Y/N let out a yawn as he awoke from his slumber. He couldn't believe that it was over a week, now. A week has passed since he was introduced to a world that was completely new to him after he woke up in some abandoned apartament, and he wouldn't call these days the easiest ones in his life.

During all of these days, he couldn't help but shake off the feeling that something was following him, and he didn't mean A2 by that. Everytime, when he thought about that, his mind always returned to the figure that he spotted on his first day in the moment when he was trying to fall sleep in the room that his android companion brought him to. At first he thought that his mind was just playing tricks with him, but now he was starting to think that he may have been wrong about this figure being just a product of his imagination.

Machines still were the biggest pain to him and the android which was his traveling companion for these past few days. They weren't much a problem to them when they came across a single one, or a small group of of them, because A2 would get rid of them in a matter of seconds, but trouble appeared when they encountered a larger group of them. It resulted in a few dangerous situations when a machine used an opportunity which was given to it while A2 was busy taking care of his buddies and approached Y/N. Fortunely, nothing ever happened to him when it happened, because A2 would instantly come to his rescue.

Speaking of A2, he had gotten her to open herself up a bit. A lot of her answers were still short and straight to the point, but he was able to hold a conversation with her several times. She told him about a lot of things that he didn't had chance to ask her about during his first day, one of those things being what a Black Box was, but she was still refusing to tell him how did the Commander of YoRHa betrayed her, but he wasn't going to push it. He was grateful for her for everything she was doing. He didn't even want to think what would happen to him if she wasn't with him for these past few days.

Food and water weren't much of a problem to him and A2. There were many animals splattered around the town and one of them disappearing and becoming his meal each day wasn't making much difference. The only problem that they had with food was the fact that neither of them were able to cook something decent. He wasn't complaining about it though, it was still better than staying hungry and he had already gotten used to the taste.

The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was the ceiling of the room where he and A2 took shelter a few hours ago, so he could have some sleep, without having to worry about the machines that much. There was still risk of the machine entering the building and attacking him and A2, but it was still much safer than sleeping outside.

He rubbed his eyes and sat straight up before leaning his back against the wall to see A2 standing in front of him. He offered her a quick wave, "Hey. For how long was I sleeping?

"For as long as usual." A2 answered as Y/N stood up from the floor. She came over to him and held the canteen which she recently refilled with boiled water out to the human.

"Thanks." He told her as he took his canteen from her. He opened it and took a quick sip of water.

"Hungry?" She asked him, "Should I prepare something before we move out?"

Y/N closed his canteen to make sure he wasn't going to spill any water and put it down on the floor, next to his boot before placing his hand on his stomach. He was silent for a few seconds before replying, and shaking his head, "No. I'm fine."

A2 gave him a short nod of her head and headed towards the exit from the room, "Make sure you have everything. We'll be heading out in a few minutes."

He responded with a nod of his head as he picked up his canteen from the floor. He turned away from her and walked back towards his sleeping spot. He got himself on his knees and at first made sure to grab his backpack and place his canteen back in it. His eyes quickly caught the sight of his journal. He kept writing more entries in it for the past week, but most of them were rather similiar to each other. His music device, which he was using quite often was there as well.

He zipped his backpack and slouched it over his back. He turned his gaze towards his hoddie which he as usual formed into a small pillow before going to sleep. He wasn't going to put it on, now. At first he wanted to find out if the day was too him for him to wear it. He stood up from his knee and picked up his hoodie. He placed it over his shoulder before picking up his last thing which was his metal baseball bat.

He turned towards the exit and walked out of the room and saw A2 waiting for him. She turned to give him a quick look, "Let's go."

Y/N nodded his head as they headed out of house. They walked down the stairs, with A2 walking in the front and Y/N walking closely behind her and exited the building several seconds later. He was instantly greeted by a large shadow which was covering a good portion of the area around him and A2. He forgot that the buildings were covering the sun. He'd have to make his way to the more unconvered area to check if he should wear his hoddie today, or at least the area where the sun was not covered by something.

They pushed themselves into walk, with Y/N walking right next to A2 and walked between the building for a few minutes, not saying a word to each other. A few minutes later they turned around the corner and were greeted by the sunlight as the entered a bit more grassy area. Grass was clearly overgrown, which wasn't too suprising. He could also spot a few trees and creek which was going through this area. The thing that stood out the most about this area was a tall tower standing in the distance.

"Let's stop for a second." He told A2, as he held his hand in front of his eyes for a few seconds. A few seconds out in the sun was enough for him to understand that this day, or at least for now would definitely be too hot for him to wear a hoddie. He placed it baseball bat on the ground before taking his hoddie off his shoulder. He quickly tied it around himself.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" He heard A2 ask him.

"I wanted to make sure if this day will be too hot for me to wear it." Y/N explained, turning to look at her as he took his baseball bat back into his grasp.

They started walking again and slowly started to make their way through the area. They didn't walk for long. They stopped only a few moments later when they saw a group of smaller machines heading towards them, with only one obvious intention. A2 frowned at the view in front of her as her blade appeared in her grasp. She turned to look at Y/N who offered her a quick nod of his head and stepped backwards a bit, wanting to stay away from the fight.

A2 looked over her shoulder, to make sure the human she was protecting was in the safe distance before rushing towards the machines. The fight didn't last long. She already had killed more of these smaller machines than she could count and the ones she was fighting right now were just another ones added to her list. It was just a matter of several seconds before all of the machines exploded into pieces, leaving almost nothing out of them.

Her blade disappeared from her grasp and appeared right on her back as Y/N approached her, walking past the remains of the machines she just killed. A2 only gave him a small nod of her head, telling him that it was safe for him to move forward without saying any words. Y/N nodded his head back at her as they moved forward again, and stopped once again when they came across a long bridge which was leading towards some large building in the distance.

Y/N made sure to eyes the bridge in front of them carefully. It looked bad, to say the least. His attention was especially focused on the rusty metal parts of it. He turned to look at the android accompaying him and pointed at the bridge, "Is it going to hold us both?"

"It will." A2 nodded her head in response.

"Are you sure?" He asked her, wanting to be sure.

"Yes." A2 rolled her eyes. He didn't need to ask her that. She already told him that this bridge was going to hold them both.

"Just wanted to be sure." Y/N told her, still unsure if walking across this bridge was a good idea.

A2 noticed that he was still having second thoughts about crossing this bridge. She took a few steps forward, beginning to make her way to the other side as Y/N , even though he still looked hesitant about it and the huge abyss under it wasn't helping either, began following her. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if the bridge didn't end up holding them both at the same time.

He let out a relieved sigh when they made their way to the other side, "We made it."

"Why were you so hesitant about walking across it even after I told you we'll be fine?" A2 wanted to know.

"Better safe than sorry, ri..." Y/N stopped in the middle of the sentence when he heard something coming towards them. It was quite obvious to him what it was.

It was obvious to A2 as well. She turned in the direction of the sound and saw another group of machines heading towards them. It was almost the same as the group she fought off a few moment ago, the only difference being the fact that this group was lead by one taller machine. Her larger blade appeared in her grasp when she decided which machine she was going to get rid of at first.

"Stay back." She told Y/N , before charging towards the taller machine. It leaped itself forward, intending to get itself closer to the android and the human faster than it's smaller companions. It landed right in front of A2 who stepped away from it, to avoid the impact of this machine landing on the ground.

She made her way back towards the machine as quickly as she stepped away from it and swung her large blade at it, hitting it two times. The machine was still standing and A2 knew pretty well how to end this dammed machines life. She threw her sword, and it went spinning around right in the direction of the taller machine which ended up with it receiving two more hits.

Her smaller blade appeared in her hand as her larger one returned to her back as the taller machine stopped where it stood. It just stood for a second or two before bursting into pieces, leaving only the smaller machines for A2 to deal with. They had finally reached them, but none of them was able to land a single hit on the android who finished all of them off, without any problem.

She turned away from the remains of the machines she just killed and turned back to look at Y/N to see the human walking towards her. He stopped right next to her, gazing at the opened entrance to the building, "Do you think there is going to be more of them in this building?"

"I don't know." A2 answered, still holding her blade in her grip as she turned towards the entrance to the building. They walked through the entrance, entering the building. She made sure to eye her surroundings very carefully to see that the building was completely empty and there wasn't any machine in her sight, for now.

"It appears we're in an old commercial facility." She heard Y/N say next to her as she turned to look at him, "I used to visit one from time to time with my friends to see what was new in stores, or to buy something new."

She turned to look at the human to see him looking around their new surroundings. Y/N made sure to eye everything as best as he could as he proceeded to make his way through the abandoned commercial facility with A2. One of the things that his eyes caught the sight of was a set of stairs leading to what appeared to a elevator. A huge tree which was growing right to the roof of the facility was standing right between the stairs.

A2 turned her gaze away from him when they walked past the stairs and tree. She quickly spotted an entrance which would lead them to another area. They were lucky that the rusty gate wasn't shutting the entrance, otherwise they'd have to go back. Even she wouldn't be able to move it, no matter how hard she'd tried.

She looked at Y/N and made a quick gesture with her head which told him to follow her through it. She stopped herself from walking through it when she heard Y/N say a quick, "Wait a second." to her.

She turned to look at him, "What?"

"Can we stop here for a moment?" Y/N asked her in return, wanting to explore this place, mostly the stores, "Maybe I'll find something in one of those stores."

A2 was silent for a few seconds, before replying, "Make it quick."

"You can go explore this place with me if you want to." Y/N offered. He asked her this question everytime when he wanted to explore some place, but she always replied with the same answer, but it wouldn't hurt him for trying, right?

"No. I'll stay here." A2 declined his offer, "You know what to do if you'll come across a machine or see one."

Y/N nodded his head to that, knowing what she meant by that. Everytime when they were out together, and he came across a place that he wanted to explore, hoping to find something useful, A2 always remained on guard, telling him to start running and call out for her if he'll need her help. Fortunely, he never came across any trouble while exploring some place that caught his attention.

Maybe except for that one time when a flying machine appeared out of nowhere. He started running away from and called out for help and she quickly rushed to his aid, taking care of the flying machine before it could do any harm to him.

"I'll be fine. We're the only ones in this building and besides, I survived your cooking to this point, didn't I?" He told the android, adding the second part to mess with her a bit with a small smirk forming on his lips.

A2 rolled her eyes at this comment, annoyed by it, "I didn't really had a reason to cook before. You can always make food for yourself if you want to."

Y/N just chuckled at her response, knowing that it wouldn't made any difference in taste if he'd start preparing food for himself. He turned away from her and began his exploration of the commercial facility. He made his way up the rusty moving stairs which obviously weren't working anymore, intending to search through the stores on the second floor at first. Unfortunely searching through the stores didn't went the way he planned it to because he couldn't access most of the stores.

The only store that he was able to access was some old clothes store on the first floor which was placed right behind the not working moving stairs. He grabbed the handle of the doors and stopped himself from opening it when he saw the alarm right above him.

At first he was worried a bit that he may turn the alarm on by doing it, which could have lead something with not so good intentions right to him and A2, but his worries were short lived when he realized that the alarm was probably not working anymore. This realization turned out to be true when he entered the store without the sound of alarm ringing going through his ears.

The first thing he did after entering was searching through some old shirts. He stopped after a minute and he lowered his head a bit and sniffed his shirt, cringing at the smell. He really could use a bath, or two.

He turned back when he heard someone walk over to the clothes shop and saw A2 standing in front of the entrance to it, with her back facing him. Y/N simply shrugged his shoulders to that. He continued to search through the clothes. Perharps he could find his android companion something new to wear. She really could use some new clothes. He didn't even want to mention a certain awkward situation when they were climbing a ladder and she was above him.

He proceeded to search through the store for a few more minutes, not finding anything worth taking with him. The only thing that really caught his attention was some old black cap. He took it from the shop shelf and waved it in front of him, getting rid of the dust that was covering it. He placed it right over his head and after making some adjustments, it fit his head perfectly. At least since now, he was going to have something to protect his eyes from the sun.

Not having any need to stay in this store for any second longer, he exited it and looked at A2, "I thought that you wanted to stay on guard." When A2 didn't respond, he added, assuming it to be the reason, "I told you that you don't need to worried."

"I wasn't worried." A2 told him, "I'm being cautious."

"If you say so." Y/N responded.

"Did you checked everything you wanted?" A2 wanted to know if they were going to head out of this place now.

"Yes." Y/N answered with a nod of his head, "We can go now."

A2 was about to turn towards their next destination but stopped when she noticed something new in Y/N 's outfit, "What do you need this for?"

"To protect my eyes from the sun." Y/N explained.

A2 nodded her head to that as she turned towards the exit from the commercial facility on the other side of the building. They made their way back to it and came through it and Y/N's eyes almost immediately caught the sight of a more forested area.

It was when, completely out of the sudden, the gate behind them went down, slamming into the ground, creating a loud thump at the impact. Y/N jumped in his place a bit, clearly starled by it, a few seconds before he and his traveling companion turned back to look at the gate. A sigh escaped his lips and he could hear A2 letting out a frustated groan next to him.

This day had just gotten better...