Chapter Text
She wakes, but only halfway, after her sluggish brain puts together two and two, realising that it's just John who's carefully putting an arm around her. Cuddling. She's glad he's getting the hang of it. He always seemed to be the more touch-averse of them, so any indication of him opening up to her and feeling comfortable around her is a relief. Even if she's barely awake yet she manages to hum and snuggle a bit closer before drifting back to sleep.
The next time she slips into consciousness it's because John is getting up. It takes her some time to become fully awake but when she turns around he's already left the room. Heavy rain is drumming against the window.
John's room looks a bit cluttered, but it doesn't register as messy in her brain. It's more homely. She pulls his blankets on top of hers, curling up under them. She almost considers closing her eyes just one more time until he's back with breakfast but then she spots the scribbles on the blackboard, making her sit up to inspect them.
She recognises Mo's handwriting and it makes her smile. Yeah. Mo knows. Mo definitely knows. And from the picture taped beneath it, so does Finley.
Grinning she falls back onto her pillow, rolling around to press her face into it.
The door opens and closes quietly and she turns around to see John carrying in a tray with two steaming cups, a plate of toast and a bowl with fruits in it. She gives him a sleepy smile.
“Morning”, she says, pushing her pillow up against the wall so she can sit up.
“Good Morning...”, John replies. “Where's my- Did you-” He looks at Hero who grins and pulls the pile of blankets over her head. She can hear him laugh through the thick material. “I never would've taken you for a blanket-hoarder, Hero Duke.”
She drops the blankets and props his pillow up next to hers, then holding up the blankets for him.
“Come on”, she says. “There's room for both of us here.”
He puts down the tray on the bed, climbs up and scrambles under the blankets next to her, the tray on their legs. Hero pulls it over onto the windowsill before any dramatic accident with spilled hot liquids can happen.
“Okay”, she says. “Coffee, that's yours-” She hands him his cup, it looks like he's already taken a gulp of it. “And tea for me.” She throws him a smile. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
They sit in bed, drinking tea and coffee, eating toast with jam and peanut butter, talking quietly, not minding the time. It's a peaceful Saturday morning.
That is until the front door slams shut and voices fill the hallways. They turn to look at each other. John's face is priceless, like he's been caught. Hero grabs her phone from the windowsill. A missed call and two messages. It's 10:16 AM. Oh. Right.
“We had plans”, she mutters. “Remember?”
“Damnit” John groans and runs his hands over his face, sliding down onto the bed. She shakes her head at him.
“John?”, somebody calls outside. Undoubtedly Finley. “Hope you're ready, we still gotta pick up Hero!”
Said Hero giggles and slips down onto the bed as well, hiding her face in her pillow. John looks slightly worried.
“What are we going to do now?”, he hisses. Which makes her laugh even more, trying to muffle the noise with the pillow. He looks a bit annoyed, running his hands through his hair. He does that sometimes, she's learned, when he's trying to focus.
There's a knock on the door. John raises his eyebrows at her. 'I don't know', she mouths. He throws his hands up in exasperation.
“They're going to find out sooner or later”, she whispers.
He throws her a pained look but she only nudges him with a smile on her face. So he sits up, turning to face the door. “Come in!”
There's some shuffling going on outside before Moira's face appears in the doorframe. “Good morning, sleepyhead-” A grin spreads on her face. “-and other sleepyhead.”
Hero laughs and presses her her face back into her pillow before she raises an arm and waves in Moira's general direction
“Okay, so we don't have to pick up Hero”, Mo notes to Finley, who's apparently still out somewhere in the hallway.
John leans over Hero's blanket-covered body, grabbing the tray off of the windowsill and getting out of bed. “I'm gonna go take a shower”, he mutters.
Hero watches him pass by Moira who's still standing in the doorframe, smirking. As soon as he's gone, Mo sprints over, jumping onto the bed and tackling her with a hug.
“I knew it!”
Hero can't stop laughing for five minutes.
They make a stop at Hero's flat to pick up proper attire for her before heading out of Wellington in Anaru's car. Moira's driving and it's a bit of a throwback to their adventures in April, music playing and happy chatter. No more secrets except for the fact that John and Hero still don't know where they're going. Mo told them to put on their tramping boots and pack enough to drink, so it's probably going to be a hiking trip.
Hero has picked up some pain au chocolat at the Bakery before they have left the city but it seems like Mo organised most of the food supply, judging from the Tupperware boxes she divided equally onto four backpacks. It's going to be a day trip, that much is sure.
It's an hour-long drive and the sky finally seems to clear when they arrive at a stony beach.
“I thought we were going to go hiking”, John remarks as they get out of the car.
“We are”, Moira says, opening the back of the car to get the backpacks. “This is Makara beach. We're taking the Makara Walkway.”
Hero's already skipping down to the water, taking in the view over the bay. It's still windy and there's foam on the waves coming in. Her hair is flying in her face but she's only laughing, standing there in her grey-blue sweater, leggings and hiking boots.
There's the click of a behind her and she turns around to see Finley with her analogue SLR camera.
“Nonono, turn back around, maybe stretch out your arms!”, Fin calls. Hero laughs and does as she's told, raising her arms like she's a bird, flying, or she's trying to embrace the world. The camera behind her clicks again.
“Okay, got it!”
When she turns around this time, Moira and John have appeared alongside Finley with their backpacks on. John is holding hers as well and she quickly moves over to take it from him with a smile.
“Everybody ready?”, Mo asks. “If you need to use the toilet, now's your last chance.”
Sometimes Mo has strange ideas. But this one turns out to be a rather good one. They don't go hiking often, their trip to Timaru was something a bit out of the ordinary in that case. Chris used to take her hiking a lot, but she brushes those memories off her mind as quickly as they come.
The path they take leads them up the hills and soon they find themselves at the top, surrounded by wind and rays of sunshine blinking through the clouds. They sit on their rain jackets in the wet grass, eating pain au chocolat (except for Mo who has some vegan chocolate chip cookies) and drinking tea from a thermos bottle, passing around the one cup they have.
“Okay, so is this officially a thing then?”, Finley finally asks, gesturing between John and Hero.
They look at each other. She hasn't even thought about that, that she could technically now introduce John as her boyfriend or partner or whatever the appropriate term in their relationship is. If he agreed to it, that is.
“What kind of thing are we talking about?”, John asks, raising his eyebrows at Finley.
“You know exactly what kind of thing-”
“DESIGNATED CUDDLE BUDDIES!”, Moira interrupts them, throwing herself away with laughter at her own clever name. Hero can't help but smile at her silliness. It's certainly something different.
“That would make it seem like I wouldn't want to cuddle anyone else though”, she points out. John throws her a weird look. “Like Mo. Or Bea.” He visibly relaxes and she nudges him, trying to assure him that everything's fine.
“Nobody would take you seriously, by the way, if you introduced each other as designated cuddle buddies”, Finley remarks.
“Yeah, thanks for the heads up”, John mutters. “Because people totally understand the concept of a relationship that doesn't consist of making out and having sex all the time and will take us completely seriously for it.”
“Hey.” Hero takes his hand in both of hers. She can tell there's something deeper bothering him about this, but he won't say.
“Okay, let's just drop it, alright.” Moira, always the voice of reason, trying to keep peace in the group. “We'll let you figure it out on your own, okay? We're just glad you two are happy and everything. That's what's important here.” She claps her hand together. “Now who wants some rice chocolate?”
John walks with his hands in his pockets and she feels the distance growing again. Clearly his mind is completely wrapped around something else than what they are talking about, he's more quiet and withdrawn than usual.
She lets Mo and Finley go ahead and falls back, waiting for him until they walk side by side.
“Can I please hug you?”, she asks. He stops and she carefully winds her arms around him, pressing her face into his chest. It's like she seeks comfort but in fact she's seeking to give it to him. He only accepts it hesitantly.
“You know, we don't have to bother with the whole labelling things”, she says, looking up at him. “I know how I feel about you and-”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I...” She lets him go, taking a step back, trying not to stumble over her words. “Whenever I see you I just- I want to be near you. I want to see you smile and hear your voice. You're my best friend... and I am absolutely in love with you.”
She can't tell if the look in his eyes is anguish or affection. He's so hard to read sometimes and him not really talking about things doesn't make it any better.
“You mean so much more to me than the word girlfriend could ever describe”, he says quietly. It makes her blush, lowering her head.
His warm hand in hers comes unexpected. “We're losing the others.” She smiles and nods, following him, not letting go of his hand.
The walkway leads them over the hills and then back down to the water. It turns out to be a rather sunny but windy day and the pictures that Finley is taking with her cameras show laughing faces and hair flying everywhere. They also show hands entwined, shy smiles hidden away in a dark grey sweater and three figures at the shoreline, trying to skip rocks on the ocean.
Hero likes these kind of days, these escapes from the ordinary world. It calms her worries, makes her feel like everything's fine. She's jumping over rocks and driftwood, laughing, only to stumble back into John's arms.
He seems to be happier now and she hopes that he will figure out whatever is going on in his head. It's probably not easy for him, this new thing between them. If she's honest, it takes some getting used to for her too. But she's been in love before, she knows these feelings. And he- well, according to his own words, he never was. It's uncharted waters for him.
So she takes his hand and leads him through it.