yeah," Asher muttered. "Without them around, it seems like that core decency doesn't even exist in the world. I mean… well… it did. It did seem that way… until a couple days ago."

He glimpsed over, watching her with raised brows and a subtle smile emerging again.

"I found a decent side of myself since then, and I also found you," he smirked. "And El was apparently giving himself a goddamn heart attack trying to find me and get me out of Dodge, so… there's three decent people, right there."

Olivia grinned and coiled both of her arms around one of his, hugging it and beaming.

"Three's enough, right…?" she asked.

Asher stared down at her, laughing and nodding, patting her gently on the hand.

"Yeah," he knew. "Three's enough."