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He’s been staring at the cracks in the ceiling for what feels like hours now. Gally’s not sure why he even bothers trying to sleep at this point. He lies in the little room he has in the right arm compound, the dark masking the tears that are quietly making their way down his cheeks. His hands are shaking, breaths coming in great gulps of air as he struggles to breathe with only one functioning lung.
CHUCK.Chuck.Chuck.Chuck.Chuck.
A silent never ending mantra looping around his skull, consuming his thoughts. He still remembers the feel of the gun in his hand, cold and sleek and a force that he didn’t really understand. The feel of being controlled like a strung puppet in a show. Like threads being pulled inside his brain. Gally’s full on sobbing now, shaking in the silence of the small room.
He almost falls off the bed when the door slowly creaks open, the silhouette of a person visible for juuust a second before before they shut the door behind them. Any normal person would be getting their weapons ready, an intruder putting them in high alert.
Not Gally. Nope.
For Gally knows this silhouette like the back of his hand, and when arms, bruised from training connected to hands with chipped nail polish, circle him, he doesn't even flinch. Fingers thread through his hair, or what's left after the buzzcut. After Chuck, he didn’t feel the same. He couldn’t deal with seeing himself and looking like nothing had changed. He’s brought back to the present when words are whispered in his ear, the girl's breath ghosting his ear.
‘We cannot change the past, only strive for a better future’
She is a woman of words, his Maddie. ‘Woman’ might be a strong word for a fourteen year old girl, but she’s always mistaken for older anyway, so he thinks she’ll forgive him for his wording. She was the one that found him at W.I.C.K.D, showed him around the Right Arm when the doc deemed him ready. (Learning to function with only one working lung proves to be harder than one might think)
Her hand is pulling at his fingertips, trying to get him off the floor. The heat is almost unbearable during the day, the night however seems to get colder by the day. They both know that once you get cold, it’s quite the challenge to get warm again before the scorching sun has risen again. Gally finally gets his shit somewhat together, rising from the dusty floor. They stand face to face, or really collarbones to eyes.
‘Tall Fucker’ she would call him, rolling her eyes fondly. Not only is Gally rather tall, but it doesn't help that Maddie is somewhat on the shorter side. People tell them they look rather comical, with Gally’s large size, and Maddie looking like a tiny child in comparison. Gally has had to hold her back multiple times, unless he thinks the person deserves a fist in the face. (seriously, you’d be surprised by how scary a fourteen year old girl can be when doing martial arts)
He doesn't even realize he still has tears rolling down his cheeks until warm fingers are brushing them away. Maddie could never be described as gentle, none of them can. Hardened by the unforgiving world, like swords that go through the fire to harden. Only the strongest survive. They are forces of nature, ‘more powerful than we think’.
They lay on the bed, even if it really is only meant for one person. They do this a lot, sometimes talking, other times just existing. Two broken people holding each other together. This is usually when Maddie will whip out one of her ‘inspirational quotes’ and drown him in them until his chest doesn't feel so tight, and he can close his eyes without having Chuck branded on the inside of his eyelids. In turn, he has spent many nights in her bed as well, listening to her stories of dead sisters and war and pain. The world has been cruel to both of them, leaving them with more nightmares than ever of them know what to do with. Not being alone helps, so they stay together.
‘I think we’re soulmates’ Maddie tells him one night, when neither of them want to sleep. They are lying on the roof, pointing out constellations and making up new stories for them, even if Maddie is the most Greek mythology obsessed person Gally’s ever met, and he’s sure she could tell him the correct myth to each one if he asked.
‘What happened to platonic besties?’ he asks her, hoping not to lose the closest thing he still has to family. With they're green eyes and blonde hair, they might as well be.
‘Soulmates don’t have to be lovers Gal’ She leans over while telling him, like she’s telling him the secret of the universe. Maybe she is. She laughs, bright and happy, and Gally holds on to every moment. Happiness is rare these days.
‘We grew up on pain instead of age’ is the saying Maddie gives him, when he asks her what she thinks. She’s not wrong, is as close as she gets him to agreeing with her. Thinking any more about it makes him deeply sad. Maddie tells him he’s probably depressed a few weeks later. She is too.
They decide they're soulmates, the universe be damned. They work.
Just because they’re from different puzzles, doesn't mean they can’t fit together. Gally disagrees, but she won’t budge. Puzzle agalogy it is.