Jordan cleans up, first. He gets the gloves off, which is very difficult when they’re taped on to his wrists. It involves a lot of cursing and tearing at the tape with his teeth, but thankfully he didn’t cross close enough with a zombie that he thinks he needs to worry about their blood, or anything.
Once the gloves are off, he spends almost fifteen minutes in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and going to the toilet, and thoroughly washing his hands. He stares at his reflection for an uncomfortable long moment, but he can’t tell a difference. Doesn’t even know what he’s looking for, really.
In the hallway, he glances around for a clue. Sebastian is still, still disappeared somewhere in the house, and Jordan doesn’t know what to do. How to comfort him. What to say.
But Sebastian made him hot chocolate when he was sad, so Jordan will simply start there.
He turns on the music in the kitchen, something classical with no lyrics. He doesn’t recognize it. Doesn’t really need too—it’s Sebastian CD player, so it must be something he likes. Jordan hums along with it under his breath, grabbing the prettiest ceramic cup he finds with a nice purple color because Sebastian likes colors. He thinks. His nails are certainly always very pretty and colorful every time Jordan sees them. So. A colorful cup it is.
”Where is…” Jordan mutters to himself as he searches through the cupboards for the hot chocolate powder. He can’t make real hot chocolate—doesn’t have the skill for that. (And even if he did, it’d take so much time.)
He glances out the kitchen window as he works, waiting for the water to heat up in the water-cooker. (Or whatever it’s called. It’s the thing that just heats up water. That thing.) So while he waits for it to finish, Jordan keeps his eyes on the sunshine outside and the bit of the street he can see. The kitchen doesn’t face the alleyway, but the proper frontside street with the car roads and everything, and there, he can see the occasional zombie loitering.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
His eyes follow their trajectories. They’re slow, these ones. They’re not hunting anybody, he doesn’t think. They just… amble in circles. The ground is littered with trash and dead bodies, and cars stands abandoned everywhere. Some of the streetlights are tilted, the result of head-on collisions with cars.
The water cooker flicks off. Jordan starts, straightening and grabbing the tall coffee cup. ”Okay,” he mutters, eyeing the CD player when a new song (composition?) comes on. His gaze drifts back to the window—he can’t quite shake the feeling that if they’re too loud, the zombies will hear them. So the music is at a low volume, the same as the TV when he watches his shows.
The zombies doesn’t appear to notice anything. Jordan fills the cup with the steaming hot water and then puts in the chocolate drink powder according to the clear instructions. He debates for a second if he should add milk, or cold water. If the drink is too hot now. It’s still steaming, a little, so Jordan grabs a teaspoon and takes a small sip.
His tongue burns.
”Fuck,” Jordan spits the liquid he didn’t swallow into the sink, poking out his tongue and wheezing. He grimaces, his eyes almost watering. ”Shit,” he adds, just because it feels appropriate.
He gets some cold milk from the fridge (it’s expiring soon, anyway, so might as well use it) and pours a generous amount into the cup. Then he spends a long minute debating with himself if he should get a new spoon when he tests the temperature again. (He doesn’t know how sensitive Sebastian are to things like germs, if he cares about things like drinking from the same cup.) After scratching his head for almost a minute, Jordan decides to go for the safe option and gets another spoon.
With the cup in hand, Jordan leaves the kitchen. He glances through every doorway he can find, but Sebastian isn’t on the first floor.
The stairway to the second floor is narrow and steep, with disconcertingly high steps. It’s an old house, built before modern sensibilities infected the building of stairs.There is a lamp on the wall in the middle of the staircase, letting out a warm, yellow light. Jordan steps onto the landing, then, looking out at the long, straight hallway. There’s another floor above, but he’ll search here first.
Jordan finds his bedroom and the bathroom he usually uses in the morning. He finds another room full of boxes and a chair by the window. He finds a linen closet. He finds yet another room full of boxes, this one so tightly packed that he can’t even get in. He even finds a laundry room (although it’s a very strange place to have it).
But he doesn’t find Sebastian.
Jordan’s eyebrows furrow. He bites his lip as he continues up another floor, walking carefully so as to not spill the constantly cooling hot chocolate.
He’s never been on the hird floor, he realizes at the top of the stairs as gazes out at a hallway he doesn’t recognize. It’s not as straight as the one on the floor below; there’s a sharp turn at the end. He wonders what’s there.
Through the third doorway he searches on this floor, Jordan finally finds Sebastian. He blinks, for a moment caught off guard by his own success. Then he clears his throat and knocks on the doorframe.
Sebastian startles, turning to face him. Jordan tries to smile gently, kindly, softly. ”I got you some hot chocolate,” he says, not entering just yet. He won’t unless he gets permission. But Sebastian doesn’t answer, and so Jordan licks his lips. He almsot ducks his head, but fights it and instead asks, ”Are… you okay?”
No, he’s obviously not. Jordan knows that—has known from the beginning. But he still asks because… because he just wants to hear Sebastian say something.
A/N: Let’s get this show back on the road!
(p.s. advance chapters are available on patreon again, and the spin-off novel a field of scattered stars has already reached 23 (out of 92) chapters.)
Water-heater jordan!! Wth is a water-cooker 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you! I couldn’t for the life of me think of the word (it literally translates to water cooker from my language 😅) I’ll keep it in mind for the future 😊
What’s your language? 🙂
Thanks for the chapter~