Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Just Stay Here In This Moment

Just a short little scene today, as I've been very busy and haven't had time to write.

XxX

Day 6 – Hugging

"Time on my hands could be time spent with you."

XxX

Zero had learnt a lot of things in her short life. She'd learnt about loss, she'd learnt about struggle. She knew that hiding meant cowardice, and that opening up to someone was weakness. She knew how to defend herself. She knew that if a man grabbed her by the shoulder, she had to beat the ever-loving shit out of him because his intentions clearly wouldn't be for the better. She knew when to run away. But most of all, she knew that the world could be cruel.

Yet despite everything she understood and the life lessons she'd learnt, she didn't know much about love. Not just romantic love – platonic love, familial love, and just affection in general. It wasn't like she really expected herself to – she was still young, and she hadn't been raised in a particularly healthy lifestyle, so she felt her behaviour in a lot of situations was perfectly reasonable. She just wished a lot of the time that she knew better.

She did, however, know this:

Vin understood it. Vin was patient. Vin helped.

'You sure you don't want to talk about it?'

'No.'

'Alright. Take your time.' He exhaled softly and rested his chin on her head, not saying anything when she tightened her arms around his waist. This was why he was her best friend – he let her take the time to sort her head out when her emotions were particularly jumbled, more than happy to take the time out of his day and offer whatever he could. And if that was just a goddamn hug, then that was fine.

From an outsider's perspective, this would appear understandably weird – Zero Toriello, the queen of "Touch Me and I'll Kill You," had a weakness for hugs on the rare occasion. Go figure. However, at the moment she was less than okay, having just gotten off the phone with her father. The conversation had been pretty brutal, and in an effort to refrain from getting violent, she could only think to seek out Vin in the hopes that he could help.

And, funnily enough, he did. The whole hug thing was his idea, naturally, but something about it managed to steady the adrenaline pumping through her; quell the anger simmering in her gut. Damn it, something about it just felt good. Sue her for having feelings, okay?

'Thanks,' she mumbled after a moment. 'I really needed that.' She didn't let go.

'Don't worry about it,' Vin replied. 'I mean, it's healthier than punching something, don't you think?' His fingertips traced lazy circles at the base of her spine, and it was oddly comforting.

'Probably,' she admitted. 'But bloody fists prove to the world that you're badass. I always thought hugs were kind of weird.'

He snorted slightly, his fingers stilling momentarily before resuming their pattern. 'That's bullshit and you know it.'

'Fair enough.'

'Does this mean we'll be doing this . . . like, more often? Because that's fine, if you want to.'

'Someone's getting ahead of himself,' she mumbled. 'But probably, yeah. I've been trying this new thing called "thinking", and it's a bit more existential than I'd prepared myself for.'

she felt his whole body start to shake with suppressed laughter, his hands tightening slightly on her waist. 'Wow, I did not expect that sentence to come out of your mouth. What's "thinking" like, then?'

'It's pretty lame. Don't try it.'

'Sounds fair. We'll leave that to Trix and Newton, huh?'

'I won't argue with that.'

'Alright.' He rested his chin back atop her head, making a contented hum in the back of his throat.

Vin always helped, in his own weird kind of way. And hell, it was nice.

XxX

Title: "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", Aerosmith

Quote: "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues", Elton John