It is just another morning in February. The cold and wet western wind blowing through the cape, usually merciless and loud, seemed to calm into a soft whisper, singing the end of Winter approaching.
Juliana opens her eyes slowly, motivated by the soft dawn sunlight filtered through static thin curtains framing her closed window. She took a deep breath, pulled off her covers and walked over to the door, pulling on a robe to cover herself against the seasonal cold.
Maybe it would be more prudent to cook breakfast first and wake him up with the smell of coffee, but if the night had been long, perhaps the prospect of busying himself in the kitchen might distract him. She steeled herself for any possibility and walked down the hallway.
"Good morning, Arven." She tries to sound cheerful, even if it is fake.
The young woman stands at her guest bedroom door, but he does not answer, even if she knows that he is well awake, if he even slept at all.
It was a bad night, then.
Juliana knocks again to announce her entrance and, ever slowly and carefully, pushes the door open. She finds Arven sitting up in the bed, by the side of the window. His ball belt is on the bedside table, undisturbed.
She instinctively goes to sit on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs up to perch beside him. He looks paler than usual and is staring into space. She had placed him in the bedroom that was turned towards the slope leading to Nemona's house, as the stormy sea usually made him feel worse than it consoled him, on the cost that it was a quite boring view. Nothing but the increasingly illuminated cobblestones of her street, a few Fletchling chirping around.
Slowly, she lays beside him, wrapping an arm around his thin torso, feeling his sharp intake of breath caused by relief at her caring touch. He tries to turn around and smile, he tries to pretend that he is fine, but he feels that he cannot right at this moment.
"Has it been a bad night, Arven?" She asks, warmly. "It's alright if it was. We all have those sometimes."
The blond man scoffs. I seem to have those much too often, he seems to communicate.
"That's okay, too. The sun has already risen. It's over." She responds at the unspoken declaration.
Tears prick at his green eyes as he turns to face her, his hair, spikey and messy even in the best of days, seemed like the ideal nest for a Maushold. He holds her hands in his and there is so little strength in his grip as he brings her fingers to his lips and sighs.
"No one understands like you do. Stay with me?" He asks, looking despondent, empty.
"Of course, I will." She promises easily, sliding a hand out of his soft grip to smooth his hair behind his ear. "What was it this time? Do you feel like telling me?"
"It's nothing new. I just can't stop dreaming about the bad memories they left me with." He admitted with a sob.
Juliana knew that "they" referred to his parents that, between the crappy child raising, their attempt against her life and the megalomaniacal adherence to research goals that almost caused the rupture of space-time continuum, sucked every ounce of joy out of both her and Arven.
She knew from experience that gazing upon the non-existence of the paradox can make hard recalling any good memories, to place meaning in almost anything in life, and she also understood that she had been a little more prepared to undergo such an experience. She went to Area Zero because she wanted to, with a sense of purpose, at the cusp of adulthood. He tripped upon himself over there as barely more than a child.
He composed himself and continued, "I don't know how much longer I can go on watching memories of my father humiliating me followed by every mistake I've made in my life, proving him right."
Arven lets out a sigh of relief at saying all this out loud. It does not solve anything, but he does feel better by hanging around and just letting it go as words in the wind.
"I didn't sleep too well myself, either. I guess we'll just have to keep each other company on nights like that." She says, hopefully.
The blond man lets out a small laugh. "I would very much like that."
His eyes find hers. His eyes lids were red and puffy and Juliana longed to kiss them better.
She pulls his hand into hers. "You know, you talk about memories, but… That's just your worst memories, and they aren't always as accurate as we think they are. I don't doubt that your father was difficult, for the lack of a better word, but your mistakes don't define you, Arven, and your father doesn't either."
A small smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. This is the sort of affection he has needed since he got out of that place. That he has always needed, in fact.
Her fingers ghost over the mark of his first foray into Area Zero just beneath his right eye. He gasps at the tenderness of her touch, his fingers finding the scar she got when the Houndoom bit her at the Inlet Grotto.
Juliana moves her face closer to his, eyes flicking from his puffy eyes down to his dry lips. It feels right. No-one else feels what they both feel in this moment, no-one else has the bond the two have, intertwined with a history of friendship, of truly knowing each other.
Arven tentatively closed the gap between them, a single tear rolling down his cheek and onto hers as she pressed her lips to his, bittersweet relief washing over them both.
There was a comfort that he had always found in her touch, in these circumstances more than ever. It was the same comfort she found in his touch, and the strong bond of love and friendship between they grew each time he found himself with her again and again. From their time at the Academy, the Path of Legends, the titans, Mabostiff and Area Zero, and now for their life beyond it all.
Neither of them could fight their need for each other any longer.
"I'm so thankful that you're in my life." He whispers as he pulls away slightly, fingers still wrapped around softly on her wrist.
"Stay with me?" She is the one to ask this time.
Now, however, the underlining is bigger, clearer. It requires a more permanent answer. She does not mean until they feel up to facing the day, she means for him to stay in Cabo Poco for good.
"For as long as you have me here." He responds in earnest.
Arven wraps his arm around Juliana and pulls her in for another kiss, pushing his fingers into her hair and throwing the flower-scented covers of the bed around them again, finding cover from the biting cold.
For now, at least, they had each other and that was all they really needed.