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First Light — Description
What with Ellis' innate sense of people and Nick's razor-sharp X-ray vision, they both knew. Neither would breathe a word, but they knew. It was an awkward, clingy kind of knowledge that raised more questions than it answered, and for weeks they danced around it like children in the back seat not touching each other. During that time their curiosity only grew, and morphed imperceptibly into something closer to longing. Still they did nothing more than bicker, poking and prodding with words both pointed and soft, until one night they didn't speak at all.

The saferoom was tiny, barely big enough to shelter the four of them through to the dawn. They woke with the first shy blushes of sunrise, startled, having rolled close together in their sleep and only now discovering that their bodies molded perfectly against one another.

They froze.

Ellis felt his hair stand on end, expecting a violent shove and hoping against hope that it wouldn't come. Nick could have sworn that his heart had stopped beating, and nearly prayed that the Southerner would not recoil in loud revulsion.

A moment passed in silence.

Then two.

Then three.

When Ellis relaxed out of his flinch and Nick's blood began pumping again they shifted. Without acknowledging the fact of their closeness they both rolled over and fell asleep back-to-back, like dignified cats who ignore each other and pretend that they aren't curled up in the same padded basket.

Neither saw the smile on the other's face, matching little joyous expressions that welcomed... this.

Whatever it was.

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GMod+GIMP, Valve's intellectual property, etc, etc.