Y/N woke early, his arm round Clementine still, but she had turned during the night, facing him, hugging his torso as her face was nuzzled into his neck.

Y/N felt something. He wasn't sure what, but it was a cross between warmth and giddiness and happiness. He smiled, genuinely smiled, at her beautiful, peaceful, sleeping face before he checked himself.

Where did beautiful come from?

He felt overwhelmed and decided retreat was the better part of valour. He slowly got out of bed, extracting himself from Clementine's arms and legs. He was relieved- Clem was always a deep sleeper. He stood and dressed, again rolling up his sleeves on his tight jumper before he felt his stomach rumble.

He checked in silently on AJ who had slept through since he woke for his 3am feed Y/N had taken, and went into the kitchen.

There was a small gas powered oven on the kitchen side that Y/N checked was working. He looked into a cupboard and found a small pan. He grabbed a few dominoes from their box and placed them in his pocket before quietly going out for a walk. The sun was just coming up and people were emerging, going about their business. Many nodded or said good morning to Y/N who wasn't used to such pleasantries.

He walked down the dirt street and came up to a shop just opening its doors with a lot of food inside. There was cans, jars, fruit, a lot of vegetables- even eggs.

Y/N suddenly remembered something delicious that he would have at his friend Jacob's house. His mom Martha always made a breakfast skillet when Y/N slept over. He may not read or write but he had a great memory.

He walked through the aisles quickly, picking up an onion, a carrot, a capsicum, three potatoes, a bunch of celery and six eggs. He took them over to the counter where a middle aged lady with greying hair smiled at him.

"Good morning honey, you wouldn't be Y/N, would you?"

Y/N looked at the lady surprised and nodded, replying:

"Yeah, uh I am..."

"Beth. I met your friend Clementine with Edith last night. Sweet girl. You looking to fix yourselves some breakfast?"

Y/N was taken aback by this stranger's friendliness, but nodded.

"Yes ma'am. Gonna surprise Clem. We haven't really had anything that either I didn't hunt or came out of a can for a while."

"Oh that's sweet. Make sure you look under your sink for a small green container. Put all your peelings and shells in it, we collect and compost everything we can to help grow more. Now that will be twelve bones please" Beth said with a smile.

Y/N pulled the dominoes from his pocket and placed them down, Beth picking up on his flustered nature.

"That's far too many honey, forgive me for speaking outta turn, but can you not read?"

Beth saw a look of shame immediately grow on Y/N's face and she quickly moved to reassure him:

"It's ok hon, it's just I used to be a teacher and I can recognise the signs. Here let me show you."

She picked up a twelve domino.

"See how this has three dots this way, and  then four that way?"

Y/N nodded. He could count, he wasn't stupid. He just got flustered when he had to look at pages, or dots.

"That's 12, which is the max a bone can have, ok?"

Y/N nodded and smiled, thanking Beth as he returned home. Clementine was still asleep, as was AJ. Y/N set to work, cutting up the vegetables and began cooking them in the skillet. When the veg had softened he cracked in the eggs and as they cooked he disposed of the waste in the green container and then used a bottle of water to make AJ a bottle. As he shook the formula through he felt arms around his waist from behind, a head against his back and a  heard a 'mmm.'

"What's all this?" Clementine smiled happily as the eggs had finished and Y/N turned the gas off.

"Went out and picked up some breakfast. Fresh veg, eggs, it's unbelievable. The lady said you met her, Beth, she was really nice" Y/N smiled as he split the breakfast onto two plates.

"That was so sweet. Thank you Y/N" Clementine smiled as the two sat down to eat breakfast happily together, at their own dining table.

As they sat and ate, Y/N looked up at Clementine, something that had been playing on his mind.

"I don't know how long I'll be gone today, what I'll have to do, but after I get back, maybe we could ask around. If there's any chance Lee and Carley and Christa made it here then-"

He stopped at the expression on Clementine's face, as she said sadly:

"I asked Edith last night. She's on the gate full time, and knows who comes and goes when she's not on. They're not here Y/N. Wherever they are, they're not here."

Y/N nodded and sighed as the two finished their breakfast. It was about ten more minutes before there was a quiet knock on the door, Y/N answering it and Mal smiling when he did.

"I thought for sure you'd still be asleep, first day and all" Mal chuckled as he and Y/N shook hands.

"Four years of sleeping with one eye open, hard to break a habit" Y/N chuckled. He said goodbye to Clementine and she gave him a tight squeezing hug, not wanting to let him go as silly as it sounded.

"He'll be back in a few hours Clementine. We'll do this try out and if you're as good as Edith thinks you are Y/N you'll start full time tomorrow."

Y/N nodded as the pair began walking down the street.

"How was your your first night in Wellington, Y/N?" Mal asked with a smile.

"It was fine. Good. It's..."

"Hard to wrap your head around?" Mal asked supportively. Y/N nodded.

"Yeah. We been on the road and the run for so long, it's just hard to not think I'm gonna wake up any moment."

"Yeah I get that. Come on it's just up here, I'll introduce you to my crew."

—~—

About a kilometre from Y/N and Clementine's home there was a large military complex/yard, fenced off within the larger Wellington area. There were a number of what looked liked mess halls around a central courtyard where a lot of men and women were working out/being drilled.

"I'm the Captain of the Gamma Patrol. We go from Alpha through to Zeta. You're gonna be trying out with my unit, we- uh- we recently had an opening come up" Mal said as they walked through the gate.

"My condolences" Y/N said, reading between the lines. Mal nodded in appreciation. They entered a mess Hall and there were a few people milling around, waiting for their captain. Y/N was introduced to the other members of squad.

Zoe Washburne was Mal's second in command. She, like him, was a marine in the old world and served under his command before the world fell. She was brave and loyal to her Captain.

Hoban "Wash" Washburne was the platoon's driver. He was Zoe's husband and seemed a genuine nice, down to earth guy, if a little eccentric.

Kaylee was the team's mechanic and tech expert, working on the team's vehicles, guns and radio equipment. She was happy and cheerful, the complete opposite of Y/N.

Jayne was large, loud and seemed to enjoy violence. For some reason Y/N felt instantly like he could trust the man. He was the first to walk over when Y/N entered with Mal and shake his hand. He did yell "it's not a girl's name!" when Y/N queried 'Jayne' though.

River Tam was a surprise. She was a slight girl, standing about 5'6", weighing less than a hundred pounds, and couldn't have been more than 19. She was also the younger sister of the doctor Y/N had seen the prior evening.  Mal had picked up on Y/N's skepticism/surprise and whispered:

"You'll see."

Finally there was a Native American member of the platoon, Grey Wolf, who was a member of the Shoshoni Nation, Y/N disclosing his own ancestry to the tribe as well. Grey Wolf served as the tracker/hunter of the platoon.

Once introductions had been done Y/N's trials began. He was taken out the back of the compound to a shooting range, three weapons sitting waiting for him.

The first was a pump action gun that resembled a sawn off shotgun. The second was a semi-automatic that resembled a tommy gun, and the third was was an automatic/electric handgun that looked like a pistol with an extra long barrel.

"We raided a paintball faculty last summer, gives us enough to practice without wasting live ammunition" Mal said with a smile.

"You have eight targets there with 10,20,30 and 50 targets on them. You need 200 on the pump, 300 on the semi and 400 on the electric in 90 seconds each to pass weapons qualifications. Go!"

—~—

Y/N passed each mark easily. Mal was suitably impressed as he smiled and said happily:

"Alright Y/N onto combat, let's go down to the gym."

—~—

Another ten minute walk with the whole group and Y/N arrived for the first time at Wellington's gym. It was large, there was a boxing ring, punching bags, speed balls, dumbbells, weight machines and treadmills and bikes. It was surprisingly full and as the group walked towards the ring Mal explained:

"All our military crew, while we're at home, work five days on, two days off.  We usually are rostered onto security at the perimeter, or scouting in our platoons, make sure no Reavers or other unpleasantries are near our walls. On their days off most guys and gals come here, so it's always busy, and free of charge."

The group stopped as two men sparred in the ring. One was quickly despatched as the other, an arrogant prick that instantly reminded Y/N of Merle, paraded around the ring arrogantly as the unconscious man was pulled from the ring.

"What's this Mal? You got fresh meat for me?" The man called out, staring at Y/N as Y/N glared right back at him.

"That's enough of that Mad Dog" Mal reprimanded, before turning to his Puerto Rican trainer:

"Colt, we need the ring for a while, we've got a try out."

"Yeah, we've ran out of bodies for today anyway" Colt said, noticing Y/N and Mad Dog were still staring at each other. He tried to pull Mad Dog away, but the former MMA Fighter instead stood his ground and asked sardonically:

"You got a staring problem boy?"

The others watched as Y/N replied without missing a beat:

"Do you?"

Mad Dog immediately began to walk towards the teen before Colt and some hangers-on pulled him away and out of the ring, Y/N, Jayne, Mal and Wash getting in.

"You need to watch out Y/N, he's a dangerous man" Wash said as he and Mal got boxing gloves out.

"I've faced harder cunts than him before" Y/N said coldly as he took his jumper and then his shirt off, the others stopping dead in their tracks and staring at his abdomen, the bright pink MINE emblazoned across them.

"What in the blue blazes of hell is that?" Jayne asked in wide eyed shock.

"Clem and I, the group we were with, got captured by this psycho and his group. Tortured me for the better part of a week" Y/N replied calmly as Wash began taping up Y/N's gloves.

"What the hell happened?" Wash asked in shock that a teen would be treated that way.

"We got free. I killed his people. Beat the fucker's head to jelly with a crowbar."

Some of the others were terrified at the lack of emotion in Y/N's voice as he described the act before he and Jayne began to spar.

—~—

The sparring went well, mostly. Y/N and Jayne got gradually more and more serious as they laid into each other, Mal and the others happily surprised with Y/N hanging with Jayne as long as he did, given his age.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that boy?" Jayne asked puffed out as Mal untaped his gloves.

"A guy at the start, he was like a brother to me. Taught me how to fight" Y/N replied, a sad look coming over his face.

"Can I have a go now?" River asked happily, Mal looking over to her and replying:

"No, we talked about this."

"Talked about what? I really don't want to hit a chick if I don't have to"  Y/N replied as Wash finished removing his gloves and headwear.

"Oh don't worry. You won't have to" River smiled, rolling into the ring.

Y/N gave the others a puzzled look as Mal looked at him as if to say "well?" to which Y/N shrugged.

"Fine. You stop when I say so" Mal said angrily. Y/N assumed he was talking to him. He walked across to River with his fists up, River holding her hands in a martial arts pose.

Y/N wasn't sure what was happening but he threw out a punch. River easily dodged it as Y/N felt two swift hits to his leg, dropping him to a knee, a quick pop in the face dropping him to the floor. It had happened in the space of about three seconds.

"Stop!" Captain Mal yelled as Y/N looked up at River's smiling face looking down at him.

"What the fuck?" He asked as Wash entered the ring and offered him a hand up.

"River, she's our resident martial arts expert. Damn near a prodigy" he chuckled as Y/N rubbed the pain in his thigh and through his confusion chuckled:

"I don't think I'll be looking for round 2."

Following the ringwork Y/N was put through fitness tests of push ups, sit ups and running and passed through each one easily. As he finished out of breath Mal shook his hand and smiled as the others cheered, Mal stating:

"Congratulations soldier, I'll see you at 0 800 tomorrow morning."