Chapter Text
He quickly recognized her footsteps, light but firm, the slap of sneakers agains the sleek wooden floor. He took off his headphones and put them down on the desk, heavy plastic hitting its surface, and turned towards the sound of Ellie's heavy breathing.
"Ellie." His throat rumbled with the vibrations of her name, the soft L's tumbling from his mouth after the raspy Eh sound, he turned the name around in his mouth, tongue scraping the letters, clinking them against his teeth.
"Kent! Glad I found you." She put a gentle hand on his shoulder, the suddenness of her touch startling him momentarily. "It's nearly 3 AM..." He spun around to face her in his chair, the soft scent of Ellie's sweat and shampoo hitting his nostrills, making him positively lightheaded.
"Ah! Really? Must've been super focused, didn't even realize..." He mused, almost to himself, tugging a little at the collar of his shirt. "I guess I should uh, get going, then." He stood up quickly, bumping into Ellie, making both himself and her yelp. "Sorry! So sorry." He took a step back, not really sure it that was enough to make space between them.
After a pause, a few seconds of silence, broken only by the quiet shuffling of Ellie's feet on the floorboards, her nervously shifting the weight of her lean body from one foot to another, he mumbled "How are you? Why are you up so late? Ah, I guess it's a pointless question, everyone here is always like this, listening for hours on end..."
She sighed softly and he could feel the air hitting his neck, so he took another step back.
"I was busy, as always. And I couldn't sleep." Even though he couldn't see it, he could feel the hint of a smile in her voice, he guessed out of self-deprecation. "What were you listening to?" She added, after another sigh.
He tugged at his collar again. "The static, 18 hours..." He paused, voice trembling a little. He could hear her inhale sharply. "I... I thought I'd lost you, you know... After confirming your go signal, that I'd made a bad decision." She exhaled loudly. "But there you were, mere seconds later, for you hours... Alive... I've been thinking a lot about it."
He felt her walking towards him, just two steps, then, her arms around his midsection, tight, fingers clawing at the back of his shirt. A little stunned and hesistant at first, he raised his arms, then relaxed and let them fall gently onto the small woman's statue, one hand finding the back of her head, the other curling around her, tracing her shoulderblades. They breathed in tandem, exhale after inhale, her hands kneading his back and trailing up and down his spine. How'd they needed this, a moment of assurance for the both of them, that they were alive, alive and present, in each other's arms.