HEART FOR BRAINS • the walking dead

037: close call

Light was peeking through the moth-eaten curtains when Carl began to stir, peering over at Rio to see if he was awake. The boy had his eyes closed but his act was broken when he began smirking, aware that Carl was looking over at him.

"Morning." He smiled.

Rio peeked an eye open and smiled back. "Good morning."

'Did you even sleep?' Carl signed to the other boy as he got up.

'No.' Rio replied honestly, rubbing his eye as he propped himself onto his elbows.

'Why?'

"Missing people." He shrugged, hoping it sounded as nonchalant as he wanted it to.

The other boy knelt down, searching through the bag at the end of the couch. He pulled out a pack of cereal, holding it out to Rio.

"Do you want breakfast?"

"As long as you don't poison it." He grumbled, burying his face into the cushion.

Carl left for the kitchen, sitting down at the small round table and pouring two bowls of cornflakes. He hesitated for a moment before grabbing a third bowl and pouring another.

Rio stood in the doorway, watching him. He'd tied his bloody shirt around his waist now left with the long sleeve he wore underneath.

He sat down on the stool opposite Carl, grabbing himself a spoon to eat his dry cereals with.

"Do you want to go upstairs?" Carl asked.

"We can't eat upstairs." Rio mumbled, mouth half full.

"Sure we can, no one's here." He smiled.

"Okay."

They headed upstairs, Rio setting his bowl down on the desk as Carl ate. He searched through the piles of books, looking for one that seemed even a little bit interesting. He tossed a few to Carl who caught them, flipping through the first few pages. Rio sat on the bed next to him, looking over his shoulder at the books.

'Which one do you wanna read?'

'None'

'And why not?'

'Not interested' He shrugged.

Rio just poked his tongue out at the boy and kept flipping through the books.

"So, are we gonna talk about it?" Carl asked between mouthfuls.

'It?'

"What happened the night before..." he continued speaking.

'We kissed.'

'Yeah.'

"You can say that you know."

"I know." He defended. "So are we like boyfriends now?"

Rio thought about it for a second. 'I guess.' Then he sat down beside the boy. 'Do you wanna be?'

'Yeah. Sounds cool.'

'Are you gonna kiss me again?'

'I mean, if you insist.'

"Asshole." Rio scoffed before leaning in again, giggling as he kissed Carl.

The two sat on the bed for a while, just talking and laughing and kissing. Rio began reading a book as Carl tried talking to him. He then turned to signing when the boy wasn't paying attention to him.

'You know, you're getting pretty good' Rio admitted as he put down the book he'd been reading.

'At kissing?' Carl burst out laughing.