“C’mon, c’mon, we don’t wanna be te…!~”

  “Slow down…! I’m doing my best over here, just… fuck, gimme a bit…”

  Alice huffed as she slowly trudged along after her companion, leaning almost her entire weight onto the cane they’d nabbed out of the infirmary before they left, the slow cck cck cck of it tapping into the ground below desperately trying to keep pace with the harried footsteps of the woman speeding on ahead of her.

  “S-Sorry, sorry!”

  Gwyn quickly retreated a fair distance back towards her date, smiling awkwardly at her as she eased an arm around her shoulders.

  “You s-sure you don’t want any more help? I really don’t mind, p-promise…!”

  “You’ve already got enough wrong with you without having to lug my dumb ass around too, dumbass.”

  She prods a finger very gently into Gwyn’s arm sling, eliciting a sharp inhale as soon as she pushes down on the limb below.

  “Nngh-- p-point taken, but…”

  Alice smiled as Gwyn still held onto her even after that, leaning into the taller girl’s good arm wrapped over her shoulders, pushing forward a smidgen faster on her cane.

  “What, you think a little twisted knee is too much for me or something? Weak lil Alice can’t even walk on her own anymore?”

  “O-Oh, shut up. I already know you’d b-break that leg again sooner than you’d ever ask for help… you should really try relying on someone else, f-for once.”

  “Meh. You and the old bat are about the only idiots that’d ever bother to, and I already cause enough problems for the both of you too often as is.”

  “…frankly, I-I could do with more of those ‘problems’ you keep causing for me.”

  Gwyn smiled back, nudging her a bit, Alice quickly bumping her back the other way, the pair making their way down the almost entirely empty sidewalk in the early evening’s dimming sunlight.

  They’d already been walking quite some distance by now, Gwyn having insisted she knew just the pce for them to visit together for their forcibly mandated time off, and had refused to eborate any further at all for the other girl.

  As the pair walked together, streetlights flickered to life one by one overhead, the occasional hum of cars passing them by the only sound cutting through the peaceful evening’s calm.

  Eventually Alice’s stubborn pride was worn down ever so slightly, the girl leaning into Gwyn just a bit harder, the taller woman clutching against her as tightly as she could to keep herself upright as well, the rhythmic cck of her cane against the cement below echoing down the street ahead of them as they clung to one another for support.

  “…s’that… oh, I’d recognize that little shit anywhere. Oy, Alice, that you?”

  The sudden voice cut through the peaceful silence around them, Gwyn and Alice both craning their heads around as someone called out from across the street.

  A man that looked like he’d been carved out of a block of concrete waited for a car to pass by before rushing across the road over towards them, a mess of grey hair covering his head and face both as he ran over towards the both of them.

  “…oh hell, hey Louie. Didn’t even know you were still kicking around here, you old codger. They let you outta the retirement home or you get yourself kicked out?”

  “Psh, they don’t let fossils like me retire. I’m still busting my ass every day for pennies, heh.”

  “…f-friend of yours, Alice?”

  “Oh, shit, sorry. Yeah, this old piece of shit is Louie, we worked odd jobs together for… fuck, four or five years, yeah? Till I got sick of seeing his face every day, at least.”

  The older man guffawed, cpping Alice on the back, paying not the slightest bit of attention to the agonized groan that sputtered out of her, Gwyn barely keeping her from colpsing forwards.

  “Was that it? Here I thought it was because you went and got yourself fired.”

  “Construction jobs ain’t my thing… and that manager was such a dumb sack of shit he probably would’ve dropped that girder on his own trailer without me doing anything anyways. Not that I did anything, of course.”

  “Of course, of course, right. Well, shit, just gd to see ya again frankly… heard some shit went south a few days ago, something about one of the trucks for that pce you started working at getting fttened by some kinda… funky looking robot thing. Was half worried it was you getting yourself into trouble or something.”

  Alice and Gwyn both looked away quickly as he recounted the story at them, neither one of them making eye contact.

  “…huh, yeah, doesn’t ring a bell. But I quit there a week or so ago, so, uh, probably just happened after I was gone.”

  “Damn, that’s some lucky timing on your part, eh?”

  Louie ughed again, clearly not noticing the btant shift in their demeanor.

  “And well, shit, pardon my manners I guess. Never asked the dy’s name, did I?”

  “…o-oh! No, n-no problem at all. Gwyn, Gwyn L-Lapin!”

  “Well Gwyn, sorry to hear you got saddled with babysitting this scrawny little wad of hellfire.”

  “No no, she’s been… i-it’s been really nice having her around more, actually.”

  Gwyn smiled warmly, tightening her arm around her shoulders gently.

  “Heh, been a while since I met anyone else that’d put up with her shit. Started to think I was the only one dumb enough to like the kid!”

  “Oy, I’m plenty likable, you old fuck! And it ain’t my fault if everyone else is being the asshole!”

  Louie chuckled, ruffling a hand through Alice’s messy hair, the smaller girl nearly threatening to bite his arm off at the wrist as she snarled like an agitated cat.

  “Yeah, yeah. You aren’t all that bad, I guess… still always gonna be a troublemaking little shit, though.”

  Alice stuck her tongue out at him, gring at the older gentleman.

  He looked the duo over a few more times, the pair all but glued together as they held one another up, Alice still leaning on her cane with most all of her weight and her eyepatch still secured in pce, and Gwyn’s arm still mostly limp in its sling.

  “So you girls just leaving the hospital or something? You both look like you just went through hell or something.”

  “Oh, y-yeah, we left together not long ago… j-just a little work accident, is all, nothing serious!”

  “Yeah, this idiot here went and… well, she went and got herself smmed in the arm real good, and I went and… slipped and twisted something when I went to help.”

  “Damn, hell of a work injury… gd you both seem okay, at least.”

  “’Course I am, takes more than a few sprains to put me down… and I guess Gwyn here ain’t too bad either. Certainly gets as stubborn as I do, at least.”

  Alice nudged into her as she spoke, the tiniest bit of warmth melting onto her face as the corners of her mouth raised upwards, Gwyn nudging her back happily.

  “...so you girls just coworkers, then? Or are you both… y’know…?”

  Louie teasingly poked at Alice’s side, watching the two of them ck even the barest hint of subtlety as they clung together.

  It took Gwyn a few seconds to process what was being implied, her face heating up nearly instantly as she shyly looked away.

  “O-Oh, um, no we’re just… j-just, um… right, w-we’re simply good fr--”

  “We are, yeah.”

  Alice answered him as matter-of-factly as she possibly could have without even a moment’s hesitation, the pink shades of Gwyn’s face swiftly shooting into nuclear tones of red as she replied like a hammer smashing down through a pane of stained gss, the taller of the pair stammering incoherently as her poor brain attempted to process Alice’s instantaneous answer.

  For her part, Alice simply looked back at her with a half-confused look as her friend shortcircuited next to her, wholly oblivious to the cause of her reaction.

  “…what? Aren’t we?”

  “T-T-That’s, uh… it’s s-so… but, I… um, uh, w-we… we’re, um, I-I suppose…”

  Steam was practically pouring out from here ears as she tried and failed to recompose herself, face hot enough to melt snow, her gsses threatening to slip clear off of her face.

  “Hah! Shit, I didn’t mean to get you to break the poor girl!”

  Louie bellowed with ughter yet again, cpping the both of them on the back good and hard enough to snap them both back to attention, Gwyn still fully flustered as she unconsciously squeezed down around Alice tighter, the smaller girl leaning into her arm as she winced from yet another stiff smack to her spine.

  “Well, hell, I won’t keep you lovebirds from it, this old fart will get out of your hair already. You girls have a good night, and don’t go breaking anything else!”

  “Yeah, you have a good one too Louie. Don’t go causing more problems while I ain’t there to fix em, yeah?”

  The two old buddies waved each other off, the older man already rushing along to make up for lost time as Alice turned back to her companion, smiling contentedly up at her, bright and warm and sunny even as the sun itself set behind the buildings blocking the horizon from view.

  “Right, shit, we were supposed to be in a hurry yeah? Still dunno where we’re going, but I didn’t expect that old fuck to keep talking so long, heh.”

  Gwyn didn’t immediately reply, staring bnkly off into some middle distance.

  “…Gwyn? You, uh… you okay? Shit, I didn’t say something wrong, did I? I didn’t mean to fuck up our da--”

  Before she could finish that thought she was lurched forwards, grunting as she struggled to stay on her feet, Gwyn abruptly rushing forwards with a sheer volume of energy she wasn’t even aware she still had in her.

  “Gah…! Slow down, you’re gonna--”

  “…A-Aquarium!”

  “Eh…?”

  “Aquarium…!”

  It was the only full word Gwyn could manage to force out in response, all but dragging Alice along behind her as she sprinted forwards, an awkward, overjoyed smile firmly and immovably affixed to her lips, the poor other girl left to scramble as best as she could behind her as the pair of them rushed along into the early evening light towards their date.