Hug Me (Bring it In!) [Caleb]
| Masterlist |
FANDOM: Love and Deepspace
PAIRING: Caleb/Fem!Reader
RATING: T
WARNING(S): References to canon (mild angst), capital-Y yearning, very touchy reader, codependent (and very touchy) Caleb
Notes: I am so normal about these two and their Adam and Eve “from the same source” dynamic, trust
| Xavier | Zayne | Rafayel | Sylus | Caleb | Valko |
Taglist: @kingraspberry12-blog
He’s just as touchy. Caleb has always been a little too eager to give in when it comes to you.
From your beginnings together in that lab to your sudden rehoming with Josephine, he was eager for your touch. Whether it was the barest brush of your tiny fingertips against his palm or pressing yourself into him for a hug, he didn’t care - he wanted it all, because it meant you were alive. And Caleb needed you to be alive.
Your smile when you called him Caleb for the first time (instead of that sterile string of numbers given to him by the scientist) was burned into his memory. He didn’t think he could ever forget the fragile little girl who saw him as more than just the one born from her sacrifices. You never saw him as that “rib” taken and made into flesh. He was more than Subject 0230613. He was more than an experiment.
Your curious eyes saw him and declared him yours. And Caleb was yours.
He soon found it hard to be away from you. When you were given separate bedrooms for the first time, he had a nightmare so horrible that when you crept to his room, voice soft with concern, he pulled you in. Josephine was upset in the morning to find you both curled up together, but she understood. You were just children, after all - and Caleb needed the support. You both slept in each other’s rooms for a long stretch of time, until he was old enough that he felt somewhat embarrassed that he was relying on you so heavily for a good night’s sleep. You were pouty for a few days afterward, but he eventually placated you by being his same old self.
Admittedly, you grew up rather spoiled, but he would take that over you maturing too fast. He never wanted to see your bright smile fade. He’d do anything. Even if it meant chasing away boys that would surely break your heart, or scaring away girls who meant to tear you down.
You climbed on him, and he’d halfheartedly protest before steadying you. You’d poke his hands when you were bored. You messed with his hair and prodded and stretched his face, you grabbed his ankle and refused to let go, you jumped at his back and laughed when he caught you with his Evol right before impact. You were unashamed with how openly you followed him and touched him, and he loved it all. When you were sad you hugged him and didn’t want to part. You pulled on his hand when you were excitedly dragging him around. He carried you on piggyback when you were tired or hurt, and he always smiled when your head rested on his shoulder in slumber.
He tried - he really tried - not to seek you out when you both got older. It was much less appropriate at fifteen than it was at seven. But when night terrors kept him awake and he just couldn’t fall back asleep, he’d sneak into your room and sit at your bedside until he was eventually drowsy enough to go back to sleep. Sometimes that meant he would accidentally doze off sitting there, and he would wake up with a crick in his neck and to Josephine’s gentle hands nudging him awake to walk him back to his own bed before your alarm went off.
He’d do anything if it meant you would never stop your affection.
Even after he came back, he was driven by his obsessive need to protect you. The world was a lot scarier now that you were both grown and out on your own, and you were always so stubborn that you could be independent that he worried more than he relaxed.
It broke his heart when you looked at him with so much stunned rage and anxiety, but he could rebuild what had been destroyed. He had to. And he did. Soon enough, you looked at him the way you used to.
Soon enough, you clung to him like you used to. Except it wasn’t you that needed him, it never was; he was the one who so desperately needed you. But he could be content to let you believe the opposite for as long as it meant you would indulge him with your affection.
He would hug you just as tight. He would lean down even before you grabbed at the collar of his jacket to tug him down for a kiss. He would pretend to be asleep in the mornings just so you would have a few more minutes to play with his hair and admire how the morning sun pooled across his face and dripped onto the blankets, painting everything with a cozy golden glow. The nightmares that continued to plague him always seemed to be chased away with your presence, just like when you were children.
He’d do anything for just one more touch or just one more kiss. He’d do anything to be able to hold you like he’d so often dreamed, to press his head into your lap, to sweep you up and delight in your squeal of surprise chased closely by a scandalized shout of “CALEB!”
Even with that damn chip in his brain, he would persist. He would find a way to rip away the last tethers of EVER’s influence and find a place for just the two of you, where you could live peacefully and happily together. A place where you could finally be together undisturbed, and he could indulge in your touch and in your love for the rest of your lives.
