Author's note: this was not easy to write. I'll probably change it someday, but after rewriting it for the sixth time I guess it won't be soon.
Infinite thanks to Peacockgirl, I sure hope this story won't end up being a letdown! (And I agree with you, Dwight definitely deserves more love)
Edit: I rewrote the first part because... well, it was so bad; it just bothered me. But the core remains the same, so there is no real need to read it again. Thanks a lot for the reviews I've received in the meantime, I'm really grateful for each one of them!
ooooooooooooooo
Her very broken coffee maker lied on her table in a sad display, way beyond any repair, but Giulia kept on fiddling idly with the thermostat thinking how much replacements parts were going to cost. She could already feel the wailing of her meager wallet.
‹‹I can get you another one, if you want››
She raised her eyes on the man sitting across the kitchen table and smiled discreetly at the striking contrast between his massive built and the mug with dancing yellow elephants drawn all over he was holding.
The morning after had been, thank goodness, not even remotely as awkward as she feared.
In fact, Giulia felt... normal. A bit sleepy maybe, but normal.
"Right, because last night was perfectly normal. Just your everyday shady stranger sleeping on your couch" said a little voice in her head.
That was the point: she was sure she was supposed to feel a whole lot of awkwardness about that situation but... nope, no awkwardness. She did feel a little embarrassed that she couldn't offer him coffee since her coffee maker decided to give upthat morning of all the possible times, but she was mostly sorry for herself -caffeine addiction can be a real bitch-, so that didn't count anyway.
‹‹No, thanks›› she sighed, finally putting down the sorry metallic piece ‹‹I'll just buy another thermostat and a new switch and see if I can revive it››
‹‹Why do you like fixing things?››
It could have sounded like a completely random, point-blank question. But even in her current lack of caffeine, Giulia could clearly see from the dead serious face he was wearing that there was something deeper in those apparently casual words.
‹‹Why are you asking?››
‹‹Because you want to help and I need help›› he said, looking straight into her eyes ‹‹but I don't want you to get any ideas: I don't fix this situation, I patch it up. I hide the broken glass under the rug and hope no one will notice, that's what I do and what you will do if you work with me. I will not let you in if you are going to consume yourself like others are doing, thinking they can fix something they don't even understand.››
For those who could see it, there was history behind that little speech: in the way every word was carefully underlined, in the tone in his voice that said "there will be no negotiation on this point"... but right now Giulia was seeing something else entirely, because she knew that was the crossroad, the point of no return.
She could go back to life as she knew it and Dwight would be gone; or she could take a step and open up to the possibility of finding herself into the other face of Haven, beyond the looking glass, with no shell to protect her.
Two paths, clear before her eyes, and no idea which one was the one meant for her.
So she did what the same thing she did all those years ago when her parents asked her if she wanted to go to college or start working full time as a mechanic: she shut down her brain and let the more honest and brave heart do the talking, not knowing herself what was going to come out of her mouth.
‹‹I like fixing things›› she said, her voice unusually steady ‹‹because I like to do what I can. People throw away or change the broken stuff because they don't know how to repair them, but I do so I do it. Many people in Haven don't help because they don't know how they could, but I do. And I don't like to give less than I can offer, even if that means only sweeping broken glasses under the rug.››
Dwight stared at her for a while, taking his time before he spoke, but he had already made his decision. Maybe the weariness made it for him, maybe it was that his life full of mysteries and unstable alliances needed the truth he could hear in her voice... whatever the reason, it was with a crooked grin that he raised his elephant-themed mug in in her direction in a silent cheer.
‹‹Well then. Welcome aboard, partner››
ooooooooooooo
If there were a name for the bond that began that morning and in a few weeks became stronger than they suspected, neither of them knew it.
It was more than simple partnership, but it wasn't something you would define as friendship either. Well, maybe you would in other cases, but there was just something in the striking contrast they made when they were side by side that made the word "friendship" sound plain wrong: the child and the giant, that's what they looked like, on planes too different to have a conventional friendship. Most people would probably call it a "brotherly bond" and it wouldn't be too far from the truth: not friends, but in a way even closer than that.
But in fact the two people directly involved couldn't care less about the name that bond should have, so there is no need to find one.
So instead of trying to say what I think it was I'll just say what I know was there: there was trust, the spontaneous and unquestioned kind that in a lifetime is shared with a few people; there were evenings spent at her house full of exotic scents eating super-spicy curry, that by then Giulia always cooked for two; there was the blanket she kept near the couch, because Dwight was spending the night at her place more and more often; there was silence, especially when they were working, the silence where thoughts are heard better than when you force yourself to give them sound; and when they gave them sound, their words told stories of two very different lives and contrary to what happens so frequently, words actually helped them to understand each other better.
Giulia learned to respect that strong and reserved man, with a life that was full of secrets against his will and a sense of humor that "odd" didn't even begin to describe. She found herself counting on him as she never did with anyone and sometimes she wondered just when he had become such an important part of her life.
And even though she didn't know that, Dwight learned to respect what lied under her childlike appearance too: honesty, resolution, a lucid mind and a courage that was all the more valuable because it came from a soul that was naturally filled with fears but chose to fight them back.
ooooooooooooooo
The day she told him she was Troubled was raining hard and the thermometer made a jump backwards of at least ten degrees. The veil of rain was so thick that despite the brilliant colors of the buildings in Haven everything seemed to be painted in subtle variations of the same blue-gray dye, creating the illusion of a muffled, underwater world.
Since the beginning of their partnership they agreed implicitly that Giulia would handle all those jobs that only required mechanical aid; Dwight was still left with the rest of the "cleaning" (falsifying death reports, concealing evidence, brainwashing the occasional onlookers and doing... well, whatever he did with his crossbow), but at least he now had time to sleep more than four hours a day. Nonetheless he still refused to let her go on her own and proved himself adamant in picking her up and slumbering in the van while he waited for her.
That's the reason why she was now in the passenger seat, drenched to her bones, with Dwight staring at her with bulging eyes.
‹‹What the hell kid, where are your clothes?››
Giulia looked down on her very wet body with sleepy eyes and what she saw startled her to the point that she forgot to rectify that "kid".
She was still in her pajamas.
It wasn't her fault, really: his call at six in the morning was so unexpected that she barely had time to literally roll out of bed and downstairs in a semi-unconscious state; the result was that she was now clad only in a pair of shorts and a tank top that thanks to the water had quickly became see-through like tissue paper.
Crap.
‹‹Here, take my shirt before you freeze to death›› he offered undoing the buttons with a few swift motions, but she stopped him before he could hand it to her.
‹‹No, I'm fine. You keep it or you'll catch a cold›› she said without thinking.
‹‹Before I catch a cold? Seriously?››
‹‹Very.››
‹‹Right. Not a chance. Take my shirt and...››
‹‹Dwight please, I said I'm fine!›› she barked.
The look he gave her pierced her chest like a cold arrow. She had never raised her voice, not with him; not like that.
‹‹I'm sorry. It's just that I...›› she trailed off, the words stuck in her throat like a fistful of sand.
She never told anyone, not after Rhod left; irrational as that might be, probably she still feared that the most important person in her life would walk away if he knew. It would have been so easy if only Dwight weren't that good at reading her: she would apologize,blame it on the early rise and everything would go back to normal... but he was.
‹‹It's just that you what?›› he pressed, his eyes hard.
In the end she would have told him anyway, but the moment she encountered his gaze she knew she had to. They were the eyes that looked deep into her, searching her soul, before trusting her enough to tell her about the blond girl in the pictures he always carried. The same eyes that now sensed she was hiding something, wondering if the trust he gave her was actually deserved.
The rain drummed without mercy on the van, resounding impatiently, waiting for her to answer.
The walls that were rapidly growing between them scared her more than she ever thought they could, so she forced that fistful of sand down her lungs and started to talk.
He listened very carefully, even though she was sure she was sure the words were coming out in a messy jumble.
Her Trouble wasn't exceedingly dramatic compared to the curses that destroyed the lives of so many people in Haven: it was essentially the control of body heath. In other words her body always kept the same temperature, regardless of external conditions.
It was triggered in the winter of five years ago, when the ice of Lake Taweekee cracked under her skates and the freezing waters swallowed her in a flash. She fell into that deep, dark hole thinking she was going to die, but once underwater her limbs simply refused to let go of the warmth that kept them alive. When she resurfaced, the snowy wind that tried to bite her skin felt no different from a warm summer breeze.
But it was a Trouble after all, so there had to be a catch; in her case it was that she affected other people too and it was of course something completely beyond her control.
This was the hardest part to explain, because how could she describe that some emotions were "cold" while others were "hot" if she herself never understood exactly how her Trouble worked?
So instead she told him of that time when a burglar barged into her house with a gun. The chilling fear she felt in every nerve, the wild wish that he could just stop... She cooled him down until he died of hypothermia, unable to stop herself even when his skin started to crack open under her terrified eyes.
Or how her last boyfriend, Rhod, had finally broke up with her because every time they fought or tried to make love she risked to heat him up so much he could have died, unless he ran away far enough to be out of the range of her affliction.
When she finally stopped talking she felt like she went on and on for hours without actually explaining anything, but the way Dwight was looking at her let her know that he understood. There were no walls around him anymore, just a lingering pensiveness and bittersweet sympathy that meant more than a hundred comforting hands.
‹‹I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you to tell me›› he murmured after a while.
‹‹It's all right. It had to come out sooner or later››
‹‹Maybe. But you still have to take my shirt››
Giulia arched her eyebrows in a silent question.
‹‹Look›› he said throwing a sideways glance at her ‹‹You might not need it and you are not really underage; but I'd still feel like an old pervert driving around with you in that... outfit.››
"Outfit? Wha... Oh. Oh."
A burning flush exploded on her wet cheeks when she remembered that for all the covering her current clothing was doing, she could just as well have been in her undies.
Without a word she snatched the flannel shirt from his hand and draped it hastily around her shoulders. It was so much bigger than her that it went way past her knees and not for the first time she felt disappointed she couldn't feel temperature changes; she bet that if she could, his shirt would have felt really warm.