Disclaimer: Halo belongs to 343i. If I ran it, this pairing would be canon by now.
A/N: Because there needs to be more Tom/Lucy. Also, I wanted to try a different writing style. Additionally, I haven't read Glasslands yet.
Word count: 557
The first time they held each other was not romantic (or even platonic), but necessary. Jumping out of Pelicans alongside the scores of other prospective SPARTANs on a late, cold night they had landed (crashed) in close proximity to one another and huddled together, battered and bruised, for warmth. They conversed while they waited; by the time the Camp Currahee personnel picked them up, each called the other friend.
The second was in victory. The first time Foxtrot had won an exercise against the rest of Beta Company, beating the other teams through a combination of intelligence, audacity, and just plain luck. Caught up in the moment, without a thought he had pulled her into his arms. The embrace lasts just long enough to draw the attention of their teammates and friends, whereupon she is released with a hastily muttered apology and, though obscured by protective gear, both their faces flush with chagrin.
At the third, she is saving him; a quick start and a leap give her enough momentum to latch onto him and take them both clear of an Insurrectionist grenade. The contact is brief, but the two feel more secure and at peace in those few heartbeats than they have in far too long. As quickly as it comes, however, the moment is gone and with a roll they are apart and up and shooting at the traitors.
At the fourth, he tries to protect her. Not from physical harm—those dangers are long passed—but from the nightmares he knows will plague her (and himself) at the loss of their friends and comrades, knowing they were as complicit as the Covenant in the deaths of so many they held dear.
She does not push him away and he is grateful for it, because he needs her as much as she needs him.
On the fifth occasion, they are again brought together by grief. So much they had held as certainty swept away—their home, their mentor and friends gone; replaced with a world that for all the natural beauty that surrounds them is even more artificial and different faces, some they have known for years, other for only a few days. They seek what comfort they can from each other.
The circumstances surrounding their sixth embrace are far less unhappy than those that came before. Still trapped in the artificial world and bound to their duty, they meet far from their peers. They communicate in a language only they are truly fluent in—discussing their futures, making plans. A consensus is reached without uttering a single word. They can lie in each other's arms only briefly (they can disappear from camp for only so long before they are missed); they left as friends and returned as not quite lovers.
The passage of time between admitting their feelings in the Shield World and being freed to act upon them is not insignificant. Years and too many lost friends later, when humanity has achieved a modicum of peace and what killing must be done no longer requires weapons of their caliber, they lie together and watch the stars—contemplating just how fortunate they were, that they survived where so many others did not. Lovers now, they remain in each other's arms and consider the future they can build together.
A/N: Just so anyone looking at this chapter knows, the succeeding chapters are the expanded snippets.