Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 212: Simple Teasing

Day in and day out, Zane and the girls did what was necessary to raise their levels and strength. Then, after a hard day's work of slaying the undead, they would return to Gravestone, more specifically the bunker beneath its center. Where they would wash up and relax with some cold beers.

If Zane was being perfectly honest with himself, he was happy with the way things currently were. In fact, he hoped nothing in this rotten world would ever disturb the relative peace and comfort he had found in recent months, especially after the lifetime of suffering he had endured up until this point.

His life prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse was a nightmare. Every day was just another effort in futility, going through the motions in life simply for the sake of pretending like he was a normal, living human being. But deep down, he was well and truly dead inside.

What had been a lifeless husk of a young man had quickly been revived following the outbreak of the apocalypse. And while some might say it was the fact that he had been forcibly removed from his poor family situation that improved his outlook on life.

However, the reality of things was that the companions by his side were truly the ones who helped Zane recover a sense of normalcy in a world that he had long since disregarded as nothing more than unnecessarily cruel and capricious.

These companions had become like a family to Zane. Not a family which abused and neglected him like the one he had been born into. But rather, they were like the kind of family that functional people spoke fondly about whenever the topic was brought up.

Sure, it was an unorthodox family, with Zane being the head of household, despite being an 18-year-old young man, while also having four wives, which varied in age. Some of which were older than he was, while others were the same age or even younger.

And then there was the fact that the four of them had adopted a young orphan, whose parents were presumably murdered in the wake of the apocalypse. This was despite the fact that none of them had any previous experience with parenting. Especially a young and helpless child like Maya.

It was truly an abnormal household. And that was not even counting Lily's place in it. Currently, there were no real romantic feelings between Zane and Lily. Sure, the two of them got along, with Lily even coming to respect Zane as an authority figure. Both as the leader of their party, and as the de facto mayor of their little settlement.

But nothing had really clicked between them. At most, Zane considered her a close personal friend, and a comrade-in-arms in the fight against the Undead. There had not even been the slightest bit of sexual tension between them, no doubt because of Lily's unique appearance, which made her look significantly younger than she actually was.

To Be honest, Zane was completely fine with this. After all, Lily may not be someone he had romantic feelings for, but she was the closest thing to an actual friend he had ever had in life. Aside from perhaps Elena, specifically when the two of them were too young to even have romantic inclinations.

And while Zane may be more than willing to maintain such a platonic friendship with Lily for the rest of their lives, however long that may be. Things had recently begun to change between the two of them. Even if neither of them truly realized it yet.

It was not at all shocking for some form of feelings to develop between Zane and Lily. After all, they lived together; they ate together; they fought for their very survival together, and they shared everything with one another.

In addition to this, Zane had just recently put his very life on the line to save Lily from a near certain death. And while that may have been a matter of both platonic friendship and practicality. Lily did not know this.

It was only natural for these factors to come together and subconsciously affect the girl. Especially when Zane, in his current state, was quite attractive. This was only compounded by the fact that she had to constantly witness Zane flirt with the other women in their unorthodox family.

And though Lily didn't understand herself that she was starting to feel this way. Her body acted on its own. And because of this, she had been avoiding Zane recently. Or at least as much as she could manage.

Sure, in battle she worked together with Zane and the others the way she always had. In a life and death struggle, one didn't exactly have the time to let their personal conflicted feelings get in the way. But whenever the group returned to the bunker to retire for the night, Lily would go out of her way to avoid Zane, and by extension the others as well.

Zane didn't think anything of it. In fact, his thoughts were preoccuped with other matters. Things like taking precautions against Gwen, the ongoing efforts to expand Gravestone into South Reno, and, of course, locating a second Tier I Horde King within a reasonable distance for them to kill.

And while Zane may be as dense as a neutron star, that did not mean the women by his side were so oblivious to what was going on with Lily. Especially Olivia, who was in a way like the mother of the group.

After nearly a month of Lily avoiding Zane and the girls, Olivia took it upon herself to resolve the issue. Because clearly it would take another ten years for Zane to realize what was going on with Lily.

And hence, the moment after Lily stepped out of the shower and entered her bedroom. Having just finished washing the blood and guts of the undead out of her hair, she found Olivia sitting on her bed with a six pack of beer by her side.

Lily thought she understood why Olivia had snuck into her room, especially when she saw the smirk on the woman's face. And it was because of this she was in a bad moond when she sat down next to the mature silver haired beauty.

Intially, Lily did not say a word, and instead grabbed a bottle of beer from the six pack, where she effortlessly popped off the lid with her own strength before drinking its contents. It was only after the young woman, who looked significantly younger than she actually was, finished the entire beer did she finally speak to her guest.

"Go on… Get out with it! I know why you're here, so just say it!"

Seeing as how Lily appeared to already understand the reason behind her visit, Olivia did not stand on ceremony, instead she bluntly asked her question to the girl.

"So when are you going to tell Zane how you really feel about him?"

Lily's face lit up like a tomato when she heard these words. All the while her mouth dropped as an incoherent sound escaped from her lips. When she said she knew why Olivia was visiting, it was because she presumed the woman had come to lecture her about leaving her laundry in the dryer which she had done for the fifteenth day in a row.

She had no idea that the reason behind Olivia's surprise visit was simply to talk about her developing feelings towards Zane. Hell, she wasn't exactly consciously aware that she even had feelings towards the man. And by the time she finally recovered her senses, Lily was panicking.

"Feelings? Zane? Me!?! As if? I mean, you know what!?!"

Once more the woman had entered a state of incoherent gibberish. Which was something that caused Olivia to giggle. Until now, the woman had a suspicion about Lily which appeared to be right on the money the way she was acting. And becasue of this, when Olivia asked Lily the next question that was on her mind, it was a like an arrow shot directly into the young woman's heart.

"Lily…. Have you never had a boyfriend before?"

Lily's mouth fell agape when she heard this. She had no excuse. Sure she always wanted a boyfriend, I mean what teenage girl didn't dream about such a thing these days? But she looked like a middle school student, despite being eighteen.

What kind of boy her own age would be interested in such a thing? Certainly not the kind she would actually want to go out with! But her pride as a woman wouldn't let her admit this, and because of this she tried, and failed miserably to lie through her teeth

"Of course I have had a boyfriend! I have had lots of boyfriends! Tons in fact!"

Olivia couldn't hep but giggle once more at Lily's response. The girl was a terrible liar. She became even more flustered the moment she opened her mouth. Not only that but she couldn't even look Olivia in the eyes, shifting her entire head away from the mature silver haired beauty, almost as if she was too ashamed to look at her.

Because of this Olivia couldn't help but laugh, and longer than she probably should have because it became immediately apparent that Lily had taken offense. But the girl silently endured until finally Olivia wiped a tear from her eyes while she expressed how humorous she found the girl to be.

"You're absolutely adorable… I mean, you don't need to lie to me Lily. In fact, although you may not know thus, but the fact of the matter is most men tend to replace inexperience to be an attractive quality in a longer term partner…."

Lily looked at Olivia in astonishment when she heard this. After all the knowledge which Olivia shared was counter to all the bullshit that she had heard women say on social media over the years. So much so that Lily couldn't help but question if Olivia was lying to her or not.

"Really?"

Olivia confirmed this was true, while hiding her sadistic smirk with her hand in a gesture that just oozed with sarcasm. This was something which matched her tone of voice that was completely laced with a similar intent.

"Oh absolutely! In fact, I wouldn't doubt that Zane would lose any potential interest he might have in you if you shamelessly went around bragging about all of your boyfriends!"

It was clear by Olivia's choice in words, that the part she was being sarcastic about was Lily's so called boyfriends, which she had yet to admit was a complete and total fabrication.

However, the horrified look on Lily's face when she heard Olivia's words was simple proof that the woman's suspicions were correct. Lily indeed had begun to develop feelings towards Zane after the man risked everything to save her from Gwen. And because of this she was quick to point it out.

"See! That right there! The look on your face right now! That is simple proof that you have some kind of interest in Zane as a man, even if you weren't consciously aware of it until this moment!"

Lily had no idea she was making a mortified expression, and was quick to deny it as she tried to recover from Olivia's tauntings. While at the same time rushing her out the door.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about! Now get out of here Olivia, I'm tired, and you're keeping me up!"

Olivia could only giggle once more while Lily pushed her out of the room, no mater how much the young woman may be in denial about her feelings, Olivia knew the truth, and would subtly work towards adding this legal loli to Zane's collection of wasteland beauties.