Jiyong found a sturdy stick and started trying to get the skinned rabbit onto it in order to roast it in the fire. Youngbae was quietly watching him from a little ways away. The look in his eyes was mixed, a combination of a curious kid and a bloodthirsty animal. He had to remind himself to be watchful, he couldn't trust him. For all he knew, he could go in for the kill at any second of any minute they were together. But somehow it was difficult to muster up enough fright to care. He didn't want to die, but he was beginning to enjoy their time together. How he yearned for some kind of contact with another being, even if that being wasn't human anymore.

Being all alone in the world was an unimaginable feeling. There had been movies made about it, songs sung about it, back before the end of the world, but nothing came close. They had had no idea. Unless you had experienced it for yourself, you couldn't begin to imagine the feeling when the dark fog of loneliness crawled into your heart, spreading out, squeezing into every little crevice of your insides, making you feel like you were going to explode from nothingness. Silence ringing in your ears, the pointlessness dawned on you, running you over, but sadly not killing you. A hit and run, leaving you motionless on the dark abandoned road, trapped inside your own body. No escape, no possibility of help, no hope.

He found a soft place to sit and stuck the stick into the fire. Youngbae's vigilant eyes opened wide, surprised at the act. Yeah, he would be. Why not just gobble up the bloody goodness of a raw bunny? That wasn't really his style though. His stomach grumbled. He could feel the saliva accumulating in his mouth as the smell of barbecued bunny filled the air. Proper food! How long had it been?

“Come on.” Jiyong nodded and patted the grass beside him, indicating to Youngbae that he should come sit next to him. Perhaps not the best idea ever, but he wanted to, so he was going to. It wasn't as if there was anyone left to tell him what to do. Youngbae glanced at the fire and then at the hand patting the ground, hesitating. Was he scared of the fire? That made no sense, he was the one who built it. Jiyong started when he realized he was giggling. He hadn't giggled in forever. He had thought giggles didn't exist in the new world, but here he was, giggling his heart out. It felt good. But at the same time it emphasized the emptiness inside him. The giggles reverberated off the walls of the empty shell he had become, creating an echo of his former self.

Youngbae carefully crawled in his direction, sitting down a few inches behind him. Why didn't he sit beside him? He knew it was silly, but he felt kind of rejected. The bunny was fully cooked, so he took it out of the fire and planted himself right next to him. Youngbae drew his feet together and put his arms around them, making a little ball of zombie cuteness.

Blowing on the bunny, Jiyong ripped into it teeth first. Taking a big bite, he swallowed without even chewing. After he had practically inhaled most of it, he realized he was not being very friendly. He took a piece and handed it to Youngbae. He curled his nose, unimpressed. “No really, it's good!” Jiyong promised, bringing it in front of his mouth. A tiny pang of fear alerted him to the imminent danger of possibly losing his hand, but what was life without some risks?

Youngbae sniffed it and looked at Jiyong, who nodded with a smile. “Blow on it a bit.”, he did a demonstration blow, “fuu fuu.”. Youngbae obediently imitated him with a timid “fffu fffu”, and looked at him for confirmation of a job well done. “Yeah, yeah! And now eat it.. Aaamm.” Jiyong ate a piece, half giggling over how cute his new pet zombie was. What a ridiculous situation.

He could feel as Youngbae's mouth engulfed half his hand in order to catch that tiny piece of meat. It was wet and warm in there, Jiyong didn't completely hate it. Youngbae chewed once, before he coughed in disgust and spat it out with an ominous sound of displeasure. He looked at Jiyong hurt, like it was all his fault that he had had to go through that terrible ordeal. Jiyong wiped Youngbae's mouth with his sleeve, “I'm sorry dude, I guess it can't compare to the bloody taste of a gruesomely maimed road kill.”. In an attempt to make it all better, he apologized in the universal language of the lips, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. Youngbae purred, clearly ready to let bygones be bygones.

Jiyong burped loudly, happy with his overly stuffed stomach that was sticking out for the first time as far back as he could remember. Youngbae's body shook slightly, an off-pitch screechy sound coming out. It sounded a bit like metal on metal, being rubbed up against each other, making that hard to stomach sound that made your body cringe automatically. Was he.. was he laughing? If he was, it was the creepiest laugh he had ever heard, and yet so endearing.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he got an idea to test whether it had indeed been laughter. He edged a little closer before launching a full on tickle attack. A surprised Youngbae toppled over, that awful metal sound twice as loud now as his whole body writhed awkwardly on the ground. So he could laugh! Somehow that ignited a spark of hope in Jiyong's heart. It made him feel more human, less like a soulless monster. Monsters couldn't laugh, could they?

When he stopped torturing him, those sparkling half moon mirrors of his seemed to go on forever. A mysterious bottomless abyss. If he took the leap, what would he find?

Jiyong laid down next to him, his index finger tracing the outline of Youngbae's impossibly beautiful colorless face. How did he exist? Ignoring the horrors he had experienced to get here, he was overwhelmed with how incredible a creature he was. So beautiful, so perfect. On instinct, he brought his lips closer, locking them together with his own. The old and the new, coming together to share the one thing that would never change. The warmth of a soft kiss in the dead of night.

There was so much he had yet to learn about this new companion of his. Snuggling up to him, feeling his warmth, he began to feel hope take over. Maybe this could work. Maybe they could be together. Envisioning their future together, sleep's sneaky fingers closed his eyes.