Renegade Oneshots (Nova x Adrian)

Apartment 209

Author's Note: Yes, I'm a senior. Yes, I'm writing a comfort/hurt fic because I need some healing. No judgement please. I'm posting on Wattpad, no point in pretending I am sane right now. This was written a good while ago. I just haven't had time to type it out because my English teacher gives me busy work packets like they're candy or like she has a wholesale deal with paper companies. But here y'all go. Hope y'all enjoy.

Heads up now...this is sorta heavy, but I hope you'll enjoy. 

The floors creaked with a heavy groan of the place she used to call home. Nova's eyes glazed with the creaking boards and simple moonlight. Only 5 minutes until Adrian would inevitably find here in the ruins of her home. It was so....empty. Empty of everything she had loved. And yet, she saw the ghost of herself here, in contraptions she saw in dreams with toothpicks and discarded batteries. It was the last place she could love her parents, hold their hands, giggle when her dad spun her around. It was the place her baby sister would rest in her arms at night. So utterly abandoned, so utterly...her fault. The thoughts crashed into her her like waves and the tears consumed her like swallowing torrents of god-forsaken dreams.

She didn't even truly hear the sound of footsteps. Everything was numb and distant like the edges of a long lost breeze of spring felt in fall sorrows. But then, there she was. It was like a weighted warmth as Adrian sat silently next to her, lifted her gently, and grasped her into a tight embrace. The firmness of Adrian's embrace slowed the sobs racking her body from ravaging waves to shuddering hiccups and then, silence. She leaned into him with drained eyes and uneven breathing as he gently pet her head until her eyes closed for a moment of deep, slow breathing. When her body had begun to slowly emerge from the inner storm, she stared into Adrian's eyes. 

His gaze was filled with palpable, warm, and tender love. He waited patiently as she gathered her courage to speak. "I'm sorry you found me like this," she whispered. He paused for a moment as he replied. 

Gently, he asked, "Would you mind telling me where we are, love? I got worried after pinging your signal and finding you sobbing in abandoned building, darling." He waited what seemed a small eternity before Nova could manage coherent sentences. 

She sighed with the guilt of a young child as she admitted," It's the last place I felt them in my heart and arms before they died. It's the anniversary of their death and I just couldn't bring myself back home to you after remembering. It just feels wrong." He nodded in understanding before kissing her forehead carefully and asking, "Is there something more I should know?"

"I just can't forget it, Adrian. I left my baby sister behind. They don't even have proper graves, no memorial service. All I have left are some old things, scraps of a building, and memories I may forget one day. I can't watch her grow up and I don't know what she'd be like. We could hate each other with barbed sarcasm or be thick as thieves. We could have gone through stupid phases at different time. I'd disapprove of her fashion, but I'd also be fiercely protective if anyone bullied her because of it. I'd do anything to even have her as a rivalry. Anything that left her alive because I can't patch anything up with a corpse."

Adrian gazed at Nova, and unnervingly, she saw him examine her without the pity she had anticipated. He just waited and thought until he finally broke the silence with a deep breath before saying, "You'd make a wonderful big sister. Nova, even if you don't believe it, whoever she would've been, you would have cherished her in your own way."

She chuckled sardonically. "Yeah, right, some big sister I am. I couldn't even grab her away in time." Her knees drew into her chest and her arms followed as the sounds of the bullets echoed in her ears. Over and over. The muffled sounds tortured her and she was stuck again. She was a tiny girl in a tiny apartment and she was trapped. Small. Small. Small. 

Adrian tightly held her while her body trembled as he tried to soothe her. "Shhh, you're not there. It's okay. It's okay. I know it was scary, but it's not your fault, okay? You can't change it now. You're okay. You're okay. I've got you, Nova. I'm not letting you go. You're okay, I promise."

"But I--"

Adrian refused to hear Nova's protest. "The kid you were was protecting herself in hopes of helping your family. I know it's hard to remember but you are not a traitor for not knowing. You were a kid, not a fighter. You should have never had to think about fighting off a hit man to save someone. You were too young for any of it to even be remotely your fault, okay?" He squeezed her tighter as she let his words sink in.

Her breaths still shuddered with half sobs, but as she slowed, her mind drifted. "Do you know I used to try to grow hybrid flowers here? I used to buy seeds so there'd be greenery in honor of them? I had considered planting some of my parent's favorite herbs instead but I someone would try to steal it or that they'd dry up quickly. I took little books on gardening and horticulture and I planted things here a couple of time unsuccessfully. They never could set down roots." She softly laughed. It felt like an old whisper of home. "I miss them, you know?"

Adrian nodded silently and slowly. "I look at you and I wonder how good your family must have been when I see you smile or watch you work. I wish I could have met your dad to convince him that I was head over heels for you. And I wish I could have told your mom that she had the most wonderful daughter, you know. They'd be proud, I'm sure of it."

The tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked back at him. Her eyes gleamed with a bit of hope. "Really?" she asked. 

"Absolutely," he replied. Nova gazed into his eyes and she noticed a couple of tears falling down his face, mirroring hers. 

"Thank you."

"Anytime, love. Anytime."