Hoi again, and a happy Fab Friday!
I've had a busy two weeks. I hit yet another milestone the Monday before last (500K!!!), quit a terrible job, got more hours on the fun one, and I got my university books for the first quarter.
I have managed to write some fluff in the past weeks! If you ignore that the rest of this chapter is angsty and I just cut it right. Some nice platonic cuddling in the middle of the night, between Newt and Brenda recovering from their Flare-episodes (the moose is a stuffed animal, Newt has a dog that appears later this chapter):
[Brenda's] breathing changed. Short but heavy breaths in, which she’d hold, then longer ones out. It only took her a few minutes to fall asleep. It didn’t always work, but since a week or two it had worked when it had to most. A little reminder to him that as much as he hadn’t minded hating her, Teresa never not cared about them. In her own definitely not faultless way, but she hadn’t hurt any of them out of malice.
Somewhere it surprised him a little that Brenda out of all people sought her company most, even more so than Thomas—though he avoided all of them, so long as they didn’t tell him the truth.
Newt smiled at Brenda and pulled her blankets up so they covered her up to the top of her cheek. Her head lied on his shoulder and he was glad to the warmth.
He tried not to move. She slept so rarely he didn’t want to risk waking her up. The only thinks peaking above her sheets now were her own head, and the soft antlers of her moose.
His heart beat calmer in his chest as he listened to hers. He never liked the med-wing and he still didn’t, but he found a bit of double-sided comfort in the idea that at least he wasn’t there alone. If he closed his eyes, focused on the soft thumps of both their heartbeat and felt the gentle push of Brenda’s wrapped in body against his, he could forget WCKD.
In a sweet spot where there was only the present, decorated only with the sounds and touches that calmed his already drowsy mind, there was just them and a slight corner where he could hide from the truth. That there would be a time where it didn’t matter how much anyone cared about either of them, there wouldn’t be anything they could do to soften the pain or draw their attention away from the failing of their bodies.
Brenda opened her eyes, briefly, and wrapped her arms tighter around him. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah.” He held her the same as she fell back asleep, just tight enough WCKD shouldn’t bother to even try to pry yet another friend out of his life.
Comfort or fluff definitely isn't my strongest point, but I think this is one of my softer and more gentle bits so far.
Congratulations on hitting 500k!!! That's INCREDIBLE!!!
And this scene iS SO PRECIOUS
PEAK hurt/comfort!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
