She, who grounded him

Chapter 5 : You mean everything to me

A/N : Hi !  So for this chapter the song to listen to is entitled 'You mean everything to me' (by Neil Sedaka), you can check the Spotify playlist so you can find all of the songs that inspired every chapters. Next chapter will be a time jump so be prepared !

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When she falls asleep, no Henry, no beautiful landscapes, instead she has a nightmare of her hurting Henry with her powers. Her nightmare is not a nightmare, it is the memory of what happened earlier. She wakes up in cold sweat in the middle of the night and starts crying, worried for Henry. Why didn't he come in her dream tonight? Is he okay? Deep down, Zero has this feeling that he is hurting, and to be honest, this feeling reassures her a bit, because if he is hurting it means that he is alive. She is sure Papa punished him, and she hates him for hurting Henry so often. And she hates herself because this time, he has been hurt because of her, twice including one time from her own hands. Zero will think about it for the rest of the night, without being able to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Henry can hear Zero's thoughts even though he cannot use his powers, she must think really loud. He wants to reach out to her and tell her that it is okay, that he is not mad at her and that she should not be mad at herself. He wants to tell her that he would go through hundreds of punishments if it meant her being safe. He hears her thinking he would be better off without her; he hears her hesitating to cut ties with him. He wants to beg her not to, he want to tell her that she is his everything, that he would be so lonely without her. He wants to hug her and hold her close and never let her go. He cannot imagine his life at the lab without her, he cannot imagine his life without her anymore. Yes, he has been fighting those feelings, but now is time to let go, she is his priority now. When Zero's thoughts get lower, Henry falls asleep.

The next morning Brenner comes into the infirmary and motions for Henry to follow him. Henry struggles because of the shocking the day before but follows him, nonetheless. Brenner leads him to the training room and asks him to use his powers, but Henry is still worn out from the shocking last night and cannot use his powers. Besides, his mind is elsewhere, he thinks about Zero and how he wants to reassure her, he cannot wait to see her again. After two hours of useless training, Henry is led to the Rainbow Room, he is excited to see Zero, but when he arrives, she is not here, she must be training. Henry sits at the drawing table, he starts drawing what he knows of the building, because he plans on escaping one day, but this time not alone, he has to bring Zero with him.

When Brenner comes into the room Henry quickly hides his sketch of the building. Behind Brenner, he can see Zero, she looks exhausted, Henry understands that she kept thinking even after he fell asleep and that she might not have gotten any sleep, he feels so bad for having worried her.

After Brenner left the room, Zero goes to Henry, shyly.

"I'm so sorry for what I did to you" she says, her voice is filled with guilt.

"Don't be, please" Henry manages to say, he cannot tell her how he feels about her yet, it is already hard for him to accept it. He would love to tell her, but the words won't come out of his mouth.

"I hurt you Henry, I'm dangerous, I think it would be best if you stayed away from me" she says.

"Don't do that, don't blame yourself, I told you to do it."

"I could have killed you, Henry!" she yells.

"But you didn't. Please, don't push me away" he pleads.

She doesn't answer but hand Henry the drawing that she made, the one inspired by the dream.

"I drew this for you" she says handing it to him. Henry takes the drawing and Zero starts to walk away when Henry takes her hand in his.

"Please Zero, don't abandon me like everyone ever did" he pleads.

Zero looks at him, with teary eyes "I don't want to abandon you, but what if I hurt you, I could never forgive myself. I already can't forgive myself for what happened yesterday.

"The only person to blame is Brenner, not you" Henry goes to hug you, and you hug him back, tight, but you can see he is hurting.

"Please show me your wounds" she says.

Henry lifts his gown up to reveal multiple bruises from the shocking. Zero asks him to sit down, which he does and she starts healing the bruises one by one. After healing several bruises, her nose bleeds a lot, and she is shaking from exhaustion. Henry notices so he takes her hand in is before saying. "Stop, you're going to kill yourself."

"You need to heal Henry, let me do this for you" she pleads.

"Those will fade with time, but if you get hurt, or die, the hurt and the guilt won't fade. Please Zero, stop" he pleads.

Zero put her hand down in defeat. "I hate seeing you hurt, and I hate not being able to heal everything" she says.

"I know" Henry says, hugging her.

"I found you a name" he whispers in her ear.

"What is it?" she asks.

"Anya" he answers before developing "It means merciful in Russian; I saw it in one of Papa's books and I thought it fitted you well."

"Anya" she repeats before saying "Thank you."

"No need to thank me Anya" Henry answers.

After this exchange, they sit at the chess table, their teacher taught them how to play, and obviously, Henry will let her win, because he wanna see her smile when she will realize that she won and he wants her to feel better, to stop blaming herself.

The next day, they head to the Rainbow Room, as they do each morning, Papa is already there, with a man all dressed in white, like the lady in the corner of the room, like an orderly.

"Hello children" says Brenner.

"Hello Papa" Zero answers

"Hello Dr Brenner" Henry says.

"Papa" Brenner says to Henry before continuing. "This is Mark, he will be your new orderly so Samantha doesn't have to watch over you 24/7, they'll turn shifts meaning sometimes Samantha will be watching over you and sometimes it'll be Mark. You'll treat him with as much respect as you treat me, each other and Samantha."

"Hello children" says Mark.

"Hello Mark" answers Henry and Zero.

Henry can sense something is off with Mark, but he cannot tell what...