I'm Always Covered in Dust

Leaving Skag Gully and heading back to Arid Badlands, Kid first goes to T.K Baha's house. He wants to break the news of Nine-Toes' death and hand over the man's wife's gun. He warns the others through the ECHO that he would be returning a little later in Fyrestone.

The sky was already red and the moon was appearing on the horizon. Kid feels extremely tired. He felt that this was strange, as he could last several whole days without getting tired. The blond then closes his eyes and feels the sharp wind hit his face. He takes a deep breath and smells dust, blood, and burnt metal. He hears the sounds of the environment: the distant gunfire, the screams of the skags, and the roar of his motorcycle's engine.

Suddenly, he feels a strangeness in Pandora's time. The planet seemed to have its cycle extended, meaning that Pandora took longer to complete a full lap around its sun. Some numbers popped into his mind.

Apparently, a cycle on Pandora was 90 hours. 45 hours of the day and 45 hours of the night. Kid then understands why he was feeling so tired. He had been awake for 2 whole days!

"Kid, what are you doing sleeping while driving? Do you want to kill us?!" Lilith hits Kid on the head to wake the blond up, she thought the man had slept while driving.

Kid opens his eyes as he feels Lilith's fist, it didn't hurt of course because of his shield, but it was still enough for him to feel his head being pushed forward.

"I wasn't sleeping, just checking the time." Kid speaks without explaining much, Lilith however doesn't understand what he was saying and just speaks. "You have an ECHO, Kid, just look on the interface."

"Mhm"

"Anyway, are you going to do anything?" Lilith asks, her cheeks looking a little red.

"Yeah, I slept." Kid replies too tired to formulate a bigger sentence, he was so tired he didn't even care as Lilith caressed his abdomen shamelessly.

"And after you wake up?" Lilith doesn't mind the little answer but insists.

"Eat." Kid says, his eyes getting a little heavy. But suddenly his eyes brighten and widen soon after. The blond then becomes fully awake.

"So what?" Lilith rolls her eyes, a frustrated groan coming out of her mouth.

"I dunno, stay home and watch something until dawn?" Kid replies he wasn't going to leave Fyrestone while it's night.

"Great, when you wake up come to my place, we can play some games or watch something!" Lilith says with an excited tone.

"Hmm right." Kid replies with short words, though he inwardly was thinking about several things.

They arrive at Baha's house, the man was fiddling with his small horde, Kid then catches the man's eye while taking T.K's wife's pistol from his ECHO.

"Here, I shot Nine-Toes in the head with it." Kid then passes the gun to the man.

"Huh? Who's there? Oh! it's you again. So you actually pulled it off! Nine-Toes is dead. That'll piss of his boss Sledge for sure. Oh, if only my wife were here now. If only I could remember her name. So lonely..." Baha takes the gun from Kid's hand. "I hope you're not taking advantage of my blindness and giving me just any gun, that would be really sad."

"It's genuine, I took it from your wife's coffin." Replies Kid, not at all offended by the man's suspicion.

"That's true, after smelling it I could smell my wife's scent." Says T.K Baha with the gun close to his nose.

His face had a strange expression as he watched the man sniff the gun, that thing smelled like decades of rotting carrion. Kid doesn't say anything else and just walks out of there,

"Are you done?" Lilith asks, she had stayed on the bike. "You look tired, let me drive to Fyrestone."

"Drive carefully." Kid sits down behind the woman, putting his hand on the redhead's waist. "Looks like our work has only begun, that Nine-Toes guy was just a pawn of a man named Sledge, from what Baha said, he's the boss of the whole Arid Badlands." Lilith doesn't shy away.

"Whatever, it's just more numbers at the end of the day." Lilith was not intimidated, she was used to always being outnumbered.

The ride to Fyrestone was uneventful, Lilith was startled to feel Kid's head resting against her shoulder, the blond's calm breathing sent shivers down her spine. She thought the blond was truly asleep. However, internally, she hoped the blond had done it on purpose.

Arriving in Fyrestone they both headed for their homes, Kid kept his motorcycle inside his house as he feared some bandit invasion would occur and steal his jetbeast. Taking off his clothes Kid jumps into bed and falls into a deep sleep.

_____

"Jeannette!!!" Kid suddenly wakes up and sits up in bed. His body was shaking and soaked with sweat, as was his sheet.

A harsh, heavy breathing sounds in the silent room, Kid regulates his breathing and calms down, the man clenches his shaking lungs.

"It's just a dream, it was just a dream. Luckily the frequency goes way down." Kid mutters, he then picks up his ECHO and sees the current time.

[63:47:47]

Kid then notices several notifications from his ECHO, the messages are mainly about the health module.

[Critical condition!]

[Critical condition!]

[seek medical attention urgently!]

[BI: |33.77%| Condition: heart failure - stroke - multiple organ failure - stress - dehydration - sick - dying]

Kid looks at his status with a dull face, he gets up and goes to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, Kid concentrates on the numbers above his head.

119

01:00:07

Kid then refocused on his appearance and what appeared in the mirror looked like a totally different man, or rather, an old one. Kid had sagging skin and a stooped posture, his wild, untamed blond hair was brittle and white.

00h:59mi:47s.

A mocking smile appeared on Kid's old face, then the bathroom was lit by a red glow, and his body began to rejuvenate with the naked eye until he was back to his 25-year-old self again.

[BI: |90%| Condition: sick - dying]

720h:57mi:05s.

"It's many hours until dawn. I'll go to Lilith's house, maybe she'll be up by then." Kid says, feeling uncomfortable being alone. The memories of his past were wanting to flood his mind.

Kid puts on his coat, with some doughnuts he kept in his backpack, and leaves his temporary home, the cold night wind hits Kid's face, and feeling refreshed the man goes to where Lilith was, the house where she had its lights on. Knocking on the door Kid waits to be answered.

The door then opens but sees no one, Kid is confused but something metallic pokes his leg.

"Oh, it's you Kid! Come on in, Lilith said you'd show up at some point." Unexpectedly Claptrap opened the door.

"What are you doing here Claptrap?" Kid asks confused, Though confused he still enters the house and follows Claptrap.

"Lilith invited me. I was serving her and helping clean up the place." Claptrap replies, in a cheerful tone that could be noticed by how loud he is talking.

"I see." Kid then stops when he arrives in the room, the place is well-lit, Kid then sees Lilith lying on a couch, she is wearing her red top and short shorts, her white thighs showed, and her tattoo converged on her left thigh to her foot and a little on the right. The woman was totally focused on playing an FPS game, Kid then realizes that the place was a bit messy, Lilith's SMG was with her on the couch along with a pot of strawberries and even a damn grenade was on the couch.

"Sup! You finally showed up Kid!" Lilith speaks after swallowing a strawberry, stretching her legs the redhead sits down on the couch.

"Sup, I thought Claptrap had cleaned the place up, Anyway, what are you doing?" With room on the couch Kid sits down as well, Claptrap went to the fridge to grab something.

"I was playing video games with Claptrap, he sucks but it's more fun with more people." Lilith stands up and leans over to turn off her video game.

"So what are we going to do?" Kid comments, trying to take his eyes off Lilith's plump ass in front of him.

Lilith turns around, a smile splitting her face, a red tinge could be seen on the woman's cheeks. "Let's play Bunkers and Badasses! There's three of us counting Claptrap."

Kid's head tilts to the side, he had never heard of this game.

"Don't even think about refusing before you try it!" Lilith speaks quickly, she looks like she would tie Kid up if he dared to leave "I'll teach you how to play, so no need to worry!"

"Cool! I'll be the Bunker Master!" Placing the drinks on the table Claptrap shouts in anticipation. The little robot was excited and surprised to be included in the fun.

"No way! I'm going to be the Bunker Master!" Lilith refused, Claptrap was too clumsy to be the Bunker Master. "And you didn't even know this game existed 7 seconds ago"

"But I spoke first." Protests Claptrap.

Kid stays silent in the background thinking about leaving the place but Lilith grabs him by the arm and brings him close to the table. She then pulled something out of her ECHO, it looked like a board along with some dice and some cards. Kid then spent several hours trying to learn from Lilith how to play while Claptrap pestered her to be the Bunker Master.

_____

After some matching game of Bunkers and Badasses, Lilith decides to stop as she had been playing for 2 continuous hours, Claptrap then leaves annoyed as Lilith did not let him be the Bunker Master in any of the games.

Kid was playing FPS on Lilith's video game and eating some strawberries, the woman had gone to get something to drink. Kid was quite focused on the game, he was a soldier piloting a giant robot and had to help his militia protect their planet from invaders.

Lilith then returns from the kitchen with a few cans of beer in hand and sits down next to Kid, her slouched posture not befitting the assassin who had killed a dozen bandits like they were nothing.

"Are you old enough to drink beer Lilith?" Kid turns around as he feels Lilith at his side. Curious, the blonde's eyes glaze over slightly and a number appears above Lilith's head.

23y

700800h:02mi:51s.

'She's twenty-three? She looks older than her age' Kid comments internally upon seeing those numbers.

"Is that *Hic serious Kid? Of course, I am and I'm *Hic also old enough to do a few *Hic other things hehehe" Lilith licked her lips, the double meaning in the sentence was evident and Kid quickly understood what she meant.

"Cool, but how did you furnish your whole house, I don't remember you having a full kitchen before. Can three SDs store all that?" Kid tries to change the subject.

"That's *Hic secret, but if you *Hic ask me nicely I'll tell you how I do it." Lilith then sits on Kid's lap and grabs the edges of Kid's coat. "Don't you feel *Hic warm wearing that jacket?"

"No, I'm used to the heat, thanks for asking." Kid replies he knew Lilith was drunk by her sobs. he was thinking of taking the woman to her bed and letting her sleep before she does something stupid, but something unexpected happens.

Lilith's tattoos glow and Kid's coat disappears as if it never existed, the man's eyes widen at the unexpected event, Lilith giggles at his antics but freezes at the sight of Kid's body.