Undead Love

Xzavier stretches his body, lifting his skeletal hand to rub his neck, trying to get the pain from sleeping wrong to leave. It, unfortunately for him, doesn't. He groans, falling back onto his pillow. 

It was years after the initial zombie breakout, and it was a surprise that he had cared to live through it all. Now however, zombies and humans are living in the same space, somewhat peacefully. Every so often, someone acted out against either race and it was never taken far into it until something happened to them. 

Not that it matters to Xzavier, nothing much mattered to him anymore after doctors were able to bring zombies back to a state of at least some sense, if they didn't already have it. 

He gets out of bed, rubbing his eyes and glancing at himself in the mirror. At least he wasn't rotting anymore...though, he was disappointed that only his left arm took the majority of it. Sure he had a small hole on his right cheek and a little on his mouth, but other than his skeletal lower half of his arm and hand, he looked relatively normal. For a zombie, that is.

Speech had become easier to translate and learn with time, classes even being taught for both humans and zombies to learn each other's 'language'. Xzavier had to learn on his own, not really being liked by both zombies and humans. He ignored it though, not seeing the need to fight over being liked or not. 

It was rather peaceful being alone in a post-apocalyptic world. He didn't have to worry about food, much less getting killed if he just so happened to take a step near a human, despite the human needing help themselves. Whatever though, wasn't his problem.

He drags his feet over to his closet, pulling out the first pair of jeans he sees and a black v-neck. Getting changed, he runs his skeletal hand through his hair before grabbing a pair of socks and putting them on before he slips on his converse.

Xzavier walks out of his room, getting greeted by a bloody person on his couch, sleeping soundly, curled up under a blanket. His mind drifts back to last night, trying to remember as to how a stranger got on his couch. But, nothing comes to mind...luckily the couches were black too.

He walks over to the man, shaking him with his non-skeletal hand. "Breaking into people's houses is illegal, man, I'd leave if I were you."

The man groans, and it takes Xzavier a second to realize that it's both a groan of exhaustion and pain. His eyes crack open as he shoots up and curls himself in a corner of the couch. "Like I said, I'd leave before the cops get involved and I'd rather not have that happen for either of us."

"I'm...sorry." The man shakes his head before pulling out a leather, badge holder, showing his police badge and id. "I wasn't aware this place was taken and I couldn't see that well...in the dark."

The man, who Xzavier read to be named Andrew Mothine, looked over at his arm, noticing the lack of...everything. Xzaver waves his hand in front of his face. "Don't look at the arm, or say shit about the fact that I'm a zombie. I just wanted to have a quiet morning, not a stranger on my couch judging me."

"I wasn't meaning to stare, or look judgmental...my apologies." Xzavier rolls his eyes, pointing to the front door.

"There's where you should go right now. I now have to clean up blood from...god knows what." Andrew nods, standing up almost instantly after before sucking a breath between his teeth and falling back on the couch. He clutches his waist before his shirt darkens more than it already is, the scent of blood catching Xzavier's nose quicker than he would've liked. "Or...not, fucking hell that's strong."

He turns his head away before holding out his hand. "The wound is fresh, right?"

"Yea...that's why I stumbled in here last night. I wasn't able to patch it up correctly in the dark...sorry." Andrew pauses, looking at his hand before grabbing it loosely and standing when Xzavier pulls him up. 

"Just stop apologizing for one second, that isn't helping me focus on anything other than your wound." Shaking his head, he drags him to his bathroom, opening the door. "Sit on the edge of the tub."

"I thought you wanted me to leave."

"Not with that wound. There's too much shit going on with my race to begin with, seeing a wounded police officer walk out of my apartment isn't something I want to be known for. Sit." Andrew listens and Xzavier opens a cupboard, pulling out gauze, and peroxide, making sure to also grab the wash cloth from his stand. He wets down the cloth and goes over to Andrew. "Lift your shirt."

Andrew looks at Xzavier, before nodding slowly and lifting his shirt just enough to show the full wound. Despite the little Xzavier actually knows about wounds, it's obviously a stab wound...and by how much blood is around the wound and on the shirt...it was slightly deep, but not deep enough to seriously injure him. "Want to explain how you got through my locked door while I generously clean your wound?"

Before he's able to nod again, he jumps at the cold cloth touching his skin suddenly, with just enough force to clean off the blood, but to not hurt him when it goes over the cut. "I...have no idea honestly. I just remember a fight, and then I stumbled into the building, rushed through the first door I could see in the darkness and then collapsed on a couch. I forget how I got through the door..." 

"Loss of blood got to your head." Xzavier drains the water from the cloth and gets the blood from it before putting peroxide on the wash cloth. "This is gonna sting, so I'd hold on to something."

Andrew nods again and sucks in another breath when the peroxide touches his wound. "Are you even supposed to be using this...?"

"Do you want an infected cut? I don't have shit lying around for wounds like this." Xzavier finishes cleaning the wound and wipes off the peroxide that got on the outside, grabbing the gauze next. He unravels it and lifts the other side of Andrew's shirt, wrapping the gauze around his body before pausing when Andrew asks a question.

"What's your name?" He looks at the gauze before closing it, looking up at him.

"Xzavier." 

"Just that?"

"That's all you need to know. Now get your shirt off, I need to wash it." Andrew's face goes red, shoving his shirt over the gauze.

"I'll be fine like this. Thank you for doing this..." Xzavier stops him from getting up, standing and bending down to see eye to eye with him.

"That's not how I roll. I want no blood on your clothes when you leave my apartment so people don't look at me like I've done something. So, Andrew, take your shirt off." His voice was low and his tone was demanding, part of his greyed out hair falling in front of one of his eyes. 

Andrew complied again, taking his shirt off slowly before handing it to him. Xzavier grabs it, running it under cold water before snapping and letting his thumb point to the door. "Go out and grab the blanket you used. I'm washing that too."

"But it's not coming out with me..."

"Yea, but human blood makes me go nuts. Just grab the blanket." Andrew freezes for just a second before rushing out of the room, returning with the blanket. Xzavier grabs it and lays the shirt on top of it. He walks out of the room and into his laundry room, hearing Andrew follow him. "Do you want something?"

"No, I'm just curious as to why you're helping me...I broke into your house...your reputation isn't the only thing is it?"

"If I don't want to get killed. Yes it is." He stuffs the blanket and the shirt in the washer, sets the water setting to cold and adds some detergent, starting it right after. "Cops are violent towards zombies, and if it looks like I hurt one of them, they'll be after me in no time. I'm only doing this to save my own ass."

"That's a harsh way of saying yes." 

"The only way I know." He shuts the lid, leaning against the washing machine. "How'd you get stabbed?"

"Now you can't just do that. You've answered none of my questions the way you know I wanted them answered...you can't just keep asking them."

"I can and I can answer questions the way I want to answer them. I'm not asking you about your family. I'm just asking how you got stabbed." Xzavier crosses his arms, looking down at Andrew.

"I tried to break up a fight. It got bloody, obviously, and here we are." Andrew wraps his arms around himself, looking around.

"You look terrified. Something the matter?" Xzavier raises his eyebrow, a smirk peeking at the corners of his lips. "Maybe it's the fact that I'm a zombie?"

Andrew glances at him and shakes his head. "It's cold and you have my shirt."

"You'll get it back after it's done drying. Besides, it's the beginning of fall and in the morning, were you expecting it to be hot?" Xzavier pauses, looking around until he spots an extra blanket before sighing, grabbing it and wrapping it around Andrew's shoulders. "You wore a t-shirt too. No wonder you collapsed."

"You sound so careless, yet, you're scolding a stranger for wearing a t-shirt in the fall."

"Is the fact that you got stabbed not sinking into your head?" He flicks Andrew's head with his skeletal hand, bending down again to face him. "You weren't planning to be stabbed, that's a given, but it's. fucking. fall. A long sleeve would've been at least warmer. You don't have to be a medical genius to realize that cold is bad for wounds."

"I didn't know I was going to break up a knife fight."

"That's pretty obvious." He stands straight walking towards the doorway. "Come on. I need to clean the couch."

"You're going to make me help aren't you?" Despite the question though, Andrew goes to his side, walking with him into the living room.

"I have half a nerve to make you help. But if you bend, your wound might open and that'll be worse for you than it will for me." Xzavier watches him pause before going into his kitchen, wetting another cloth with cold water and grabbing a cleaning spray made for cloth.

He walks back to the couch, spraying down the dark spots with the strong iron scent connected to it. Wiping down the couch, well, more like scrubbing violently in Xzavier's case, his eyes go over to Andrew, seeing him bundled up in the blanket.

"...Your house is nice." Xzavier pauses, looking away before spraying the couch one last time and wiping the spot before it goes back to it's normal black.

"...Thanks." He stands, placing the cloth and the bottle on the counter. "It's nothing much, though I can't move because I don't get that many offers for higher paying jobs with this."

Xzavier holds up his skeletal hand, shoving it in his pocket after Andrew looks at it with curious interest. "How does your hand stay on like that?"

He shrugs, saying simply, "I don't know. Never thought about it."

"Not once?"

"I was more focused on not rotting more." Andrew lifts his head up, nodding and making an 'ah' sound.

"That makes sense." Xzavier nods, looking away before hearing the washer stop. He rushes past Andrew and goes into the laundry room. He opens the door, taking the blanket and the shirt out before throwing them in the dryer, starting it right after.

He didn't know how he could keep conversation, or even act that teasing towards someone he barely knows and the same person who broke into his house. Xzavier pinches his arm, barely feeling a thing but letting it snap him back into reality...before getting sucked right back in.

Andrew places his hand on Xzavier's shoulder, making him jump and turn around quickly, grabbing his wrist. "Don't."

"I didn't mean to do anything uncalled for. You were just zoning out." Xzavier glances away, letting go of his wrist, watching his arm hide back in the blanket. "I don't think I've mentioned it before...but you seem familiar to me. But I don't think I've seen you around."

Now that he mentions it...he does look familiar, but it must have been between passing or something else. He never even knew his name until he saw the id. "Same...I guess? You look familiar but a lot of people do to me."

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"Take it as either. Doesn't matter to me." Andrew nods yet again, looking over at the window and outside of his apartment.

The dryer stopped and Andrew finally got his warm shirt back, finally able to leave. "I can't thank you enough for helping me..."

"Enough with the thanking. I did it for my reputation and my life. Though, if you really want to show me thanks...Boba tea shop. Tomorrow at four. If you know what's good for you, you'll be there." Andrew flushes, glancing away from Xzavier before smiling, looking back up at him.

"I'll be there. See you then..." And with that, he walks out, shutting the door afterwards and leaving Xzavier alone, letting him instantly realize what he did and realize that he just set up a date with a human. This should be interesting.