After a while Charli looked up at Anni, "this isn't your favourite activity, is it?"
"Um, no, I'm not the biggest Hugger, I'm sorry," Charli giggled at Anni's admission.
Anni felt ridiculous having to say that out loud, she'd never been one for touchy feely things like hugging. The only person she'd ever really 'hugged' was Alwyn and that was mostly because he was the one who'd carried her out of the hospital, picked her up after an explosion and a couple other scenarios that she didn't want to think about right now.
"Don't be sorry, I should have asked if you wanted a hug before I jumped you, again," Charli whispered sheepishly. She must learn not to just grab this girl.
Anni looked down at her and sighed, "nah, I'm just a weirdo, most people wouldn't care about a hug, or people asking them simple questions, but I'm just screwed up and I can't even hug right," she said trying to make a joke.
She was trying to keep it as light as possible so Charli wouldn't ask why she was adverse to hugging.
Charli pulled back a bit more to look at Anni's face, "I don't think you're screwed up, I think you're perfect," the words came out before Charli could stop them.
Oh my god, she thought, now she was making a good impression of a fish as she stared at Anni with wide eyes and nothing to say to correct herself because Anni was perfect. Charli couldn't come up with a reason as to why she wasn't perfect.
"Uh, thank you, I, uh, thanks," Anni answered, not knowing if she should answer or not. She was frozen to the spot, of all the things she'd been called over the years, perfect was absolutely not one of them.
Even her family didn't think that, they loved her but perfect was not a word they'd use to describe her.
"What else do you wanna show me?" Charli quickly tried to change the subject, absolutely mortified at calling this poor woman perfect after just accosting her in a doorway.
"Show you? Oh yeh, come on, this is probably the best part," Anni said as casually as she could.
Charli has dragged her back out of her own head, which was probably a good thing. She'd been off in a dream about what this situation would be like if she was normal, if she wasn't traumatised or could stand to be touched, or even better, if she could get past her own head and maybe kiss Charli.
That's what the smaller girl had wanted after all, she'd kinda expected Anni to look down after the hug and kiss her, but instead Anni had frozen up.
Charli followed Anni back up the stairs, Anni was in front, Charli was watching her walk like she was in a trance, so much so, she didn't see Anni stop at the door and walked right in to her, "shit sorry," Anni chuckled a bit at Charli, she could feel Charli watching her walk, it gave her a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Charli was staring at Anni's butt, now Anni would be the first to admit she didn't really do enough squats, so it wasn't that impressive but maybe she could start the next time she went. Which, after this little misadventure, would likely be tonight because there was definitely some frustrations to work out. Not the same ones she was used to having tho.
Anni opened the door then turned to Charli, "close your eyes," the words had left her mouth before she had a chance to think.
She didn't know why she said it, maybe she was trying to be romantic? She'd watched plenty of those soppy love films with Mark's girlfriends over the years to know a couple of nice gestures. This seemed to be one of the most obvious ones men would use.
Tho they weren't on an oil rig, with a bunch of steps to walk up.
Charli smiled and closed her eyes, Anni put her hand over Charli's eyes and the other hand on her hip, guiding her, "I'm gonna lift you up the steps," Anni whispered. She felt Charli nod, so she lifted her with ease up the steps of the Heli deck.
