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two months later ;
"SCULLY, don't go in there!"
Eleanor whips her head around to briefly look at Zuko and give him the finger before she continues to swing her legs into a hole of the roof she is sitting on and drop down to the floor below, her knees bent and weight mostly on her "good" leg (both are fine, but she'll always baby her previously broken shin).
She hears a distant "Fuck!" as she looks around the dark room, listening. A moment later she pulls her backpack off and manages to pull out a lantern before igniting it with a match and holding it up. Eleanor remains tense as she looks around the abandoned grocery store thanks to the glow of her light.
Dust coats the surfaces around her, cobwebs threaten to cling to her dark clothes, and small footsteps scurry all around her. She doesn't mind it; she has gotten used to it all.
A smile creeps on her face as she says, "Jackpot."
She grabs her bag and walks to a nearby shelf, plucking a plastic-wrapped twinkie from the dust and giving it a blow. Grinning, Eleanor silently thanks a higher power for whoever made the golden sweets immune to the end of the world.
Just as she opens the plastic casing and pulls the mask off of her face, she hears rustling in the aisle behind her and immediately freezes. She waits a moment before hearing it once again.
Highly disappointed, Eleanor drops her twinkie and pulls a gun out of the waistline of her jeans in one swift motion — Zuko taught her how to use it in their free time.
Inching toward the end of her aisle, Eleanor points her gun in front of her with one hand and holds the lantern up with the other. No matter how many times she has done this before, what with her and Zuko going out on their own, her heart still races and her pulse pounds in her ears as she rounds the corner.
The cat jumping down from a shelf doesn't make her scream — the loud thud behind her does. Eleanor wheels around and points her gun at her company.
"Whoa, it's just me!" Zuko says, his hands lifted. Eleanor sighs in relief, lowering her gun. "You were gonna shoot a cat?"
"Fuck off."
He chuckles, pulling the bandana off of his face and giving her a smile. In the light of the opening above him — they had saved the abandoned grocery store for the morning — Eleanor's handsome friend resembled an angel.
"Oh no," Eleanor starts in a sarcastic tone. "We're breaking the rules."
"There's no one around," he replies, stepping away from the light of the hole in the ceiling and toward her. She smiles at him. "You cleared the building, didn't you?"
