Closure

End

Picking up his black crayon again, he began to doodle another figure on the other side of the page. As he drew out the small boxy shapes, he reached out for another crayon. His mind told him black paired well with purple, his hand reaching for that. It was at this point he knew full-well who he was drawing next. N used the purple crayon to draw in some of her features - her socks and hair. With the black crayon again, he briefly paused when he was faced with the question of what expression to give her. Sure, she was prickly when they met, but over time she'd really softened up around him. She smiled a lot around him now, and it felt only right to give her that.

Now, a doodle of Uzi was there on the page too. In contrast to the V doodle, her doodle was easier to look at. He couldn't explain why. Maybe the V doodle was harder since there was so much baggage with her. It hit him then how much he was venting his thoughts out in doodling her and V like this. Might as well go all the way. There was an open spot between them he could use.

With the black crayon again, his hand hovered above the paper. Should he draw himself then, or now? He already drew past V... and yellow did match well with purple. With the black crayon, he drew himself out in the present. He found his figure the easiest to draw, he'd drawn himself and Uzi a lot. Suddenly aware of how close the figures were, he realized he could easily make him and Uzi hold hands. Wouldn't be the first time he'd drawn them doing that. Oh, that was tempting...

As soon as he put the finishing touches on his figure, he heard a noise outside. It didn't sound like snow debris falling, it sounded familiar. Right, she's probably back. Hiding the paper and crayons away, he prepared himself for what was to come. However things ended, he'd at least have closure.

His hands swept across his coat as he smoothed it out. Alright, focus. It's time to talk to V. He put a cautious hand on the handle of the door and swung it open.

He guessed him opening the door spooked her, because he saw V outside looking at him with wary, hollow eyes. "Oh, did I startle you?", he asked.

Her face turned away as her arms crossed, "tch, as if".

"V, you know that's a lie", he sighed, "can I talk to you about it?".

"What? About being scared?".

He bit his lip wondering how to put this. "Well, kinda. V, I'm not gonna ask you about the scary parts of our past, I just want to know what's up with the present you".

One of her brows arched, "really? That?".

"V... You weren't like this before", he said softly trying to stop himself from getting emotional, "you're different now and I guess I gotta accept that, but when you act like you don't trust me how am I supposed to feel about that?".

Her eyes narrowed at him, "no, you're the one who's different. You didn't remember a thing before that purple freak snooped around our heads".

"Uzi saved us ", he stressed, "just... come in here with me and let's talk. We haven't done that since prom night".

V sighed, clearly not liking this turn of events, but walked into the pod with him. She sulked as they sat down on the chairs inside. "Look", she said, "you keep digging for answers and you'll start finding things you really wish you hadn't known. As we've found out with the purple menace's massacre at camp".

"V, she didn't know! How was any of us supposed to know!", he countered. She fell silent and as he stared back at her he realized why. "You did. Uzi said you did. But you've been hiding stuff from us, how is that supposed to help us?".

"...Do you really want an answer for that?", she asked, usual malice absent.

He nodded, "of course I do, V. I can see how much this is hurting you. I just want to talk".