CW

  SpoilerSome sexual content near the end, could be considered noncon

  [colpse]

  “So, how do you want me to prove to you that I’m gonna help you guys?” Ethan’s been swinging his gun at the RCV for the st 5 minutes, and no matter what I say, neither of the siblings are particurly keen to accept my expnation.

  “What about a demonstration? If you can show us you mean well, then we can build trust from there.” Paige suggested.

  “Hmmm… Well, I said I am from a long lost secret base so how about I come meet you face to face, I’ll bring you gifts too, and if you change your mind you can join me any time.” Neither of them had seen me yet, to them I just looked like a little remote control car, hell I could even be a Xeno with a voice modifier stalling for time before a patrol arrives from their perspective. “I’d just need about a half an hour to get there.”

  Ethan started pointing his gun at the car again, as if it would do anything to threaten me. “D-d-don’t trust her, Paige! She just wants to come here and mug us for all we’re worth, that’s all that ever happens!”

  Paige shrugged “Ethan, even if that was the case the only thing we have that she could steal are the rags we’re wearing and yer ancient ser pistol. I say we risk it. if she’s tellin' the truth, this'll be good for both of us. Heh, maybe we won’t need to eat ratatouille anymore.” She took his gun from him.

  “Uhh, that’s not what ratatouille is.” She raised her eyebrow at my correction. “You know what, never mind, it doesn’t matter. I can bring you some actual food.”

  Ethan’s gaze softened at the mention of ‘real food’. I guess Alfred wasn’t kidding when he said they were hungry, and judging by their malnourished appearance, they reeeally needed this. “I’ll even add in some extras.”

  “I guess we have a deal.” Paige sprawled out on the grass a few feet from their bonfire.

  Paige POV –

  Ethan is not a fan of trusting others. After this Julia weirdo cut out for looping piano music, Ethan dragged me a few feet away, hopefully out of the reach from the little car’s microphone. “Paige, are we really waiting here 30 minutes for that stranger to show up here? Don’t you remember what mum used to say, ‘stranger danger’?” His eyes twitched slightly.

  “Big bro, I get why you’re so worried… and it probably doesn’t help running on perts with no sleep in 3 days, but you have to calm down and think about it rationally. We are going to starve to death at this rate, if we don’t get killed by the Xenos before that can happen.” I sighed, we’d been betrayed too many times before, and some suspicious dy, not even face-to-face comes and offers us the world in exchange for nothing but our pitiful company – yeah even I know we’re pitiful. None of the settlements would even take us in, we have no useful skills outside of dumpster diving after all.

  “Here’s what we’ll do; we’ll see if we can take her so-called ‘gifts’, and ditch her here. She’s probably got a failsafe in pce, but it’s worth the risk.” Ethan slowly nodded along with my pn.

  “Yes, that sounds like a good idea, sis. It’s just you and me, and always will be.” Ethan gave me a hug.

  Looking at my holo-ring, it’s been about thirty minutes since Julia left.

  *BOOM… CREEEEEEAAAAAK… SHATTER.. VRRMMMMMMMMM*

  “What the..?!” Both our eyes shot to the source of the noise, and through a huge pile of rubble that used to be a two floor house came out a crawler. We were about to run, but one of the hatches on the top of it burst open. A young woman wearing an unfamiliar and gaudy military uniform popped out with a big grin on her face and started dramatically waving at us.

  Julia POV –

  “Ethan! Paige! It’s me Julia!” I waved to them. They were sck jawed seeing me emerge from the building, and who could bme them. I quite literally appeared out of nowhere. In order to hide the portal since I wasn’t sure if they’d agree to come with me, I had Alfred spawn it in a nearby building. Suffice it to say the carnage alone made that choice well worth the effort of having to climb into the damned APC again. Later, I’ll have Alfred make me a mobile staircase for these things; I imagine the sort fighter pilots in my days used to climb into their cockpits would be useful for someone of my stature.

  They slowly approached, still staring in disbelief. I don’t think they’ve realized I pn on actually giving them this thing, not just what’s in the back seats. I left about 3 days’ worth of pasta for them, I figured it was better than rats, and they definitely need the carbs.

  Paige was quite pretty in person, though she’s rather gaunt. If they came back with me and up to a normal diet, she’d be a looker for sure. She has straight blonde hair, and seems tall for a girl -she’s almost the same height of her brother; they’d have no trouble climbing into this whip.

  “So, do you two believe me and want to come with now?” I moved my eyes back and forth from one to the other pleadingly.

  “Do we have a choice?” Ethan dejectedly sighed.

  They quietly watched me as I struggled to climb off the APC, tumbling as I jumped off the st two feet of the journey down. A blush quickly formed on my face, but I shot up off the ground and quickly dusted my clothes off. “*Cough cough*… Erm… Yeah of course.” I tossed Paige the activation key, she barely caught it.

  Paige was fbbergasted. “You- you uhh…. You’re givin’ us a whole fuckin’ crawler? Lady, are you out of your fuckin’ mind?!”

  I flinched and threw my palms up. “Um, no? I’m guessing you mean the APC, right? It means a lot more to you two than it does to me, and I was serious, these are gifts, I don’t pn to force you to come with me, this is just encouragement.” They exchanged a look before passing me and climbing up and into the APC.

  Almost as fast as I portal-ed over here, they were driving off kicking up dust into the distance, hardly even a quick thanks before they left.

  I slumped my shoulders, defeated. “Well, that was a bust. I guess it figures people would be distrusting in this era.” It’s probably like if you told some homeless guy he could either have a million bucks if he decided to get into your sketchy van and come with you, or take the band of cash you were handing him in front of his eyes. Of course they’d take the band, or else they wouldn’t have survived so long in this environment.

  “Beam me up, Scotty.” I said into the holo-ring Alfred made for me, which is the current day equivalent of a cellphone. It makes a holographic UI in front of you, in all honesty it was less convenient than a cellphone with fewer features, the only reason it’s popur now is because the battery sts 50 years without a recharge.

  A few seconds ter, I was back at ‘HQ’.

  Paige POV -

  It’s been 4 days since we ran off on her, we ate almost all the food she gave us, only having a little left that we set aside for emergencies. And to make things worse, we’ve managed to get the crawler stuck on its side after driving headlong into a wide and thankfully abandoned old trenchline.

  Ethan smmed his fist into the driver’s glovebox a few times. “SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! Just had to drive around in the dark didn’t we? How the fuck do I set this thing to nightvision anyway? I feel like we pushed every button in this fuckin’ thing!” He shouted.

  I looked at him sympathetically “I don’t know Ethan, or else I would’a turned it on.” My eyes drfted over, and I noticed, he had accidentally knocked open the glove box, and inside was a letter…

  I climbed down behind Ethan. He looked at me curiously, but didn’t say anything. I reached over him and grabbed the letter. “Paige & Ethan” it read in pretty handwriting. I quickly opened the envelope and unfolded the handwritten letter inside.

  “Hello, if you are reading this, I hope you enjoyed my gifts. If you ever change your mind about coming to stay with me, just give me a ring!

  :3

  P.S. Enter this code into the console and it should automatically dial me up.”

  Below the text was a long code. “Ethan, I think we should take her offer. Even if she does have crappy pns for us in mind, I’d rather be a bor sve than have to deal with another minute of scavving; at least Julia can keep us fed.” I sighed. I felt defeated. These st few days were like heaven for us, we got to eat real food for once, stayed in the retive safety the crawler provided and even managed to fend off a few Xenos who spotted us shortly after we left Julia in the dust.

  Ethan looked at me, tearing up. “I really really really don’t want to get backstabbed again, sis.”

  I hugged him from around the chair. “I know, but even if she did, I could live with it as long as we are fed and together.” I gave him a kiss on the top of his head.

  He started to nod, thinking it over. “Okay, sis… We can reach out to her.” I smiled at him.

  Climbing back up to my console while holding onto the letter, I entered in the code she left us.

  Almost immediately the call picked up, and on the monitor, an image came into focus. There was Julia, sitting at an imposing looking desk, with a chair twice her size. She was slumped to the side of the chair, with her eyes closed, drooling… Is she sleeping?

  “Hey..? Julia?”

  She squirmed a little in response and quietly mumbled. “-st-ive-moar-nts”

  “Hello?” I said louder this time.

  She sighed and seemed to cozy up more into her cloak. “Just five more minutes, Alfred. I promise!” She whined.

  “Julia, it’s me, Paige!” I shouted, finally set on waking her up.

  Julia POV –

  Huh..? What is Paige doing here? “Paige? You’re…. sideways?” I squinted; my eyes were still adjusting after my little nap.

  Paige chuckled. “You finally awake, General?” She said in a mocking tone. I quickly sat up and wiped the drool off my face and straightened my cloak.

  “Fucking Alfred, answering calls for me while I’m asleep…” I sighed. “What’s up?” Maybe she was finally going to accept my offer; I really hoped so anyway. There was no way I was going to indefinitely give them handouts if they didn’t want to come here, so coming to beg was pointless.

  Paige took a deep breath. “We wanna to accept yer offer to live with you. We don’t want’a be scavvers anymore so as long as you can promise us food ‘n shelter we’ll do whatever ya want, be it hard bor or anything else.”

  I shook my head. “I’m gd you’re accepting my offer, but I was serious, I just wanted companionship. But yeah I can easily promise you you’ll never go hungry here.” I wish they’d stop assuming I’m here to extort them or whatever.

  Paige POV –

  My face went hot, finally understanding what she wanted to do with us. So that’s her angle… She wanted ‘companionship’.

  I nodded to myself finally satisfied knowing what I was getting us both into. It wasn’t the worst, even if she wanted my brother, she’s pretty good looking, I think Ethan’d adjust quickly. “Alright, where d’ya wanna meet up?”

  She took a second to think to herself, spinning around a couple times in her chair. “Alfred, what do you think?” She went quiet, looking at the tablet she was holding for a minute before verbally agreeing with whoever it was she was talking to. “Okay, that’ll work.”

  “Hang tight!” She said, and before I could reply, gravity seemed to shift and everything around me went weird. I smmed down into the my chair I was just standing next to and hit the floor before getting my bearings back.

  I quickly looked over to Ethan who was buckled in still to my relief. It only would have made him a little dizzy, he was unharmed. Looking through the viewport monitors, the scenery around us had totally changed; we were in some kind of concrete warehouse.

  My eyes went wide when I saw the world shattering amount of equipment stored here, rows and rows of crawlers just like this one, 15 foot tall -… robots maybe..?- with rge rail cannons over their shoulders and a gigantic sword for one of their hands, there were 5 of them. Not to mention racks as far as the eye could see with enough guns to raise an army. “Where the hell’re we? More importantly, how’n the fuck are we here?”

  Ethan came up behind me, having gotten out of his seat and whistled. “That’s one hell of an arsenal.” He’d been sleeping properly, so he hasn’t had to rely on Perts much, though he still has withdrawals at times.

  We climbed out of the Crawler, still admiring the scenery around us. A speaker overhead chimed in, and who else but Julia began to speak. “Hey, guys! Gd you made it, follow the blinking lights and I’ll expin everything!”

  I had about a million questions for her, so I gestured for Ethan to follow as the blinking lights led us to the exit.

  Julia POV –

  I was waiting for the pair of them to show up, Alfred was better with directions than me, so he would show them the way over. The rec room in the residential area I decided as the ideal pce to catch them up to speed and make them feel at ease, it’s also near to their living quarters so I’d be able to walk them over when we were done talking. I even dressed casually in my shorts and tank top.

  “Damn.” I cursed under my breath as I accidentally knocked the eight ball into the hole.

  The door slid open, and the siblings were awe-struck. I can’t bme them, they’ve definitely never seen luxury like this in their life time. Hell, even I hadn’t seen many pces this ritzy in my time. “You like what you see?” I smiled.

  Paige came out of her stupor, and patted Ethan on the back to get his attention, flicking her eyes in a gesture… from him to me. Weird. Ethan blushed and looked at me. “You’re very pretty… ma’am.” He was struggling to maintain eye contact.

  “Uhh…. Thanks?” This might have been the most awkward interaction of my long life. “Can I get you two a drink? Any preferences?”

  They looked at each other, and Paige shrugged. “We’ll have drinks. As for preference…. I dunno, got moonshine?” Paige asked.

  I sighed. “On second thought, let me pick for you.” They probably didn’t have access to anything quality growing up, so I’d get them something that’d blow them away. Entering my choice into the liquid fabricator at the bar, I got us all some vodka mudshakes, then passed them around.

  Ethan squinted at it hesitantly. “Is this chocote milk? We’re not kids you know.”

  Paige elbowed him and started drinking hers. Her eyes lit up. “Woah, this is good stuff! Alcohol’s pretty weak though…” She chugged half the pint in just a few seconds.

  “No need to guzzle it, we have plenty where that came from.” I smiled at them. Ethan waited for me to take a drink before he started drinking too. He was still a little suspicious of me. I didn’t take offense since they had good reason, but it was getting annoying. I was going way out of my way to make myself seem trustworthy, even giving them what was basically a free tank, no strings attached.

  I guided them to the couches and put some old hip-hop on the stereo. I sat across from them, rexed and sprawled my arms out over the cushions behind me.

  “Where do I start?”

  Paige POV –

  Julia expined most of the situation to us, and I still didn’t know whether or not to believe most of what she said. This and that about saving humanity ‘n all that, but she did just teleport us here not more’n 2 hours ago, so maybe there was some truth to it. All ‘n all, I pyed along, until eventually, she said she’d direct us to our new home.

  Julia gestured to one of the first doors we passed. “This one here is a two bedroom, so plenty of space for the both of you. I’m sure you’ll both find it comfortable but if you ever want separate residences just let me know. *Yawn*”

  I looked at her, surprised. “You don’t want Ethan to stay with you?”

  She furrowed her brow, confused. “Why would I want him to stay with me?”

  It dawned on me, Julia must be a lesbian and it was actually me she wanted companionship from... Heat washed over my face, and a nervous sweat broke across my brow. “O-oh… Is that so…”

  She gave me a concerned look. Ethan started to unlock the door to his residence and I quietly followed Julia back to her room.

  Julia POV –

  I made my way back to my room, I was getting tired, especially after all the questions they had; this must’ve been how Alfred felt when he brought me back to life. I unlocked my door, kicked off my shoes.

  Turning around, Paige was right next to me, I let out a surprised squeak.

  “Paige? What are you doing?”

  Her ocean blue eyes bore a hole in me before she moved to pin me against the wall, brushing her knee against my crotch. “Paige?!” A girlish moan escaped my lips. Paige was hot, I had to admit, but this was out of nowhere. I only met her a few days ago, over most of that time we didn’t talk more than a few hours total.

  She moved closer and pressed her lips against mine. My eyes went wide and I tensed up. She went to push her tongue into my mouth before I pushed her away from me and heaved, getting my breath back, hunched over with my hand against the wall for support.

  “Paige, what are you doing?! We literally just met and I don’t remember ever agreeing to whatever this is!” I shouted.

  She started to approach again, brushing her pretty blonde locks from her eyes and tucking it behind her ears. She actually towered over me by at least a foot. I gulped.

  “Isn’t this what you wanted? I thought you wanted my companionship, was I wrong? Did you want Ethan after all? Or maybe both of us?” She was going over all the possibilities, not realizing just how wrong she was.

  “Woah, woah woah!” I waved my hands . “By ‘companionship’ I meant I wanted friends, and well…. I wouldn’t be opposed to a lover, but this is totally out of nowhere…” I gnced sideways at her, not willing to look her in the eyes. “I’d need to know you better.” I finished. I was blushing furiously at this point, but I didn’t care, this had to be sorted.

  She looked down, seemingly… Disappointed? “Oh… ‘that so… I’m sorry ‘bout all this.” She quickly turned and left my room, softly closing the door behind her.

  I slumped onto my couch and sighed from my core. “What a day.”

  AnnouncementThis has been a very dialogue heavy chapter, future chapters will probably have simir POV switches when first meeting Julia. I have no idea how to do polls, but if you all would prefer chapters like this over the exposition heavy stuff, you can let me know in the replies. Thanks for reading :3