Snippet #2232862

Nathan wasn't sure was what more surprising at this point: Eden's sudden flare of anger towards him, her surprisingly sad and touching words after he'd found her again or the sudden hug she forced onto him out of the blue. This definitively stirred some obvious emotion from him though it was hard to tell if it was good or bad. He lifted his arms up and away from her as his back went completely stiff, practically no movement occurring other than the odd and somewhat violent twitch in his right eye. While his mostly hidden face made it hard to tell exactly must have been going through his head, what was visible made it pretty obvious that he was shocked by the ordeal. Of course Nathan could hardly help himself. Pleasant physical contact aside from a greeting handshake was a rare and intimate thing back home. The last person who'd done something like this was his mother back when he was still just a kid and she was still alive. A few seconds ticked on by for what felt like an eternity before Eden let go of him. Nathan lowered his arms and let out a deep breathe that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, the mask making it sound dull and odd. He was honestly not sure if he should apologize or ask for one at that point.

It seems like the short time the two had spent apart was more than enough for Eden to get her spark back as she began to go on about bettering the world and one's self, ever the optimist. Though he kept his eyes steady, Nathan was frowning under the mask. Not because he was bothered by her continuing attempts to make him feel better but how wrong she was about so much of it. Even if Nathan had the will to change the world for the better, he knew that he didn't have the time to make any of it a reality. Eden still assumed he'd simply been injured or crippled in some way like her and the others. She didn't know that his burden in his own world was that he was dying. Somehow her not knowing made the words cut all the deeper. Luckily she managed to break out of her surprisingly dark speech with an utterly silly note as she pointed out his mask. Nathan lightly held onto one of the nozzles and tugged it lightly. "It's a gas mask. During the war people used a lot of bizarre weapons. Poisons transferred through the air was just one way. I scaveneged it when it was younger and I..." There was the briefest of pauses before Nathan finished his sentence. "I'd been needing it for the last few days before I arrived Here." The illness that had been - and was technically still in some way or another - eating away at him had been quick to do a number on his immune system. The mask had been there just so that he couldn't breathe something very common that would end up killing him. Of course he didn't need it Here. Or at least not for the same reasons....