xoxo
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Candy Bar Crunch #7 - frog in your throat
Milk & Honey #15 - XOXO
Extras / Toppings: gummy bunnies (origfic_bingo: grief)
Word Count: 606
Story: Misfits
Summary: After Stella’s gone, Dennis seeks solace in Winter.
Notes: this is slightly depressing but at least better than the first attempt I made at this prompt which was just bad.
He handed the letter to Winter who read it in silence. There were tear stains on it here and there but he wasn't ashamed of those, not when the person he was showing this to knew him so well, was probably the only one he expected to understand.
"So she's really gone," Winter sighed after almost five minutes of silence. Dennis was sure that she had read the letter several times. He knew it by heart by now. "And not coming back."
"I knew there was something wrong when she came to see me yesterday but I didn't think it was something like this." He reached for the letter on the table and folded it along the creases carefully before putting it back into the envelope, almost as a means of protection against anything that could accidentally damage it. He didn’t want to lose the last thing of Stella’s he had.
"I could try to find her for you if you want me to," Winter offered. "I know how much this must be getting to you."
Dennis shook his head. "No, we can't do that. I don't want to know where she is. It's her right to leave. She has a perfectly good reason to leave and she doesn't want us to follow. If she did, then she wouldn't have kept it a secret."
"I'm sorry, Dennis," Winter whispered, touching his arm softly.
"No need to be nice to me. I feel like I'm one of the reasons she left. I should have given her more room to figure out how she was feeling about all of this, where she wanted to be going. I shouldn't have put all that much pressure on her."
"Honey, you didn't put any pressure on her. You were the perfect gentleman. I know you care about her more than you probably should but you've always been like that with your big heart."
It was a relief to hear that he hadn’t pushed her, at least from Winter’s perspective. She knew both of them well enough to be able to judge and she would never lie to Dennis. They had established this relationship a long time ago.
"It's funny. We spent years yelling at each other and now she's been gone for a day and I have no idea how to keep going without her. I'd never have thought that she meant all this much to me."
"You two were very dependent on each other, especially after what's just happened but that's completely normal, after all you went through together." She was slowly caressing his arm but Dennis didn't pull back, relished the human touch. It was so comforting to think that for once, somebody understood him, someone who wasn't Stella. "Remember Marcheline? How I needed you after she died and how you were there for me? That's what I felt like watching to two of you support each other."
"I think it was a little more than that," Dennis admitted. "Since she’s gone, I can’t stop thinking that I was falling in love with her. That if she hadn't left, I would have. There's no doubt in my mind about that."
It felt so strange to say it out loud, especially to someone who had once meant so much to him as Winter. He fingered the envelope on the table, the last thing he had of Stella, her goodbye message to him.
Winter didn't say anything but looking at her made Dennis sure that she understood.
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Candy Bar Crunch #7 - frog in your throat
Milk & Honey #15 - XOXO
Extras / Toppings: gummy bunnies (origfic_bingo: grief)
Word Count: 606
Story: Misfits
Summary: After Stella’s gone, Dennis seeks solace in Winter.
Notes: this is slightly depressing but at least better than the first attempt I made at this prompt which was just bad.
He handed the letter to Winter who read it in silence. There were tear stains on it here and there but he wasn't ashamed of those, not when the person he was showing this to knew him so well, was probably the only one he expected to understand.
"So she's really gone," Winter sighed after almost five minutes of silence. Dennis was sure that she had read the letter several times. He knew it by heart by now. "And not coming back."
"I knew there was something wrong when she came to see me yesterday but I didn't think it was something like this." He reached for the letter on the table and folded it along the creases carefully before putting it back into the envelope, almost as a means of protection against anything that could accidentally damage it. He didn’t want to lose the last thing of Stella’s he had.
"I could try to find her for you if you want me to," Winter offered. "I know how much this must be getting to you."
Dennis shook his head. "No, we can't do that. I don't want to know where she is. It's her right to leave. She has a perfectly good reason to leave and she doesn't want us to follow. If she did, then she wouldn't have kept it a secret."
"I'm sorry, Dennis," Winter whispered, touching his arm softly.
"No need to be nice to me. I feel like I'm one of the reasons she left. I should have given her more room to figure out how she was feeling about all of this, where she wanted to be going. I shouldn't have put all that much pressure on her."
"Honey, you didn't put any pressure on her. You were the perfect gentleman. I know you care about her more than you probably should but you've always been like that with your big heart."
It was a relief to hear that he hadn’t pushed her, at least from Winter’s perspective. She knew both of them well enough to be able to judge and she would never lie to Dennis. They had established this relationship a long time ago.
"It's funny. We spent years yelling at each other and now she's been gone for a day and I have no idea how to keep going without her. I'd never have thought that she meant all this much to me."
"You two were very dependent on each other, especially after what's just happened but that's completely normal, after all you went through together." She was slowly caressing his arm but Dennis didn't pull back, relished the human touch. It was so comforting to think that for once, somebody understood him, someone who wasn't Stella. "Remember Marcheline? How I needed you after she died and how you were there for me? That's what I felt like watching to two of you support each other."
"I think it was a little more than that," Dennis admitted. "Since she’s gone, I can’t stop thinking that I was falling in love with her. That if she hadn't left, I would have. There's no doubt in my mind about that."
It felt so strange to say it out loud, especially to someone who had once meant so much to him as Winter. He fingered the envelope on the table, the last thing he had of Stella, her goodbye message to him.
Winter didn't say anything but looking at her made Dennis sure that she understood.