Hello! The title was given by a song i listened to while writing. I hope you like it!
It was so hard to write out of Courtney POV as she is a hard character to write. I hope you like it anyway.
I think she has much more backstory so i added a bit.
Following. That was what she was doing. Following him.
He was her hope.
More than that... More...
She had always been... different. Her whole life long. A childhood...she didn't have that... Everyone had been overwhelmed with her.
Especially her parents.
Of all the painful memories, there was one stuck the most clearly into her mind.
The hot pain on her head, the blood running slowly over the side of her face. Her whole body stinging from the beating.
Her mother sitting in front of her, crying...
No one truly loved her...
Being a human was awful. So she decided to become a robot.
She left her home early and started to work in a easy cheap job. She was living her life without joy and company.
This world and everything in it... she didn't care. Was tired of it. She had no goal. No direction. No one was dear to her... She was losing her hope.
And then, she met him... When she was 24... When she stood almost at the cliff of her life...
He was different. Different than anyone else in her life. He didn't look at her like they all had. Pityful, disgusted, scared... none of all these.
He respected her for who she was. He saw the strenght in her...
"Why are you... so fond of ...humanity?", she had asked him. "Why do you... submit your life... towards ... it's betterment?", she didn't understand. Not in the slightest. To her humanity and the world was a dark pitch.
He looked at her. The eyes through the glasses had a strange emotion. It looked like understanding: "There was a time when I thought just like you do now... And yet, I was saved. There was this person that became everything to me... And through him, I discovered the good sides of humanity and good people. I got to discover how people can apologize and change and how some offer so much, how they sacrifice themselves for the better things, for others, for progress. I am thankful and I have learned... of the failures of my past. "
It was the first time she had seen him vulnerable. The first time she saw the fire in his heart. The proud, great, stoic Maxie. He understood her... He trusted her...
He was indeed, great.
She still didn't share his faith in humanity. But she was amazed by him. By his passion and fire inside his heart. By his nobleness. So her goal, became to help him fullfill his one.
And suddenly, she started to care. Suddenly, her life had a new hope. A direction... Her soul was filled with him and Team Magma. A family. A new start. It took over everything she felt herself to be. Bloomed her over her like a spring after a long, cruel winter. If felt good. So good.
From the fist day as a grunt, she worked hard to be at the top... She gave everything, and even her Camerupt was inspired by his one.
The way upwards was hard. Often she struggled. But she reminded herself again and again about her goal, about her inspiration... about him.
The life in the team was great.
She was respected and apreciated.
She was happy.
After a while she bought a camera. Taking photos became a regular and passionate hobby of hers. The team loved them and they made a wall full with them.
But her ones of Maxie, she kept to herself.
He sometimes talked to her when she was still a grunt. There was this subtle kind of warmth in his eyes when he did and she loved so much. He always praised her efforts and successes while also giving her advices.
And finally, she was raised to her place as the Admin...
She could finally be closer to him than ever before...
It was wonderful.
She was draving in the header quarters, a room reserved for only the admins and Team Leader. She was often here in her free time to be near him more often. She also got along well with Tabitha.
Maxie came to stand beside her, looking at her drawings. Her tummy tickled while she tried to tell her system to slow down.
"You certainly are also well talented in drawing, as I see." he said.
She looked at him, happy about being noticed by him: "I was... drawing... Team uniforms..."
He inspected the drawing a bit longer. Then he looked at her again. His appreciating look did something very strange to her she couldn't really explain. It made her feel something she never felt before.
"These are really great. Our grunts should wear these."
Her face felt hot.
"Thank you... Leader Maxie..."
He nodded.
"Please do more of these. For the admins and for me too. We will use them."
"Yes... I will..."
Then he walked away.
On the other day she fell asleep in the header quarters and woke up with a blanket over her.
It was certainly Tabithas one she guessed. So the next time she met him,.she handed it to him: "Thank...you."
He looked confused at her. "For what?"
"I'm returning...the blanket... "
He raised his eyebrows: "This isn't my blanket."
She was silent while the realisation hit her about who actually had been the one wrapping her in the blanket.
Tabitha's eyebrows slowly lowered. Something in his eyes looked... unpleased.
She nodded silently and returned to her room. She looked at the red blanket. Imagined the scene in front of her.
While thinking about him, she hugged it close to her. The strange feeling was there again.
It filled her. It felt better than anything she had ever known.
She was drowning in it.
Sooner than she realised, she had fallen for him...
"Leader Maxie..."
They had discussed the new plans together when he interrupted his speech to hide his face inside his hand.
He behaved very strange from the morning on. He wasn't his usual collected self today. Not at all.
"What is ... it?"
He didn't answer. He breathed in deeply and brought a second hand to his face.
She had never seen him like this before and it upset her to the core. It made her sad.
"What... is wrong?" , she askef. This was to high for her system.
"Courtney...", he said. His voice was so strange. It was filled with a sadness she could immadiately recognize. A sadness she knew too well.
"Analysing..."
He didn't react.
"I analyse... loneliness..."
After a few seconds he looked up. The dark underlined, tired eyes looked suprised.
"How..."
It was silent again.
"How did you recognize?" he completed his question.
"I knew... this pain too well. My... My whole life... I felt it..." , Courtney stumbled.
His eyes became pityful:" I am dearly sorry. "
"It's ... alright. It is... over now..." ,she replied.
"What helped you back then?", he asked her.
It took some time until she replied: "...You..."
Silence. The clock was ticking. Second for Second.
His eye changed from suprised to something she couldn't name. They became soft...
"Courtney..."
She almost shivered at his tone.
They continued to look into each others eyes, speaking a language without words. She felt her cheeks burning and a tension forming in the air, until she felt like it overwhelmed her. She broke the eye contact and stood up.
"I...", her voice crackled.
He slowly stood up too and spoke to her again:"Sometimes I am haunted by nightmares. By fears. I am afraid that everyone will abandon me. Afraid that no one really likes me. I, your great Leader, feel like this... lonely... Isn't it pathetic?" he laughed bitterly.
She looked at him again.
"And yet, I feel... different about you. I am not afraid about you. I feel truly appreciated from you. Recognized. And I admire you... How strong and determined you are. How hard working. How ...unique... and beautiful..."
Her system was playing crazy.
He stepped closer. With his gaze. Until he stood in front of her. He raised his hand and rested it on her cheek, caressed it. She was out of control over her gaze, presenting him all the helplessness and love in her eyes. Giving him the silent allowance as he lowered his face so slowly... And then his lips met hers. They caressed them gently, warm, soft, they moved over hers with a gentle force. And for this moment the inner human fell out of her metal robot skin, with that racing heart, prickling eyes, falling into the arms that closed around her. She returned the kiss with all the vulnerable softness that part of her soul held, without a shell. Drowning in him...
Kissing with him. Cuddling with him. It was their beautiful, very own secret. Nobody knew, nobody mustn't ever know. It was their own little world with their own rules. And as stoic as he was on the outside, how collected he usually was, she would always know his vulnerable side.