@subject005 ;; let’s save each other
the knock is familiar, and el opens the door without hesitation. “fiona!”, she exclaims, smile lingering as she lays eyes on five. they’ve been doing this for a while, these little stolen hours together when hop is at work and she feels safe in being herself with someone who understands on a level that only shared trauma can deliver.
five is carrying a huge pile of books, and el gets incredibly excited. they share a passion for reading, sometimes going without talking for ages, noses buried in stories that take them places far beyond their own imagination, far away from pain and memories hardly suppressed -----silence only broken when el doesn’t understand a word and needs help.
sometimes she thinks hop knows about it; when el isn’t careful enough and tells him about a book or shares knowledge she couldn’t have possibly acquired on her own, but he doesn’t seem to mind ---he’s trying hard to give her space of her own, to not be overprotective, and el is thankful for that.
“what are those books?”, she finally asks, making a beeline for fiona and taking a few from her arms, only to return to the couch and spreading them out on the table in front of her. one immediately catches her eye ---a big monster on the cover, with huge teeth and scaled skin and she gets confused. “demogorgon?” ---points at the drawing, traces it with careful fingers, then reads. “d - dino - dinosaurs.” there’s nothing but a huge question mark on her face as she looks up to five.
