A/N: Bored AF. Wrote this last Weds but too scared you'd kill me for this. I was so clueless as what the heck to do that wouldn't jump off the canon train to much anyway.
/
The first time they had hugged, she had hugged him back.
It was her birthday, and she was a very grown-up young lady of eight years old. Her father had thrown her a party in her honor, and they had invited all the children from their class at school for an afternoon of fun and games.
And of course, he had been there, and they had managed to have an argument in the middle of the party that resulted in him storming off and her pouting over the cake.
When the time came to open presents, the idiot had somehow reappeared, dragging a blue box.
"Nah" he muttered, shoving it at her. "You. Hope you like it. Happy birthday." Then he had stepped back and watched, waiting expectantly for her to open it.
While the rest of their class looked on eagerly, she opened the bag and dug through bubble wrap grinning from ear to ear for her prize. She had squealed loudly as she pulled out the teddy bear—its fur was a light blue and it had a white ribbon tied around its neck.
Everyone knew. Blue was her favorite color, after all.
She had dropped the bag and the teddy bear and jumped at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.
"Thank you!" she had cheered, while he went all red and tried desperately to pry her off of him.
She belatedly realized that she had dropped her new teddy bear on the ground, and panicked at the thought of it getting dirty. But that was the first time either of them experienced the feel of the other's arms. It would not be the last—most frequently, though, it was her hugging him while he blushed or yelled.
It was only later that she named the bear. After the party was over, she sat on her bed in her room, surrounded by the wonderful things she had gotten as presents, and named her teddy bear that that idiotic genius, three years younger than herself gifted her.
It would sit on her bed for many years to come, even through his high school and graduation which came much earlier than she had expected...
But with the girl missing.
-o-
"Why are you leaving?" Elijah asked quietly, frowning.
She nearly jumped at the sound of his voice; she hadn't heard him come in. But there he was, standing in the doorway of her room, watching her pack. She wondered how long he had been there.
"God, Elijah, don't sneak up on me like that!" She glared at him and returned to placing folded shirts neatly into the open suitcase on her bed.
He took two steps into the room and remained silent for another few seconds, watching her, before he repeated his question in that same odd little voice. "Why are you leaving?"
The blonde straightened up and turned to face him fully. In that second, she memorized him, wanting to always remember him exactly as he looked at that moment: jeans, a black shirt, and a grey zip-front hoodie, with his hands shoved casually into his pockets.
"Because I want to travel. I want to go places and see the world before I have to settle down and get married. I don't want to stay in one place for the rest of my life. Especially when the world's changing. It's changing right before my eyes and the rest of the world's moving forward. And so are you. "
He simply stared at her. It was almost unnerving, to see the normally cheery 19 year-old so solemn. As the tension mounted, he turned his head and looked down at her bed. To her surprise, he actually smiled.
"I can't believe you still have this thing," he commented, reaching down to pick up the teddy bear sitting on her pillow. He'd noticed it before, of course, but every once in a while he would comment about the fact that she'd held onto it for so long.
"Why wouldn't I have it?" she retorted.
"It just seems dumb to hang onto something for this long," he commented in slowly reply.
"Silly," she said automatically. But she smiled then. "Why don't you keep it?"
He looked startled. "No way."
"I mean take it. Something to remember me by."
"No."
He was startled when she walked towards him, pressing the teddy bear into his hands gently. "You gave it to me. It's still mine but don't want you going off and forgetting I even existed do I? " And then she stepped back, looking faintly embarrassed at her own display.
Chloe looked down at the bear and back up at him with a grin on her face.
"She has a name remember? Not 'thing'. She has feelings!"