007. Awake

“So, am I ever going to get to sneak out of your bedroom in the middle of the night, or are we going to just pretend you not sleeping over in my place counts?”

Fuck. She didn’t want him to be awake. She didn’t want to have this argument again.

“You told me you wouldn’t ask about that. I was clear on my limits.”

“I’m trying to be clear on mine. This isn’t a relationship, Elenore. I’m just a guy you fuck regularly so you don’t feel like a whore during one-night stands.”

“You’re right. This isn’t a relationship anymore.”

017. Laughter

It’s his laughter. In the shithole where they go to school, he finds something funny and real.

More than that, it gets through to her. Even through the thick layers of cynicism and native hyperawareness of the slightest negative flicker of emotion, his laughter warms her. Makes her feel alive.

She leans in closer, follows him like a puppy. She’s too young to know how to resist the temptation except by avoiding him when she finally realizes what she’s doing.

He still laughs. She still listens. There isn’t much light, and keeping some distance doesn’t stop her from being human.

012. Cold

It’s always hard when she has to work in the cold chamber. Cold is hard on small organisms, and it’s really not possible to call her anything but a small woman. Slowing bacterial growth and insulating the body of the organisms she works from reacting too quickly to radical changes comes with a price. Her fingers ache to the bone and barely move at times, but she knows how to fight physical changes when she needs to. This is necessity. Life saving, in fact, and she keep working on the surgery. Monitoring everything but her own needs until it’s done.