Zoe knows they aren’t really about to die :) which why I love that about her like it could be gruesome how they die but she knows they’ll ultimately come back right? So she’s having fun with the moment But Mio is so into the action of the moment so we must be seriousTM which is SO IRONIC
I just got back from a massage and had a moment of I need to see this scene written out where Zoe and mio are reaching across the aisle on a train, for each other after the trauma of the sim. This is a Hurt and comfort fic.
Chapter 1
The Rader lawsuit was supposed to be the easy part.
After everything from the simulation collapsing to their bodies collapsing in hospital beds like abandoned shells to months of nausea, inexplicable nosebleeds, radiation burns that wouldn’t heal the same way twice, and the quiet horror of waking up in the middle of the night convinced you’d just died again, they were told justice would come next. That there would be hearings, that there would be accountability. That someone would pay.
But it didn’t happen that way.
The law moved slow. Slower than their symptoms, slower than their fear. And now, weeks in, their lawyer had gently and carefully informed them that Rader's legal team had found a jurisdictional loophole.
A technicality.
One that might dissolve the case entirely.
Zoe had stayed quiet through most of it. Mio hadn’t. She’d thrown a mug across the room, then walked out of the meeting before the lawyer even finished their sentence.
By evening, neither of them knew where they wanted to go or do. The city felt poisoned. Too many people, too much noise, too many things that kept reminding them of what they'd been through. The lawyer, trying to sound helpful, had told them to get out of town for a while. “It won’t help your case,” they’d said, “but it might help your heads.”
So they packed bags. And boarded the overnight train headed north to Zoe’s place, tucked in a town surrounded by trees and silence.
---
The sleeper cabin on the train was narrow and humming. Their bunks were across from each other, top to top, just enough space to reach across if they tried.
They didn’t talk much after they boarded. They were too tired, too hollowed out from the slow-motion car crash of hope crashing into bureaucracy. The kind of tired that didn’t feel like it would go away after sleep.
Zoe lay on her back, watching the window across from her. The train moved fast through the dark. Trees and fences and flashes of moonlight slipped by, barely visible. Her head ached in the way it always did now, dull and pressure-filled, like her brain remembered the simulation even if the rest of the world insisted it never happened.
Across from her, Mio stirred. She’d been quiet for the last hour, breathing slow, like she was trying to force herself to calm down.
“Hey,” Mio said suddenly. Her voice cracked a little.
Zoe turned toward her.
“If we don’t get anything out of this,” Mio continued, “and I mean—I *don’t* think that’s going to happen, obviously—but if it does…” She reached out, across the aisle. Her hand hovered in the empty space between their bunks. “…At least I’m glad it meant I got to meet you.”
Zoe’s breath caught. The train kept moving under them, loud in the silence.
She reached out too.
Their hands met, palm to palm. Fingers threaded together like the threads of fate.
Zoe stared at the window, their reflections barely visible in the glass. Two faces, two silhouettes, and between them, the bridge of their joined hands suspended over the aisle like something sacred.
“I’m not letting this end here,” Zoe said, her voice steady but soft. “They don’t get to erase what they did. Not while I’m breathing.”
“I know,” Mio said. “I just… I needed you to know that. About us.”
Zoe squeezed her hand, gentle, but unflinching. “You’re not getting rid of me.”
The train kept moving. Through the dark, into the wild, into the unknown.
But for now, they had this. Their hands held across the distance. A tether. A promise.
I just got back from a massage and had a moment of I need to see this scene written out where Zoe and mio are reaching across the aisle on a train, for each other after the trauma of the sim. This is a Hurt and comfort fic.
Chapter 1
The Rader lawsuit was supposed to be the easy part.
After everything from the simulation collapsing to their bodies collapsing in hospital beds like abandoned shells to months of nausea, inexplicable nosebleeds, radiation burns that wouldn’t heal the same way twice, and the quiet horror of waking up in the middle of the night convinced you’d just died again, they were told justice would come next. That there would be hearings, that there would be accountability. That someone would pay.
But it didn’t happen that way.
The law moved slow. Slower than their symptoms, slower than their fear. And now, weeks in, their lawyer had gently and carefully informed them that Rader's legal team had found a jurisdictional loophole.
A technicality.
One that might dissolve the case entirely.
Zoe had stayed quiet through most of it. Mio hadn’t. She’d thrown a mug across the room, then walked out of the meeting before the lawyer even finished their sentence.
By evening, neither of them knew where they wanted to go or do. The city felt poisoned. Too many people, too much noise, too many things that kept reminding them of what they'd been through. The lawyer, trying to sound helpful, had told them to get out of town for a while. “It won’t help your case,” they’d said, “but it might help your heads.”
So they packed bags. And boarded the overnight train headed north to Zoe’s place, tucked in a town surrounded by trees and silence.
---
The sleeper cabin on the train was narrow and humming. Their bunks were across from each other, top to top, just enough space to reach across if they tried.
They didn’t talk much after they boarded. They were too tired, too hollowed out from the slow-motion car crash of hope crashing into bureaucracy. The kind of tired that didn’t feel like it would go away after sleep.
Zoe lay on her back, watching the window across from her. The train moved fast through the dark. Trees and fences and flashes of moonlight slipped by, barely visible. Her head ached in the way it always did now, dull and pressure-filled, like her brain remembered the simulation even if the rest of the world insisted it never happened.
Across from her, Mio stirred. She’d been quiet for the last hour, breathing slow, like she was trying to force herself to calm down.
“Hey,” Mio said suddenly. Her voice cracked a little.
Zoe turned toward her.
“If we don’t get anything out of this,” Mio continued, “and I mean—I *don’t* think that’s going to happen, obviously—but if it does…” She reached out, across the aisle. Her hand hovered in the empty space between their bunks. “…At least I’m glad it meant I got to meet you.”
Zoe’s breath caught. The train kept moving under them, loud in the silence.
She reached out too.
Their hands met, palm to palm. Fingers threaded together like the threads of fate.
Zoe stared at the window, their reflections barely visible in the glass. Two faces, two silhouettes, and between them, the bridge of their joined hands suspended over the aisle like something sacred.
“I’m not letting this end here,” Zoe said, her voice steady but soft. “They don’t get to erase what they did. Not while I’m breathing.”
“I know,” Mio said. “I just… I needed you to know that. About us.”
Zoe squeezed her hand, gentle, but unflinching. “You’re not getting rid of me.”
The train kept moving. Through the dark, into the wild, into the unknown.
But for now, they had this. Their hands held across the distance. A tether. A promise.
Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (05/19/2025)
Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms. Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.
izzy806
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
germansingergirl
