Work Text:
V walked through the enormous stack of books surrounding the path through the tall walls of the library with a book in her hand.
She excitedly tapped on the book while gripping it and breaking into a run. She sprinted to the other side of the library before going to a section labeled under ‘romance’.
She scanned through the books as quickly as she could, her eyes darting around, searching for something seemingly important.
Her eyes continued to dart across the huge bookshelf covered in books. She grabbed one book from the shelf and pulled it out, before hearing a sudden, familiar voice.
V jumped, causing her to drop both of the books. She adjusted her glasses before seeing an energetic, smiling drone who had a medium sized box in his hand.
She subconsciously smiled when she realized who it was.
“Hey!” N smiled back at her, causing V to realize that she was smiling.
“Hi, N!” She responded quickly before looking to the floor at the books in front of her.
N’s eyes quickly followed her’s, causing him to bend down and pick up both of the books for her. He stood back up while putting both of the books in her hands.
“Thanks..” V replied quietly.
“No problem!” He responded.
Before she even realized, she asked, “What’s that?”
Her eyes shifted to the box he had placed down on the floor next to them.
“That? Oh, uh, it’s- uhm,” N hesitated before nervously continuing, “A gift- for you!”
V stood there for a second before N picked it up while gesturing for her to open it.
She took the box from him and slowly opened it, her eyes looking up at him once or twice as he beamed with excitement and nervousness.
She took the lid off and adjusted her glasses before seeing a red, silky scarf.
V picked it up, causing it to unravel. It was quite large, and soft. It made her want to wrap herself in it and fall asleep.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by N, who had been nervously standing there fiddling with his sleeve.
“Do you like it? I just thought since it was getting colder outside you might need something warmer, since your uniform has short sleeves-“
“N, I really like it! Thank you!” V smiled warmly.
“You do? I wanted to make sure it was thoughtful, especially since it’s an early Christmas gift..”
V took the scarf and threw it over his head, causing him to snap out of his spiraling.
“I love it, N. Thanks.”
“No problem!” He responded, his voice muffled, causing it to sound even more lovable be harder to hear.
V tapped his arm lightly, before shouting, “Tag, you’re it! Last one there has to tell J about decorating the entire ballroom before next Monday!”
She could see N’s visor shining through the scarf, his eyes hollowed before turning back to playful ones.
V bolted back out of the library, grabbing the sequel to the book she just read and the scarf that N had been covered in on the way out. She wrapped the scarf around her neck, the warmness of it almost comforting her.
She could hear N shout in the distance, “Hey! Wait up!” Their laughter echoed through the halls before N’s playful voice warped into worried shouting.
V snapped back to reality, looking down at her violently trembling hands as N’s voice became clearer with each shaky breath she took.
Her eyes darted up from her hands towards N’s panicked voice.
“V? V? V! Can you hear me?” His attempts at getting through to her becoming suddenly clear.
Where was she? What was happening? How did she get there? She was just at the manor, she swore she was just there.
Her mind raced as her eyes moved away from N’s. Her eyes darted across the room, then she realized.
She wasn’t at the manor. She was sitting in a kitchen chair in a corner of the house Uzi’s dad had forced them to move into after they had defeated Cyn. Cyn was stuck in Uzi’s tail, they were safe. She hoped, at least.
She was on Copper-9, the dreaded, isolated, lonely planet she had been stuck on for ten years. Ten years. Wait, it had been ten years since she had last stepped foot in the manor. She wasn’t even on Earth!
A sense of panic flooded her mind and thoughts before N’s voice jerked her away from it.
“V? Please answer me, are you there?”
She hesitated. Maybe she didn’t want to be there. Maybe she didn’t even want to be anywhere..
She realized what she was thinking before slowly nodding her head.
She could hear N sigh out of relief.
What was even going on? Why was she sitting down? How did she even get there?
Her core raced wildly in her chest, causing her to reach up to her scarf.
Her eyes hollowed as she tried to reach for her scarf, before slowly realizing it was gone.
Panic flooded her body yet again.
“Where’s- where’s my scarf?” She shakily mumbled. “My scarf..”
She gripped onto her shoulder. She didn’t think she could bear to look N in the eyes.
She didn’t know what to do. All she wanted was her scarf. Tears suddenly threatened to fall from her eyes.
N looked dumbfounded trying to figure out what she meant before realizing and picking up the red scarf off of the floor.
He bent down onto his knees and handed her the scarf.
“You, uh, dropped it and started.. kinda having a panic attack?” He awkwardly explained.
V gripped onto the scarf like her life depended on it and subconsciously wrapped herself in it.
N’s visor quickly turned from relief and confusion to concern again.
“Hey, you don’t have to talk about if you don’t want to.” He muttered, trying to at least comfort her a little.
She felt the silky, comforting scarf wrapped around her.
She was still holding back tears as she slowly, hesitantly looked up from her lap to N.
He reached out, softly touching her hand.
She bit her lip in an attempt to stop herself from crying, but failed.
Tears came streaming down her face like a waterfall. She tried, but couldn’t stop the uncontrollable tears.
N pulled her into a hug in an attempt to calm her down.
Her eyes hollowed in pure shock before she wrapped one of her arms around him, returning the hug. She still kept one hand engulfed in the scarf. For some reason, she was too afraid to move her hand off of it.
She hated how attached she had gotten to it, but she still kept her hand on the scarf.
They just sat there, hugging each other for a few minutes, with N throwing in an occasional ‘It’s okay’ every now and then.
She slowly pulled away, and leaned back in the chair.
She didn’t know if she was okay.
She was pretty sure she wasn’t.
She didn’t know if she could ever feel alright again.
She didn’t even know what ‘alright’ meant anymore,
but she did know one thing.
The real gift was N.