We Are Similar

Heater

Is it really alright for us to be out here this late?

Probably not, honestly.

Eva walked out to the field that night, calming her mind. She had a chat with Mizel through their link, but now they've both gone quiet. She began to circle around the building.

She had to admit, the scene was quite nice. They wasn't really anything around, no parks or trees nearby, but the sky was covered with stars, something she much enjoyed looking at. She found herself smiling at the constellations she recognized.

"Eva?" She jumped and turned around to go face to face with Jin. "Why are you up?"

She smiled slightly. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I suppose you could." He chuckled. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Just walking around the building. Want to join me?"

"Mmhm."

The two walked in silence for a good while, enjoying each other's company. Soon, fluffy white dots began to fall from the sky.

Eva looked up and blinked. "Snow?"

"It's the middle of December." Jin stated. "Looks like we're up for a white Christmas."

Her eyes widened. "W-wait, Christmas? I-I completely forgot... How long has it even been?"

He smiled at her. "It's pretty surreal that this whole incident lasted only a couple of weeks, huh?"

"I-It felt like it dragged on for forever..." She muttered.

"Time."

"Eh?"

"... It was the same when I first came here to Country A by myself. The time just dragged on. But when we got to Brinton, it's like everything sped up again."

She went silent for a minute before humming. "I guess... I guess that's how it is when you're lonely."

His eyes widened a fraction before he nodded. "I guess it is."

From inside her head, Mizel was mentally facepalming and cringing. He badly wanted to make himself disappear. Either that, or just force them to kiss while fleeing for his life. But whatever he does will break their little moment, so he was forced to sit and watch.

The snow began to pile up a little more as the two continued their walk.

"Are you cold?" He asked.

"A little bit." She said, looking ahead. "We're almost at the back door, so it's fine."

And she was right. They made it in before the snow could pile themselves on top of their heads. Spotting a heater, the two walked over to it and let out a satisfied sigh.

"We did this a lot, didn't we?" She began.

"Hm?"

"We used to go out and play in the snow, and the second we came in, we'd run past Jiiya to the nearest heater."

"Other kids would go get hot chocolate first, but I suppose we're different from them."

"In my case, that's pretty obvious." She giggled. "Now, let's see... We went to the nearest heater, and then get scolded for coming in without drying ourselves first."

"And then we take turns taking baths and then we get to eat candy canes."

"And then they'd drag us to our rooms and tell us to sleep."

"And at midnight, we sneak out and play in the snow again."

She shook her head. "We never see Santa though."

"... You do know he's not real, right?"

"I know, I know. I just thought it'll be cool if we did."

He ended up laughing. "Of course you did."

~~~~~

"So uhm... About earlier..." The blonde began as they made their way up the escalators. "Are you alright?"

"Shouldn't I be the one to ask you that?" The red eyed boy blinked at her.

"Well... Maybe we both needed to..." She muttered. "I don't know who my parents are, and while that doesn't lessen the shock, it kind of made it easier to accept... I don't know if that's for the better or worse..."

He went silent for a minute before letting out a sigh. "Everything he did is unforgivable. He's responsible for the death of those everyone cared about. He's responsible for Yagami-san's family, Takuya-san's family, Lex's, Rina-san's, Yuuya's, yours... And I'm the one who's carrying on the name... So it's all on me."

"You're not him." She said slowly. "You didn't know he did any of this. He just used you... He used the both of us."

He stopped walking. "He told me he was going to be my family... And because of that I couldn't hate him... But now-"

"Jin, you were a victim too."

"It's not about that. I let him trick me into that mess."

"Jin, you were literally four years old when that happened. You can't blame yourself-"

"Eva, they experimented on you." He clenched his fists in frustration. "More than once, might I add. The Innovators... My grandfather is the reason why you keep suffering."

"He's also the reason why I'm still alive."

"They dragged you to and from the lab so many times. And I never did anything. I never even ask what they did to you until I started figuring it out piece by piece last year."

She held his hand and gave it a squeeze. "You couldn't have known. And if I wanted you to, I would've told you."

He did the same with hers. "Then why didn't you?"

She stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Hugo died protecting me in that incident. My parents traded their lives for mine." She turned away. "I didn't want to lose you too..."

His gaze softened and he pulled her into a hug, sighing. "That explosion... That was the third time you nearly died in front of my eyes... So shouldn't it be me who's more afraid?"

She hugged back before muttering, "I guess we could be afraid together..." It was cliché and maybe a little cringy, but somehow, someway, it was comforting.

All the while Mizel was in his own little world. He watched the two finally made themselves officially together in humanity's first stage of romantic terms. But while he stayed incredibly still, the back of his head was telling him to scour her memories.

He thought back to what Jin just said. The third time Eva had nearly died with him present? He only knew of two instances. The fall of Tokio Bridge didn't count because the two hadn't even met yet at that point, so the first was when he interrupted her auto-maintenance, and the second being that explosion from two days ago. So what was the third?

~~~~~~~~~~

Jin and Eva hurt/comfort fluff with Mizel third-wheeling because they need it.