hi home

[peachfuzz]

Connie had a terrible habit of wandering without notifying anyone that he'd be doing it. If no one ran into him while he was prepping to go, and asked what he was up to, he would leave people guessing when the last time they saw him was. He never planned on making anyone worry, of course, but Connie had long since gotten used to doing things on his own and though he liked the crowd he now ran with at the compound, it never occurred to him to report something like this to them.

It had only happened a few times in the month and a half since his arrival, and until then the longest he'd spent out was two nights. With all the fuss that was kicked up over that, he'd then tried to limit his outings to afternoon excursions or something that would get him in early the next morning before anyone realised he'd been gone at all, but this time he got distracted and ventured further without thinking on who might be wondering about his absence.

And so this time, it had been twelve days since anyone had last seen him.

He came back mid-morning with his old school backpack he'd managed to hang onto despite everything on one shoulder and a newly found but dirtied neon orange messenger bag over the other. Both were packed full of his findings, and he was chewing on some turkey jerky he'd uncovered in his travels as he strutted back into familiar territory.

His shirt had an entirely new tear in it, from getting snagged in a tree branch on his way down from where he'd been sleeping one night, and his hair tie had broken, leaving his mass of hair bobbing with every step, but Connie was, in fact, completely okay.

Comments

[peachfuzz]

The hours since his return had dragged on, somehow seeming more tiring than the combined time he'd spent out there. He hadn't expected there to be such a fuss about it, that it would be a significantly bigger deal than when he'd been out those two nights.

Connie had proven he'd been able to go out alone before, but people still had actually thought he might have died. And honestly, Connie felt awful about making his new friends worry that much. He felt like he'd let them down, and it was weighing on him heavily. He wondered if this is guilty, scolded feeling was what his little brother went through when Connie had freaked out from worry over his broken arm at the hospital the morning after it happened. If not for the fact that no one let him, he might have skipped dinner, just to sleep it all off.

He was sitting on the floor, and had a hammer within arms reach. When he heard footsteps, Connie instinctively reached for it, but relaxed before his palm hit the handle. This was someone familiar, not the long dragging steps of a walker. He pulled back and resumed brushing through his drying hair, pulling out the last of what bits of leaves he hadn't managed to shake his run under the showers.

He only looked up when he'd finally been addressed.

"Oh, hey Bertolt."

[bertall]

When he finally spots the hammer on the ground, Bertolt goes on the defensive for a few seconds. It's easy to understand why he has the hammer, but at the same time it leaves him feeling uneasy. It's not stopping him from raising his hands up in both defense and to show he's unarmed though.

"...Want some help?"

He gestures to his hair, a small frown on his face. Part of him wanted to chew Connie out, but the other part wanted to make sure he was okay with his own eyes.

[peachfuzz]

Connie wouldn't fault Bertolt if he was armed, honestly. He himself found it hard to walk around without anything on hand. It wasn't like he had a gun or knew how to use one even if he did, so he liked to keep near whatever it was that made him feel safe at the time.

"Sure, man. Thanks."

He gave one last run through his hair, almost certain he'd gotten everything, but he'd slept in a tree more than once over the past two weeks and he always spent the next days finding a leaf or two that slipped past his notice. It couldn't hurt. Plus, he'd been reminded more than once that day that accepting a friends help every so often would hurt even less.

[bertall]

He trusts the people in the compound more than he'd like to admit, even if he was still afraid of the day they discover his, Reiner, and Annie's secret. They were good people. Smart people.

"I used to get sticks stuck in my hair all the time when I was younger, so I know how it is."

Before the military, that is. He looks both ways down the hall, then he slips into Connie's room and carefully takes a seat behind him to start running his fingers through his hair. Hello, tiny leaf! "...We were worried sick about you, you know."

[peachfuzz]

"I never did," he admitted, leaning into the touch on his hair a little. Sasha had taken to floofing his curls a lot, but mostly it was only ever him taking care of his own hair, and it felt nice. "Ever. When I was five I wanted to start shaving my head like every month. My mom talked me down into just getting a buzzcut every other one, so this is seriously the longest it's ever been."

He'd actually gone three months without a cut prior to everything, and after all his wandering and time in the compound, his hair had now done over a years worth of growing.

He turns so Bertolt can get the back of his head, and also so he doesn't have to look at him. He was wondering if Bertolt was going to say something about that, too. "Yeah... Sorry. I'm an idiot sometimes."

[bertall]

Bertolt makes an appreciative sound when Connie turns, picking out a few more leaves and some bark fragments that must've been hidden. It's been far too long since he's been able to fuss over someone's hair like this - not counting Reiner's, anyway. It's just as relaxing.

"There was this forest around where we grew up that we'd play in. Reiner and I have been inseparable since we could walk, so wherever he'd go I'd follow. I'd always hide in the bushes when we played hide and go seek, so every time we'd go home my mom would plop me down just like this and fuss over me." It's silly, but he felt like he needed to share that with Connie. It's something familiar at least.

He removes one hand from his hair to rest on Connie's shoulder, even going as far as to offer a small squeeze. "Reiner and I, we... worry a lot. I worry a lot. He tries to keep me calm, but we more or less promised to look after everyone here." Too many people have died because of them. If they could keep this ragtag group of survivors alive, then at least they could pretend to atone. "I don't want to lose another person I care about, so please... Please, try to not do that again. Not without letting us know at least."

[peachfuzz]

Connie closed his eyes as Bertolt continued to pick through his hair, managing to relax a little under the attention. He listened to the story, thinking for a long moment about the ways his own mother used to fuss over him. Admittedly, he'd been troublesome and had given her far too many reasons to worry and fuss, but at least he could look back on that fondly now.

He sighed at the squeeze to his shoulder, staring and picking at a spot on the hem of his pants that had frayed.

"I won't. Seriously. I didn't mean to make everyone so worried. I just got so used to doing shit by myself since everything happened, and I kinda keep forgetting it doesn't have to be like that any more."

[bertall]

Bertolt doesn't mean to worry to much about him, but over the weeks he's started to view Connie as a little brother of sorts. It's definitely what Berwick would've done. "...Just between you and me, I used to be like that - set in my own ways, I mean. Before Reiner and I met Marco and Jean, it used to just be four of us. Reiner, Annie, Berwick, and myself. We..." He frowns softly, his stomach starting to drop as he starts to pick through his words. "We ended up losing Berwick and getting separated from Annie. After that, it was just the two of us for what felt like years to me. When we found Freckles and Ponyboy Kirschstein, I was terrified that they'd turn on us like other groups did to people."

Like what people did to lone soldiers or a small group of injured and weak ones.

"They didn't, but it took me a long time to stop looking over my shoulder so much. It's hard trying to adapt in this world but we look out for our own. You're one of us." Whether Connie likes it or not, he's family in Bertolt's eyes. Maybe they never would've met before the outbreak, but that's in the past. Right here, right now, that's what they were to Bertolt. Until something made Reiner change his mind or someone hurt him, that's how it'd stay, no matter how uneasy he felt from time ot time.