Chapter Text
Everything was normal now. Well, as normal as things could be. I mean, they were living in a giant tree on the run from the government.
Ok, maybe things weren’t as normal as they seemed, but looking at the girl sitting in front of him, utterly engrossed in trying to fix a grimy record player, Norman didn’t really have the heart to care.
“Ok wait- I think I’m getting somewhere-“ She said, despite the cluster of tiny metal parts that littered the floor where she sat suggesting she very much wasn’t.
“Hey, I thought you’d be good at stuff like this, considering what you did with those cameras back at lambda,”
She furrowed her brow, not looking up from her work. “That was the opposite; it was breaking something, not fixing it,”
He put his hands up defensively, “Hey I’m just saying, you’d be the expert on this stuff out of the two of us,”
She rolled her eyes.
Time passed as Emma contained messing with the machine, Norman staring down at her.
“Why are you even trying so hard to fix it anyways?”
She huffed “Cause it’s a donation, Norman. I don’t want it to go to waste. Besides- “ She blushed “It’s cool,”
He moved closer to her, studying her hands as they moved frantically. With all the children living in Minerva's hideout, donations from supporters of the rebellion in the human world were vital for their survival. But he did admit that sometimes it felt like they were doing it more to get old junk off their hands (especially in this case) than out of the goodness of their hearts. He didn’t particularly mind though, things like this gave them something to do.
Emma's eyes brightened. “You figured it out?”
She nodded excitedly. “For real this time?” Norman asked.
“Oh shut up-“ She replied with a giggle. She grabbed a record from a stack and placed it on the record player. They both froze in anticipation before both of their eyes widened in surprise as the melody started up.
Emma let out a small gasp, trying to contain her pride. She locked eyes with Norman, taking his hands in hers and lifting him to his feet.
“Dance with me Norman!”
He nearly choked as he opened his mouth to speak, causing any words he tried to utter only to come out as a mumbled mess. “You know I don’t know how to do this type of thing-“ He finally got out.
“Oh come on that’s no excuse-“
”Emma really, I-“
”Please Norman? I haven’t done this in so long..”
She still said his name a lot, even three years after that conversation. And it still made his insides feel weird.
And because of this weird feeling, he couldn’t say no to her of course.
“Fine, fine,”
Her smile widened as she squeezed his hands in excitement.
She let go of his hands, standing in front of him expectantly. Her red curls were pulled back into a ponytail so small it could barely be called one. Barbra had encouraged her to grow her hair out, but much like her height, it hadn’t changed much. Which, needless to say, annoyed her quite a bit, especially considering how tall Norman had gotten.
Wait? What am I supposed to do here?
Emma giggled, as if she could read his thoughts, before guiding his hand to her back, where it awkwardly hovered there, too scared to actually touch her. She brought her hand to his shoulder and took his other hand in his.
The loose sleeves of her blouse brushed against him as they swayed around their makeshift dance floor that was the library.
Vague memories floated through both of their minds, Norman thinking of dancing with Ray (albeit much less elegantly. Not that this was anywhere near elegant.), Emma thought of dancing with her father. Both of the memories left a sour taste in their minds.
But eventually, they let those memories become background noise, as they become lost studying each other’s faces, as the circles they danced in around piles of discarded books and long burnt-out lanterns became smoother, more natural. As they slowly got closer and closer. As Norman let his hand rest on Emma's back, without even realizing it.
The only thing they let themselves hear was the soft sound of the other breathing, and the music floating through the air.
They stopped dancing as Norman tripped over some unseen object (most likely his own feet). They didn’t stop dancing for any particular reason, it’s not like Norman hadn’t tripped before. But for whatever reason they took a moment to stop as they both stared at each other stupidly, faces erupting into even stupider smiles.
Whatever was happening between them was abruptly cut up by the fast groan of metal and wood as the library doors were flung open, scattering loose papers everywhere.
In the split second of chaos, while the doors opened, Emma had already peeled herself away from Norman, choosing to stand indignantly across from him with her arms folded. It was weirdly endearing to him how the girl that had shot her own father (with her own scars to prove it) still got embarrassed over something like this. I mean- it’s not like she had any reason to be embarrassed though- two friends dancing was completely normal.
Norman turned to face the pair that had opened the door- Vincent and Barbra- still with that stupid smile on his face that he just couldn’t seem to get off. However, when he saw the look of pure horror on the pair's faces, it dropped immediately.
”Ms.Ratri-“ Vincent said, his breath short and clipped, not even bothering to pick up the papers that had scattered. “There’s something that you need to see, I-“
Barbra skipped the formalities. Which Normal usually liked about her, but in this case, he would’ve done anything to stall just a few moments more until the fabric of his world undid itself. “Em, Holy shit, your uncle’s been murdered!”