THANK FUCK, it didn't take long to find some form of civilisation near the tracks. It must've taken them around three or four hours to find the run-down suburbs that stemmed off of their original path, and after Ralph had secured the perimeter and checked for any creeps for stray Infected, they got to work calling dibs on a house and finding a safe space to rest Joel.

They had spent the night there, and by the morning, the three of them were right back to their respective jobs of caring for the man and making sure he was feeling as comfortable as he could have under these circumstances. It was difficult to make a dirty, damp, freezing cold basement feel homey, but they were trying their best. It was a team effort.

Ralph hadn't slept that night. He had sacrificed his much-needed beauty sleep to make sure Joel was okay. He had also sacrificed his coat too, which left him in that icicle of a room in a tank top. They could tell he was freezing, but he refused any piece of clothing that had been insisted upon him and requested for it to be given to Joel instead.

He kneeled there all night at Joel's beside, one hand pressing firmly against his stomach, the other messing with his head full of dark grey curls and fiddling with his messy beard to either keep himself entertained or to make Joel stay somewhat conscious. For all the complaining he did when he was under Ellie and Lou's care, Joel sure seemed to love Ralph's.

Right now, he was under Ellie's, and it was no surprise that the groaning and writhing had begun again, desperate attempts to try and get her away from him.

'Don't be so rough on him.' Ralph said tiredly, shuffling forward to take over her shift as he had been doing for the past seven or eight hours. Ellie, who was putting her full body weight under both of her palms, moved when he made her, nudging her to the side gently. 'The way you're doing it, you're forcing more blood out.'

'You said that last time.' She said grumpily, sighing at him.

"Cause you were doing it wrong last time as well.' He didn't mean to be such a dick about it, but he was also pretty sure that he was beginning to hear colors with all the stress and the tiredness, and the hunger building up. So, social cues weren't his main priority. As he held the cloth over Joel's stomach, he started to yawn.

'Jesus, would you go to sleep already?' Lou ordered, snatching the fabric from him and taking matters into her own hands. Joel began to groan again, and Ralph bit the inside of his cheek, staring down at the man on the floor.

'You said you had to pee, like, two hours ago.' Ellie added. Now that she had mentioned it, Ralph had remembered that he really needed to fucking pee. It took him a moment of hesitation and encouraging nods from Ellie and Lou for him to get off of his ass and jog over to the bathroom at the far side of the basement, clicking the lock behind him.

The girls shared a sigh of relief, grateful that Mister Bossy Pants was gone for the time being, and Lou shortly went back to pressing down on the injury beneath her hands. Joel huffed out a breath, head tilting back and face scrunching up, until he let out that same breath a moment later and Lou realized that he was trying to say something.

'Leave.' He whispered, looking at her with wide, glassy eyes that stared right into the back of her head. She didn't know what to say, just stared at him and shook her head. He nodded at her. 'Take Ellie. Take the gun.'

'We're not leaving you here.' Ellie interjected shaking her head left to right and looking around for Ralph to inform him of the miracle of Joel speaking. She stopped searching for him when Joel used what was left of his strength to grab Lou by the collar, tugging her close.

'Go, Lou.' He ordered softly, voice wavering. 'You two go. Go North, go to Tommy. He'll help. Go.'

He let go of her with a small shove, and she landed on her ass with her arms thrown out behind her, thinking about what he had just said.

With Ralph here, there was a bit more security in the situation, but they all knew that they had no idea what they were doing. Ellie was too aggressive, Lou was too scared, Ralph was too controlling, and Joel was too resistant.

Maybe, if they did go and find Tommy, they would be better off. He could bring resources from Jackson, a team of guys with guns taller than Ellie, maybe he would even bring Bowie to come and see them because Lou knew that he was worried sick about her, even if he was too awkward to admit it.

Across from her, Ellie was already getting to her feet, reaching for the jacket at Joel's feet and tugging it up to his chest. It was then that she finally hesitated, looking over at Lou with a blank face, waiting for her opinion on it all.

Lou sighed and grabbed the gun that was leaning against the wall.

...

RALPH RETURNED JUST IN TIME TO HEAR THE DOOR SHUT ABOVE HIM, furrowing his eyebrows at Joel when Lou and Ellie were missing all of a sudden as if he was expecting an answer. Joel didn't reply to him, only turned his head to make sure it was Ralph walking towards him, and then looked back up at the ceiling. Joel's rifle was gone.

'Where are they?' Ralph asked, looking around and beginning to set foot for the door. Joel doubted that he was going to climb up the steps and leave him there, but the fear of that happening still spiked inside of him.

'Hunting.' Joel replied quietly, scrunching his nose when the words jolted the shirt that was against his abdomen. He had no clue if they were actually hunting. He had hoped that the two of them had used what little common sense they shared to take his advice and go find Tommy, taking the horses and pocketfuls of ammo with them.

Ralph relaxed, the small amount of fear in his eyes melting away when he looked back at Joel and smiled at him. Joel felt bad for lying, but he didn't let on. Then, the spot next to Joel on the floor was being filled again, in the same way it had been occupied for forever.

Ralph sat with his knees in front of him, slumped forward with bad posture, and he stared around the room for a while, most likely worrying about Lou and Ellie.

After a long while of consideration, Joel felt bad for keeping him here. For ordering Lou to take Ellie and make a break for it, to leave the one person who could protect them behind. He felt bad. Felt greedy. Like a burden. Must've shown on his face.

'You're gonna be fine.' Ralph said softly, even though that wasn't Joel's concern in the slightest. He was far more worried about the three of them. Ralph faced him, resting his cheek on the top of his knees and staring down at him. He shifted the blanket that covered Joel so that it was bunched around his neck, smiling a little bit. That smile didn't reflect what was about to come out of his mouth next. '...I'm sorry.'

Joel looked at him, or at least attempted to.

'Should've told you about the Fireflies, Jo.' He mumbled, speech muffled by the way he was seated. 'I was such a dick to you whenever you asked about it. You had every right to be confused or angry about it, man. Every right. I should've told you the truth.'

Joel stirred where he was laying, weakly shaking his head. To argue, Ralph nodded his head, sighing softly as he dragged his palm over the top of Joel's head, brushing it out of his face.

'I was hoping you had forgotten.' Ralph murmured softly, continuing. 'Whole way out here, I was worried sick all the time, praying you forgot.'

'Didn't.' He huffed softly, shaking his head left and right once more. 'Didn't forget, but it didn't matter. I... I care about you. I don't care 'bout that, Al. I- Ow, I don't care.'

Ralph didn't reply to him. Instead, he offered a soft smile and another pat of the hair, straightening his legs out in front of him when they began to cramp surprisingly easily.

He wasn't able to pull them back up to his chest because Joel had shifted and was now resting his temple against Ralph's thigh, whimpering a little when it caused the pressure on his wound to shift. The spark of pain was short-lived, only lasted for a small while until the usual throbbing and stinging returned. Joel didn't care, he was more comfortable like this.

Ralph's forearm rested across his forehead as he tucked curls behind Joel's ear, pulling his arm away to wrap it loosely around his neck in a sort of hug.

Ralph's arm was ice cold, freezing and covered in goosebumps. Made sense because his coat was wrapped around Joel (too small to fit) and his overshirt was long gone. His arms were exposed, strong with muscles that had been in development ever since Boston, coated in hairs that were standing on end, marked with a swirly R on the top of his bicep.

The ink was faded to a light grey, though Joel was sure there was a time when it was bright in color and he was ecstatic about the piece of art. He wondered if he showed it to people, went through a phase where he only wore T-shirts just so it would be seen and praised. Then, he remembered the meaning behind it and doubted it strongly. He had a feeling that that might not've been the real meaning though, not with the way Ralph had interrupted Lou during her explanation of it all those months ago.

'"R?"' He repeated gruffly, clearing his dry throat and tilting his head to see it better.

Ralph nodded, lips pursed into a line. '...R is for Reneya. Ren. My wife. She had an R too, hers was for Ralph.'

That makes a lot more sense now, Joel thought to himself, staring at the tattoo, frankly unable to take his eyes off of it as he thought more and more about Ralph being married, more and more about this mysterious woman. Not in a jealous way, just curious.

'I can tell you about her, if you want.' He proposed with a shrug, reading his mind and suggesting that to try and answer any question Joel might've had.

Joel nodded, and Ralph smiled at him.

...

DESPITE BEING A PRETTY BIG NERD, Ralph didn't like school very much. Well, he didn't like high school. He had quite a few friends, but he always kept to himself and that meant that he was bound to get picked on no matter what. That dreaded family tradition didn't help at all, because he had been universally named "Army Boy" for the rest of his high school career- Even though every boy in that school would end up enrolling anyway, so the insult didn't make sense in the first place. Weirdos.

It was pathetic, but that was one of the many reasons he came to America for school. He made a list of them, actually, and was required to show them to his mom and dad before he graduated so they could think it over. His dad surprisingly agreed, probably happy to get rid of his "disappointment" of a son. His mom was far more hesitant, but after enough pushing, she gave in.

So, now, there was a dorm at MIT that Ralph had a key to, and he shared it with some dumb fuck named Tyler... Something. He thought that, with it being MIT, only one of the most prestigious schools in the world, there would've been far fewer frat boys and way more nerds, but he stood corrected.

Well, he was walking corrected- Limping, more like it, because Tyler No-Last-Name had dumped his brick of a backpack into Ralph's arms so he could run off and go set up another one of his dumb drug parties. That, accompanied by Ralph's own backpack and the one that he was safekeeping for his friend, Aurora, left his skinny ass waddling around like a penguin while he tried to balance them all.

Of course, nobody offered to help as he stood there with two occupied shoulders and a bag's handle between his teeth.

Apart from one girl, the one in the dorm next to his and Tyler's, the one in a few of his English classes.

She had bright red-dyed hair, the one thing that made her stand out the most to him. He hadn't seen her face very much until now because she sat in front of him. She was really pretty. Like, really pretty. She had brown eyes and pale skin and she was smiling at him like she wasn't really sure of what she was witnessing.

'Are you okay?' She asked, even if she already knew the answer. She was entering her dorm too, or at least she was going to until she saw the disaster standing next to him. Ralph tried to reply, but forgot that his mouth was occupied, so it left his lips as a weird kind of growling noise.

The smile remained on her face, even as she furrowed her eyebrows and stepped forward to pluck the bag from between his teeth.

'Fine, thanks.' He lied quickly, still digging around in his pockets for his keys that had apparently evaporated from existence. He swore he had put them in his pockets when he was speaking to Aurora, but they weren't there anymore.

'You don't look very fine.' She spoke with an accent. The Japan pin on the strap of her backpack ruled that out easily. Ralph was also speaking with an accent at this stage in life, but he had no pins to show off his heritage. He made a mental note to go buy some. 'Why do you need three backpacks?'

'I don't. One's mine.' He kneeled down on the gross, carpeted floors of the dormitory and began to rifle through his bag in search of his keys.

'Where are the other two from?' She asked, raising Tyler's bag by her face and squinting at it as if it would answer her. He smiled a little bit, and then shrugged because the panic of being locked out was beginning to set in and the idea of sitting around in this sketchy hallway was not appealing. 'Did you find your keys?'

'Nope.' He sighed, standing back up and swinging his bag back over his shoulder, holding his hand out to take Tyler's back. She didn't hand it to him.

'I know your name.' She said randomly, frowning at him. He was confused by this, until he realized that she was thinking out loud and that negative expression was her trying to remember it. He let her hash it out inside her brain, and got to work trying to remember hers. 'Raphael! You're Raphael... Something.'

He nodded and smiled, really beginning to rack his brain. Eventually, it popped up. 'Reneya. You're Reneya Something.'

'Nguyen.' She nodded back at him, grinning.

'Zhenya.' He reciprocated, nodding for maybe the millionth time.

It went quiet, an awkward kind of quiet as she smiled at him and he smiled back, completely out of topics for conversation.

He had heard lots of things about Reneya, now that he had thought about it. Not bad things, no bad things at all. Everyone had good things to say about her, as a matter of fact. Talking about how kind she was, how she was pretty, and smart, and generous, and slightly abnormal (but in a good way). He understood it now- At least the pretty and kind part.

'Do you want to wait in my room?' She proposed, helping him to understand the generous part as well. 'Until your friend gets back?'

'Uh, I probably shouldn't- Oh, okay.' Ralph was already being led into her room by the sleeve of his flannel, occupied arms leaving him defenseless against this sweet girl. She closed the door behind him, and he looked around.

He had never been in a girl's dorm before, and he found that pretty self-explanatory. It was far neater than his and Tyler's, and every other male-owned dorm he had been in, which was a handful of them. Ren shared her dorm with a girl named Lindsey, and he knew that because Tyler and her were currently hooking up and were super loud about it and it made Ralph want to jump out of a window.

'Tidy.' He nodded approvingly as Ren slipped his bags off of his shoulders and placed them on the carpet, making him at home right away. She was taking the final bag from him, his bag, when she furrowed her eyebrows at him.

'You have nice skin.' She ran her knuckles over his cheek to confirm her suspicions, and nodded to herself. He understood the abnormal part now, too.

Completely weirded out, Ralph crossed his arms over his chest and watched as she darted from one corner of the room to the other expertly, rearranging a few things here and there, mumbling in her first language, and returning with an armful of DVDs.

He couldn't help but wonder if this tiny, strange woman was dragging people into her room, touching their faces, and chucking DVDs at them was a natural thing, but she certainly didn't seem phased by anything she was doing. Maybe this was just how girls were. He didn't know. He kind of liked it, liked her, in a way.

Ren smiled at him, bright and happy. 'What's your favorite movie?'

...

RALPH'S SUMMER VACATION FOUND HIM IN JAPAN, spending time with the Nguyens rather than his real family back in Korea. In fact, he liked it better over here. He didn't speak any Japanese, which sucked because he couldn't even communicate with Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen without Ren being present to translate everything, but he was getting along alright. They liked him, or so his friend allowed him to blissfully believe.

It was no big shocker that after that fateful backpack incident and watching a bunch of K-Dramas together, Ralph and Ren became joined at the hip. Like, seriously. They did everything together. They had even secretly swapped dorms, banishing Lindsey and Tyler into the same room so they could be together all the time.

If Ralph went to the vending machine, Ren was going with him. If Ren was walking to class, Ralph was walking with her. If Ralph was sneezing, Ren would be there to say "bless you". If Ren was crying, Ralph would be there with a box of tissues and a tub of ice cream and telling her that whatever boy broke her heart was ugly in the first place.

They were inseparable to the highest degree- Even their rooms at the Nguyen house were directly next to each other, and most nights they would fall asleep in the company of each other.

And, of course, when a guy and a girl act like that, then come the dating rumors. At first, it started off small. A few questions from Tyler, a handful of jokes from Lindsey, and that was that. Until Aurora found out about the room swap, and told someone in her biology class. Then, the biology person spread it to someone in their German class. The German kid spread it to another German kid, and then that German kid spread it to a maths kid- You get the idea.

It wasn't that long until the whole Freshman year at MIT were making jokes about "Ralphea" and talking about the two of them like they were some sort of holy grail, praising their every move, calling them a match made in heaven, yada-yada.

None of it was true, obviously. They loved each other, of course, they did, but not like that. No way like that.

Actually, Ren was the first person Ralph came out to.

It was when they were watching some cringey American rom-com, and he had let it slip that he found the male lead cute. That wasn't a big enough deal for Ren to launch an investigation, but she eventually figured it out when she walked in on Ralph sleeping with some art student the following day. That led her to believe that he might've been a teenie bit gay.

She was supportive because she was the best person ever, and nothing else was said about it. Ren would always try to set Ralph up with any and every gay guy she encountered, and he always said no, but he thought it was wishful thinking rather than offensive.

They weren't dating. Ralph saw her as his little sister, and Ren saw him as her big brother. Although, in hindsight, he was very glad that they weren't brother and sister because that would've made the following conversation very awkward.

Ren plopped down next to Ralph on the grass, smacking his cap off of his sleeping face and causing the sun to blind him. In an instant, he rolled onto his stomach to shield himself, but she grabbed his wrist and rolled him back over to face her as if she had planned this all out. He peeked through the gaps in his fingers, and found her staring right into his soul, excitement on her face.

'What? Who died?' He grumbled, letting her manhandle him so he was sitting upright, leaning forward onto his knees with his shoulders slumped. She huffed and forcefully corrected his posture before she drew back and grinned.

'I have to ask a favor of you, Ralph.' She beamed, before scrunching her face up and shaking her head. 'Nobody died. Why would you assume that?'

'Only reason you'd be dumb enough to wake me up. Goodnight.' He groaned dramatically when she rolled him back over with her recurring grip on his wrists. This time, she shifted to sit over him with her knees against his sides so he couldn't resist. She held his forearms in both of her hands.

'Seriously, Ralph.' She said sternly, even though she couldn't get herself to stop smiling. Reluctantly, he nodded his head for her to continue. Her grin spread impossibly wider, eyes squinting with joy. 'But, I need you to promise something to me something first.'

'You're making me promise something before I give you a favor?' He narrowed his eyes. 'I dunno, Ren, that's a lot to ask. What am I getting in return? A yacht?'

'You could.' She nodded, and he didn't believe her, even though she was being totally serious. She circled back to her original promise. 'I need you to promise me that you'll let me explain before you begin to talk.'

'That's gonna be hard. I talk a lot.'

'I know. That's why I'm making you promise.'

He dropped his jaw, offended that she would agree, and she reached out to place her fingertips under his jaw and push it back up to come in line with the rest of his teeth.

'I need you to marry me.' Ren said, deadly serious.

'...What the fuck?' Ralph replied, beginning to laugh right in her face.

'You promised- You promised, Ralph!' She repeated over and over, shoving her hand back onto his jaw to stop him as he burst out into hysterics in front of her. 'Stop it, stop laughing, you asshole! Stop, stop it!'

She got a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his squeals of laughter and possibly trying to murder him while she was at it. After what felt like forever, he began to calm down, only laughing lightly into her palm with the surprise and insanity of it all, and she drew her hand back.

'You are evil, you know that?' She glared, and he began to laugh again. She put her hand back into place before he could tip off the deep end again. 'I overheard my father, Ralph, I did. Him and my mother, they were speaking.'

'Woah, lucky.' He gasped, referencing his own parents who didn't do very much of that nowadays. She flattened her palm over his lips.

'They have money, Ralph.' She said, and that was obvious. They weren't in a three-story house in front of a lake because the Nguyens were broke. Ren's parents weren't paying her college funds with pocket money. They hadn't flown him out of here to go bankrupt the following week. That fancy ass toilet didn't appear out of thin air. 'Money saved for whenever I get married, so I can take care of me and my... Whatever.'

'...How much?' He questioned, slowly beginning to become intrigued by what she was saying.

'Too much.' She said, the excitement coming back into her eyes when he began to reciprocate. 'They've got too much money for their own good, those old bastards!'

She grabbed his face, cradling it between her palms and shaking him. 'Imagine it, Ralph, imagine. We could share it. Half it between the both of us. We'd never have to worry ever again, Ralph, never. All you have to do is buy me a stupid ring and ask a question and that's it- We're rich!'

After a moment, he smiled back at her and she squealed with joy, taking that as a yes and throwing her arms around him.

'...But, why me?' He asked against her cardigan, tugging his head away from her collar. 'Why don't you marry some, like... Hot guy? You know, someone you actually wanna marry? What about Mark? You're dating Mark, he's hot, marry Mark. You guys would have cute babies.'

'Mark wouldn't understand, Ralph.' She insisted, shaking her head left and right. 'Nobody would, nobody apart from you. There's nobody I love more in this world. You're going to be my husband, nobody else.'

He stared up at her, eyebrows furrowed, gaze lowering to the bright green grass beneath them. He thought about it.

Being married wouldn't be so bad. There'd be benefits. Him and Ren were already each other's lifelines, so they could handle the married life. There wasn't anything romantic about it either, which was good. And, of course, the money. He wasn't sure if she was exaggerating about the yacht thing, but he was positive that the Nguyens weren't short of money when it came to their sweet little girl. He could pay off his loans, buy a car, buy a house, buy a skyscraper, buy the effiel tower... Okay, maybe that was a bit far.

Regardless, Ralph smiled at her.

'Let's get married, motherfucker!'

...

'DO A SPIN.' If Ralph did one more spin, he swore to God he was going to drop dead with motion sickness.

Letting his head fall back between his shoulder blades, Ralph spun around on his tiptoes and sighed. He stared straight ahead of him, glaring daggers at his mom, dad and the shop consultant as he and Ralph's mom started to whisper about the current tuxedo he was wearing.

In Ralph's humble opinion, it looked, and felt, the exact same as the previous seven. All in the same shade of dark grey, with the same shiny black shoes, and the same black tie, and the same white button-up. He didn't get what all the fuss was about, but he supposed that Ren would be going through hell trying to find a wedding dress with her mother and her sisters, so they would be able to bond over the stress when they got home.

'I think this is the one, Mrs. Zhenya.' The shop assistant nodded, even though he had said the exact same thing about the last ones. It was obvious that the kid was just trying to get a good word sent forward to his superiors, and Ralph respected the hustle and everything, but the constant ass-kissing was really starting to annoy him now.

His dad seemed pretty annoyed too, but that was definitely because of Ralph's presence, not this random kid's.

Ralph and his dad hadn't spoken since his going off to college. They had a big argument the day before his flight because dad had suddenly changed his mind and decided that no son of his was going off to the states to study animals and a language he rarely spoke. Ralph still had his mind set on it, refused to listen to him. He had yelled something about the family, cursing its name, which was a bad move on his part because he turned up to the airport the morning with a black eye and a reddened nose. Fuckin' prick.

The two of them certainly weren't going to start now. Not with Ralph's wedding two weeks away, not with this unresolved tension in the air, not with the hate they felt towards each other. At least Ralph thought they weren't going to speak to each other.

'What about you, Mister Zhenya?' God damn this teenager and his people-pleasing attitude. He approached Ralph's dad with a big grin, only for it to drop in a split second.

'Do not ask me what I think of it.' Straight to the point with it, like always. The man grimaced, the wrinkles in his face and the colors in his eyes somehow just as disapproving as the rest of his face. 'I have got nothing to say to that... Geu silmang. He knows that.'

'Yeah, mhm. Love you too.' He sighed, rolling his eyes like it was no big deal. However, his mother didn't let this slide and began to scold him rather loudly in the middle of the store. He was appreciative that she was speaking in Korean, but she was still making a pretty huge scene about everything. Ralph made sure to give a sarcastic smile to the worker just to let him know that he was the sole reason for this all.

'Do not listen to your father.' His mom shook her head finally, gesturing towards the fitting rooms only a few steps away. 'Try on the third again. I liked that one.'

He ran at that opportunity and got out of the crossfire in an instant, even though he could still hear it from the other side of the curtain.

As he undid the tie that was suffocating him, he began to rethink things for the first time in this whole ordeal. He blamed his dad for all of that. He didn't want that fucker anywhere near the Nguyens, or Ren, or even him.

Why he could never just be a good person was always a mystery to Ralph. Things were going fine until he landed here and started a shitstorm with his scowls and frowns and honesty. Ralph knew he was a disgrace, he had heard it almost every day of his life since his thirteenth birthday, so why did that asshole feel the need to keep reminding him?

The curtain opened, and he was thankfully decent before his mom waddled into the small space and pulled it shut behind her. It was nothing surprising, they had done this every one of the last suits, but it was different following the outburst they had just witnessed.

She began to tie his tie for him in complete silence, and he didn't mind it for one second. He was far more worried about his dad, considering different ways to get him the fuck out of the country before this joke of a wedding proceeded, and her super-mom senses must've picked it up.

'I married young.' She said, even if he already knew that. He was opening his mouth to make a joke, but she beat him to it. 'Your father is a difficult man to please, and I know that now. I was blinded.'

'You think it was a mistake?' He asked, tilting his head back when she tapped him on the jaw. He wasn't waiting for her to be polite about it, he was waiting for quite the opposite.

'No. I do not.' She said calmly, shaking her head left and right. He looked at her like she was crazy, and she laughed at him. 'I do not think it was a mistake. If I had married another man, I would have never been given the best gift of my life.'

'A shitty marriage?'

'A wonderful son.' She pressed her palm to the tie, smoothing it out. She smiled up at him. 'Your father is not the best man in the world. I know that, Raphael. I'm not blind anymore... The things he says about you are not true, you need to accept that.'

He looked away from her, peering over her shoulder to look at himself in the mirror and make sure he looked alright, avoiding the conversation that she was desperately trying to rope him into.

'You are not a disgrace, son.' She continued even though he was internally begging her not to. His hands were being held between two similar, wrinklier ones. 'You are the light of my life. You are the best gift anybody could ask for.'

'Do you think I should get a haircut?' He asked bluntly as if she wasn't even there, staring past her and angling his hair in the mirror. His hair was getting pretty long, but that didn't distract her from the tears in his eyes.

'If you want to marry Reneya,' She said softly, shaking his hands to bring his eyes back to her. It worked, a true Christmas miracle, but it was not in a very positive manner. He was frowning at her, and the tears were getting shinier as more of them gathered. 'If this is what you want for your life, sweetheart, then I will be here for you every step of the way. Do not listen to that old fool, he wouldn't know love if it had smacked him across the jaw. But, I do. I can tell that you love her, and you cannot help who you love.'

Ralph sighed a shaky breath. He didn't know why he was trying so hard to keep these tears at bay. It was normal for people to cry at corny little events like these, but not for this reason. Not because he was lying to the woman who had kept him alive all these years.

He hated that ugly curtain, and he hated that too-tight suit, and he hated that dirty mirror, he hated his mean old dad, he hated all of the things that made those tears spill from his eyes and the truth leave his lips.

'I don't love Ren, mom.' He shook his head, his voice almost silent and breaking with every other word as he tried to convince himself that he was going to be fine after this. That everything would be okay, that his mom would love him just the same, and that he wouldn't be banished from the family because of it.

'...I don't love her. I-I've never loved her. I've never loved a girl, mom, and I... I don't think that I ever will.'

She looked at him. She stared at him with her bright, dark brown eyes and thought for a while, her face stoic as she did so. That reaction caused him to panic, of course, it did, and that only caused more and more tears and left Ralph with less and less comfort.

'...That's okay, sweetheart.' She nodded quickly, reaching out and pulling him into a hug that he didn't know he had needed so badly. 'That's okay.'

...

NOTES!
updating from web so sorry for formatting ANYWAYS

calling it right now that this is gonna be the longest chapter of borderline
6K WORDS HELLO!??!!??!/

so valid tho bc i love ren and mrs zhenya so muuuuuuuuuuch
mr zhenya can khs tho i hate that bitch who tf does he think he is UGLY HOEEE

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