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People skirt around Gordon like he shouldn’t be touched. They whisper around him, and gaze at him as if he’s holy. Barney supposes that in a sense, he is. The new world’s own messiah. He looks at Gordon now, across the room, standing apart from Alyx. Disconnected. Out of the HEV suit he still stands out, too tall for his own good. He fidgets as he sweeps the hall of White Forest, unsure of what to do with himself. Barney feels for him.
Like a new star, his face lights up when he locks eyes with Barney. His smile sets something ablaze in Barney’s heart, melting into his ribcage. It drips into his gut and settles like oil over water. In that moment, he briefly sees a Gordon from twenty years prior, one he thought he would never see again. Barney’s vision tunnels and nothing besides Gordon matters, he relaxes where he stands and waves him over.
Gordon slowly picks his way over and reaches for Barney, signing a small greeting. It’s an old one, one he hasn’t seen in decades. It brings a sort of comfort to Barney, and the feeling in his gut bubbles and boils over. He is overwhelmed with a desire to feel Gordon, and so he does. A new Gordon, that during one night, in privacy well deserved and with heavy eyes they’ll meet again and become reacquainted with each other.