She, who grounded him

Chapter 3 : Magic moments

A/N : Hi ! So for this chapter the song to listen to is entitled 'Magic moments' (by Perry Como), you can check the Spotify playlist so you can find all of the songs that inspired every chapters.

———————————————————————

Zero and Henry did not talk since their last exchange, it is 9pm and Zero is in her bed, thinking about what she said wrong. She feels so bad for One and guilty, thinking she hurt him at some point in the conversation. This boy seems to have been through so much. Yes, Zero is young, but she is smart, and she can see beyond the way One acts, even though she never really had any social experiences before, she can feel his pain and it kills her. She cannot sleep, she is overthinking her whole interaction with One still trying to figure out what happened, why he stopped talking to her.

Meanwhile, Henry cannot sleep either, he is thinking about Zero, thinking about how he talked to her. He has mixed feeling about the way he spoke to her and then gave her the silent treatment. One side of him was angry at himself for doing that, for making her suffer, but the other side thinks that it was the best thing to do. He cannot get attached; he does not want to but at the same time he did not love for so long that of course it was easy to despise everyone. But Zero, she was a gamechanger and he hated how she made him feel. Vulnerable, human. He cannot sleep, his thoughts are racing in his mind, and all because of her. Henry ended up falling asleep from exhaustion at 3 am.

Henry is sleeping deeply when Brenner unlocks and comes into his room. Brenner wakes him up shaking him, he is not shaking him gently but not strongly enough to hurt him, he needs a healthy Henry, and he will only hurt him when necessary. Henry wakes up to Brenner shaking him and looks at him with daggers in his eyes, but he says nothing because he knows exactly what will happen if he says anything. Brenner leads Henry to a room looking like a medical examination room. Brenner gesture for Henry to lay down on the examination table.

Henry hesitates before asking "What are we doing here?"

"We will have to do a checkup on your health as well as your brain response to your abilities every single week. We didn't really had time yesterday considering your... behavior so we do it today. You must be healthy One, this is important, if you're not then your abilities won't beat their maximum. You want them at their maximum, don't you?"

"Yes, I want them at their maximum" Henry answered, shocked by the fact that Brenner even answered his question.

"Call me Papa please. Sit still now One, would you?"

Henry wonders why this man wants to be called Papa but also swears to himself that he will never call him that. Henry does not answer and follow Brenner's instructions. Brenner start by a full check-up like you do at your annual appointment to the doctor, checking the heart, running blood test, and checking if Henry has no broken bones or any pain anywhere. Henry winces when Brenner touches his bruised ribs, still hurting a little from the shocking the day before.

"Sorry about that One, I know it's not really pleasant, and I don't enjoy when I have to use methods like this, but you have to follow the rules, understand them and especially understand who is in charge."

After the check-up, Brenner put some electrodes on Henry's head as well as his heart, he puts a can of Coke in front of Henry before asking.

"Can you please move this can with your abilities?"

Henry tries and tries multiple times; his nose even starts to bleed but he does not stop until Brenner stops him with a sigh.

"That's enough for today, Henry, you can play in the Rainbow Room while I do Zero's check-up."

Henry and Zero cross path and Zero smiles at him. Deep down, it warmed Henry's heart, but he did not want anyone to know, he wanted to forget that he couldn't admit to himself that the moments they shared were magical to him, even the shortest ones.

Henry is left alone in the Rainbow Room and start scribbling on a sheet of paper without looking at it. Henry is lost in his thoughts thinking about his last exchange with her, wondering when she will come back and if she is fine, and then, as usual he hates himself for thinking that. He hates himself for thinking about her.

Meanwhile, Zero is being examined by Brenner. First, he does the normal checkup before checking up on her powers. First, he brings her a wounded cat and asks her to heal it, which she does brilliantly. He then asks her to lift a can of Coke which she also brilliantly does. Of course, her nose ends up bleeding like Henry's, but after much more time. After the whole check-up is over, Brenner leads Zero to the Rainbow Room after congratulating her for her performance today.

Zero goes to the drawing table, in front of Henry, she sits down without looking at him, she doesn't know what to do for him to trust her. She has been nothing but kind to him, she wants to be his friend but she doesn't know how. After agonizing minutes of silence, Henry whispers.

"My name is Henry by the way; I'd prefer if you called me like that when Dr Brenner is not around. If that's fine by you of course. What about you, what's your name? I mean your real name."

Zero look at the ground before answering. "I'll call you Henry. About my real name, well... Zero is my real name, I have no other name to be honest. I've been called Zero my whole life."

Henry curses himself 'I should have known! she has been here her whole life', he even feels sorry for her, but couldn't name this emotion as he never felt it before.

"I promise to find you another name, one that suits you and your personality, when we'll know each other better."

"So, you want to get to know me? You don't hate me?"

Henry thinks about it, really regretting saying that aloud. Does he want to know her? Well yes and no... he is very lost. Is heart is caring, but his mind, his mind does not know what to do. Should he follow his heart? What if she hurts him.

Instead, he answers. "I could never hate you."

Zero looks at him with a shocked expression before asking "Then why did you stop talking to me yesterday? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, you didn't. I'm just not used to... what I'm feeling toward you... I'm not used to care." Right after saying that, Henry regrets it, what if she uses it against him? Why did he even say this aloud? She has a power over him that no one else has, but why is that? Henry's thoughts are racing through his mind, a lot of questions to which he has no answer, which frustrates him even more.

"You know, I don't get to care for a lot of people either, I only care for Papa, he is all I have anyway, but caring isn't something bad, it is human, it is what makes us stronger. Maybe we can get hurt but that's life and even if I wished no one would have to be hurt ever again, it's what makes us stronger. I can tell you've been hurt before, but that's why you're strong." After a few minutes Zero added "And I would never hurt you. The few memories we've already been sharing were magical moments to me."