"𝐍𝐎𝐀𝐇," she sighed gently, as he slowly moved his kisses upwards from between her legs and towards her breasts. His light eyes locked with Ren's dark ones, the most recent "client", as he left a wet trail of kisses along the centre of her torso. She inhaled sharply when he shifted her closer, pushed her legs up and laid between them.

   He moved in slow, sensual strokes, moans filling the thick air. A week or two had probably passed since the last time that Noah had taken someone to bed, so he was craving the sexual satisfaction.

   He liked to feel the sentiments of love, even though he had little to no feelings for any of the women he slept with. He made it clear to them and they've never seemed to mind, since all they could think about was the fact that they were fucking the sexy, dominating and powerful leader of Everwinter.

They continued for the rest of the early dawn, until they were both knackered.

As Noah slowly dozed, Ren inspected the body of the man she lay on, intrigued by the contrast of his torso. Noah's past was a mystery to all and was never questioned because of his intimidating demeanour.

Although being quite charming to the majority, he was known to be occasionally temperamental and erratic, people either kept their distance or kept in line so that they didn't have to experience a gun to their heads.

   The scars that were patched along the right side of his body ran from the side of his neck to his hip; at some points, they infested over his tattoos, leaving his skin tattered and muddled. Parts of his right side were healed, the skin looked wrinkled, as though he had bathed for too long, but felt as hard as a rock.

Ren placed her hand on his right shoulders then dragged it down his breast and towards his belly button.

   His eyes shot open, his body visibly tensing. Ren noticed, "You know, I've wanted to ask you but I sort of chickened out," she began, lifting her head a little to look at him. He tilted his head down at her. "If I ask you, don't get mad."

   He exhaled, trying to ignore the tingling that was beginning to shoot through his body. "What is it?" he asked gently.

   "How'd you get these scars, like these are mad, mad scars? Like were you chucked in acid or burned alive or some shit?" she laughed a little as she asked, investigating his hazel gaze that stared down at her; and she immediately knew that Noah had switched.

   His eyes darkened as his brows furrowed, his body became tense once again and he finally decided to move away from her. She tutted, "I said not to get mad." He stood up and she huffed.

   "Then which one is it? I got it right, didn't I?" she continued, as he picked up his clothes. He pulled on his underwear and instantly grabbed one of his turtlenecks laying on the bed bench at the foot of his queen-size bed. He pulled it over his head swiftly, keeping his mouth shut.

   Ren proceeded to prod, standing also and wrapping the duvet sheets around her naked figure, she approached him slowly when he moved to his alcohol tray for some comfort.

   "You just made real, sweet love to me, Noah, you don't do that with a lot of people, do you?" she quizzed, snaking her right arm around his waist. He retained his composure to pour himself a simple glass of whiskey.

   "I knew I should've fucked your friend," he grumbled under his breath in his French tongue. Failing to understand a word, Ren lightly giggled and placed her head on his back.

   "We've all been through some shit and everyone needs someone to talk to." she inhaled his scent deeply, her hand moving along his right hip and towards his groin. "And maybe you can fuck the shit out of me again to get your mind off it." she squeezed.

   He gulped the whiskey slowly, heaving at the burn as he placed the glass back onto the tray. Ren stroked him smoothly, in hopes of turning him on again even though he was way past that. He placed his hand on top of hers, she chuckled lowly and slowed her strokes.

   Without even a second for Ren to register it, Noah spun her around and yanked her arm behind her back. The pressure he applied caused her to yelp in agony. The sheets dropped and she cried for mercy while standing there shamefully naked.

   "Noah, you're hurting me." It was only when she begun to cry that he finally released her. She fell forward, as she gently wept.

   "I think you should leave, I have things to do today." he stated coldly. She got up quickly, not even wasting a second to look back at him and left to change elsewhere in the house. Noah collected his duvet and fixed his bed, before taking a seat on it. He sighed.

   Maybe he was a little harsh—clearly—but he knew it was the best way for them to know to not try him again, and he liked that more.

   Nonetheless, it was terribly ironic that he senselessly slept with with women he had no intention of even holding a conversation with; almost as ironic as the fact that he'd comfortably show his body with the highest level of defence when asked about his scars.

   He walked to the bathroom to take a shower, running into Ren, who briskly tried to thread her arm through her shirt. She bumped into him and hastily apologised, "I'm sorry, Noah, if I offended you or anything." He barely had a chance to reply because she was already down the stairs and out the door. Noah nonchalantly shrugged.

   He freshened up and dressed as he always did, a turtleneck to cover all of his multitude of sins, loose-fitting jeans, shin-high boots and his trench coat. He retrieved the knife that he always kept beneath his pillow, for good measure, and pushed it into his left boot.

   He picked up his pistol and jogged down the stairs, he loaded the mag into the gun and put the safety on. As he grabbed himself an apple, his radio came to life, "NR, you straight?"

   "Mack? Speak to me," he answered.

   "We're about to start arming the teams for the Underground operation, is it still on for today or nah?"

   Noah heaved at the recollection of it, he wasn't even bothered to be outside the walls. "Yeah, yeah, it is."

   "Calm. Zara said that she's having Monet join her team with you because she wanted to help, so she's getting her geared up."

   "Yeah, that's fine." Noah answered, walking back upstairs to his bedroom to retrieve his black mask and an extra.

   "Say nothin', link in an hour."

   "Safe." Noah switched the channel back to its main frequency and huffed, the thought of him not being able to paint today annoyed him. His head was more disorganised than usual and he'd already seemed to have forgotten the pre-planned arrangements for Everwinterian operations.

The routes and the scouting groups were all perfected but it didn't hurt going back over them. When Noah soon arrived, he walked through the team of soldiers chattering away. Amongst the indistinguishable replies, he got the gist of the conversation. "I used to hate the sounds of the tubes when I went on school trips, always sounded like some next ghost chasing me." one guy said.

   "That was the sound of the wheels of the carriages. Can you imagine how it'll sound much more eerie now?" another one replied.

   "Might just have to tell Noah I ain't going, not gonna lie, because what the fuck?"

   Noah ignored it, he wasn't even keen to do the job himself. He knew the benefits of regenerating the trains and clearing the tunnels—Sebastian had told him a million times over, it would allow easier transport of supplies around East London, and then some—but he simply wasn't bothered at all.

   He stopped at his team's rover, organising the set weapons and screwing a suppressor onto each gun. He put one on his own beloved pistol and replaced it back into his pocket, before he slipped the string of his black mask behind his ears and covered his mouth.

   He turned around to find Zara approaching with Monet, she seemed to be nodding to what Zara was instructing her. By the looks of it, Monet seemed to be managing her relocated shoulder quite well without a sling. Their conversation ceased once they stopped in front of him.

   "You ready, Reid?" Zara asked cheerfully, she placed herself beside him and leaned close. Monet watched her movements in slight amusement. Noah simply hummed his answer.

   "I'd rather be anywhere else, but I'm here, aren't I?"

   "You're always so depressing, bruv, lighten up." Zara chuckled. Noah's eyes finally fell to Monet, who didn't even know how to react to his gaze. After his direct disliking to her presence, Monet was slightly shocked that he was actually speaking to her. Noah pulled his mask under his chin to speak clearer.

   "Ay, tell me, Monet, what would you rather be doing than killing walkers?" She furrowed her brows, not particularly sure.

   "I used to play piano, so maybe that. But, I mean, there's not really much to do anymore than fight for your life and then train for the next time you have to do that. Or just to drink the sorrow away." she shrugged, Noah grinned softly, putting his knuckles out to spud her.

   "My guy."

   "Okay, so both of you are fucking depressing, what the fuck? What about exploring and adventuring the city that we are literally sitting in? Don't you lots remember when London was fucking awesome?" Both Monet and Noah silently stared at Zara's gestures to sound extravagant. She took in their reactions, tutted and slumped against the rover.

   "We've all lived in London to know the majority of adventures, Zee, and I don't want to be chased by walkers while doing such adventures, or even getting an arrow in the shoulder from one of fuckin' Angelo's Antelopes." Noah replied with the tilt of his head to her.

   "Ascots, Reid," The girls laughed at the seriousness that still resided on Noah's face.

   "I don't give a shit," It did peak Monet's curiosity however, she wondered why Noah had so much animosity towards this "Angelo".

   "Then what about finding love and starting a family? We are getting old." Zara continued, turning fully to Noah and boring into his eyes, "If we're so comfortable at Everwinter, why don't you want to settle down? You've got bare worthy candidates as well." Noah silently stared at her for a moment, reading every piece of body language she was trying to throw in his face.

   Monet was uncomfortable. There was definitely some one-sided sexual tension, to say the least of the enormous elephant.

   She was about to interrupt to spare herself the discomfort, but he spoke first, "Right now, I'm just trying to protect the community. But I'm just trying to cuff the right girl, innit." he answered plainly, completely dodging Zara's implicit advances. She noticed also, her face fell in defeat. Monet pulled a pitiful face, she could see that Noah was just trying to get her to take the hint without causing Zara any embarrassment; obviously it wasn't working.

Noah looked back at Monet and he caught her expression. She met his eyes also and neutralised almost immediately.

It was now very awkward.

Monet inhaled and diverted her gaze from Noah's, it was becoming utterly unbearable. She turned her head and noticed Mack approaching with Murphy. "Ay, are we set?" Mack shouted, Noah lifted his gaze from staring at Monet thoughtfully.

   "Is your team set? I've got everyone." Noah replied, he didn't need to do much shouting for his voice to fill the area. "You lots are over ground, clear some of the roads and get Sebastian to Liverpool Street. There might be a few working trains there."

   "You best get a move on then, the Central Line is long. Radio when you reach the station," Mack instructed, Noah agreed. The Underground team finished gearing up, as they climbed into their rovers, Noah handed each of them a silenced gun.

   Monet was one of the last to climb in. Noah placed a silenced pistol and the Everwinterian black mask into her hand, "You'll need that." he spoke. She smiled briefly and climbed in.

   He slammed the back door shut and moved to the driver's seat. He climbed in and relaxed into the seat beside Zara. He started the rover and then lifted his mask, he sighed and glanced at Zara, she kept her eyes to the tinted window.

   He pursed his lips behind his mask and accelerated out through the slowly opening gates.