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Hot coffee steam billowed up from the ceramic cup, causing a small, constant cloud that Nowhere was able to stare into to get lost in his own thoughts. The past few hours had been more overwhelming for him than the last several months combined, and that included making friends, nearly losing the closest thing he ever had to a mother to a sickness, travelling to a new dimension and almost maybe having a gay awakening that he'd been trying to suppress before the shitshow of today had happened. Now, Nowhere's brain had overloaded, and he was blank, emotions all turned off as he watched the steam from his coffee rise into the air, wishing for a brief moment that he could also just float away and cease to exist.
Suddenly, a sharp pain in Nowhere's finger brought him out of his trance, wincing and retracting his hand to see that Nightmare, his raven familiar, had nipped him hard enough on the finger to draw blood, a small splash of electric blue now mingling with his orange skin.
"Nowhere." a voice spoke above him, firm yet soft, and Nowhere finally looked up from the world of the corner booth he'd taken to hide away from everything to see Acorn standing right by the booth, his eyes reflecting pools of concern and worry.
"You found me..." was the brilliant genius that Nowhere ended up saying, no doubt sounding as dumbfounded and dead inside as he felt.
"This is the 37th building I've checked," Acorn retaliated, his tone unreadable to Nowhere. "Can I sit?" Nowhere nodded, and Acorn slid into the seat across from him.
Silence filled the air like the cloud of steam from Nowhere's coffee for a few agonising minutes, before Acorn finally spoke up again. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No." Nowhere huffed, before continuing to speak. "I just... how am I supposed to hate them now?"
"What?"
"I spent my whole life resenting my parents and it turns out they were looking for me this whole time? What am I meant to do with that!?" Nowhere pressed his forehead against the table, trying to will the forming tears back into his body. he hadn't meant to say all that, hadn't really meant to say anything at all, but the mixture of all these new emotions and being in Acorn's calming presence seemed to be messing with his normally iron grip filter. "Sorry, you don't have to do this."
"Nowhere," Acorn sighed, gently resting a hand on top of Nowhere's. "I asked you if you want to talk about it, it's okay."
"I normally have a grip on my emotions, they don't get out of my brain like that, I'm sorry for not keeping it all in like normal."
"You... do know that it's healthier to express and feel your emotions, right? Repressing them isn't the same as processing them." Nowhere stayed silent, his forehead still painfully pressing into the table. He didn't dare look up, especially now that his perception of the world and emotions was starting to crumble before his very eyes. "Have you been repressing all this for years?" Nowhere managed a slight nod, then he feels Acorn's hand leave his and hears the sound of the booth cushions. Great, now he'd even gone and scared the one person who seemed to be okay with him.
Suddenly, an arm went across Nowhere's back and pulled him over, and Nowhere's body collided with something solid and warm. Nowhere tempted a small glance, and saw that Acorn had moved to sit next to him, and was attempting to pull him into a hug, tears forming in his eyes.
"What...?"
"I can't imagine how painful it must've been to keep *all* your emotions inside for years," Acorn's voice wobbled as he spoke, but then his grip faltered. "I'm sorry, I should've asked before I touched you."
"It's okay, I don't... *hate* it..." Nowhere spoke quietly, unsure if he even wanted Acorn to hear him, but based on how he was pulled into a full, bone-crushing embrace, he assumed that the aasimar *had* hurt him. Nowhere sat in the embrace, unsure what to even do, he'd never been hugged like this before in his life. Even when Thorn and Ceidil had hugged him months ago, it hadn't been as all-consuming as this was. Then, two things happened at once. Nowhere happened to breathe through his nose, catching the scent of pine grass, fresh bread, and something floral, at the same time that Acorn placed a hand on the back of his head, ever so slightly threading his fingers through Nowhere's hair, and Nowhere couldn't help but sink into the hug after that. Acorn smelt almost magically good, they'd definitely not been near any bakeries or flowers lately, and something about a hand in his hair unlocked something in Nowhere's brain. Slowly, he moved his arms to loosely wrap around Acorn's middle, then, without any warning, Nowhere began to cry.