Kosi suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. Looking over to the nightstand of his hotel room he noticed the clock say 04:58. Reaching over he turned it off before it went off at five. Sitting up he rubbed the crust out of his eyes.
Getting up he walked around to Rues side of the bed and gently kissed her on the forehead. Begrudgingly stepping back he headed into the shower. Laying down pretending to be asleep Rue began silently weeping. Minutes later she'd cried herself back to sleep and Kosi to fight for Lux in the war.
Waking up hours with bloodshot eyes and a guilty pit in her stomach Rue got up out of bed. Dragging her feet around the wooden floors she flicked on the coffee machine and picked up her phone.
Two months since Kosi had told her he was going to join the Luxen military and the morning after they first made love she was now left by herself. Spending her morning sipping her coffee and going through pictures of her and Kosi she prepared for what could be months without her first love.
Leaving her apartment she opened the door to find Elise in the same pajama covered mourning state as her. "Hi Elise" she said in a defeated tone. "Hey Rue" Elise replied in as weak a voice.
"Ugh this sucks" Rue said rolling her eyes. "We've at least got each other still" Elise said smiling slowly. "Yeah true, oh wait Low left too we should check on Jenny" Elise said as she looked down the hall. "Yeah true, wanna go there now?" Rue asked. Elise shrugged as they both went over to Jenny's apartment.
Earlier that day at four in the morning Thomas was dressed in military fatigues sitting with his newborn daughter on his chest. "Stacy, listen she's snoring" he whispered over to his sleeping partner in the hospital bed. "Oh guess your still asleep, well I love you both. You and Danielle are my world and I'm doing this for you" he said as he gently kissed his baby on the forehead.
Standing up he walked over to her bed and set her down in it covering her with her blanket. Turning around he stood over Stacy's visibly tired and fatigued state and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you Stacy" he said as his eyes began to well with tears.
Clicking the remote next to the bed a nurse came into the room. "Hi I'm heading out you guys can come by when you want now. Please take care of them" Thomas said as tears started to fall down his face. The nurse nodded and Thomas left the room sobbing.
That afternoon Rue, Elise and Jenny were sitting down for lunch. Biting into a large cheeseburger with a glass of chocolate milk Rues eyes rolled to the back of her head as Elise and Jenny looked at her grimacing. "Wow, you were right she really eats any of her food with milk" Jenny said incredulously.
"What" Rue said with a mouth full of cheese and meat while holding her hand over it while she chewed. "Rue they've got so much stuff up here. Sodas, juice, alcohol" Elise said gesturing to her glass before continuing "why do you just drink milk?" she asked incredulously.
"All that manufactured stuff just reminds me of the city. Look around; trees, animals, open air, fresh milk" she said beaming as she lifted her glass before asking "why would I not have as much of nature as I can?" she said with a shrug.
"Alright whatever you say. It is weird as hell though just going around without and these people not fucking trying to throw eggs at us" Jenny said looking around at the Luxens just going about their business.
"Yeah but I don't know how I feel about these cards" Rue said holding out a white plastic card with a flag in the middle. "Hey all I know is it means we don't have to pay for anything and that works for me. I mean the people we're with are off going to a war why shouldn't there be a reward" Elise said as she shrugged.
"You think they gave these to the Luxens?" Rue said as she looked at hers fiddling with it. "Oh definitely, money's super important for some reason. We had it in the cave. Why would you need money in a cave it's useless everywhere else. We still had it though. Money makes the world go round" Jenny said holding up her white card.
"Money makes the...wow that's really smart did you just think of that?" Rue asked. "No it's from a song" Jenny replied.