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Clerise was wandering the halls. Her room downstairs was ruined, and her scant few possessions had easily been transferred from one room to another. However, the Life assistant was exhausted more often than not since her return. The redhead was out for a walk, still uncomfortable with the last few days' results.

So, she was on her way to the minipet lab for some late night therapy. There was always someone there, and it was likely she could talk them into letting her handle the creepy crawlies-- the ones with too many teeth and tentacles to be harmless.

Instead, a shorter body ran smack into her, a head of messy blond that came up to about the same height as--

"Prodigy?" Clerise asked, surprised. Was he out of the infirmary already?

The lack of reply set off some alarm bells. Normally he'd give a non-committal reply, something short and brief, but still-- there'd be something. But no, there wasn't a word, just a skittish look upwards and an attempt to flee.

Oh, no he was not.

She grabbed for Otto's wrist, brows furrowed. "Hey, hey, take it easy, dude, what's up?" Her voice was soothing, but not condescending: it was worry, and a good dose of it.

It hadn't been so long ago that he'd been in a cell, after all. Two weeks, give or take-- and she'd never forget the way he'd been huddled on the ground like an abused animal with a broken spirit.

"You okay?"

"Oh, Otto," was all Clerise murmured, tugging him close into a hug without delay. The poor guy was shaking like a leaf. Was this a common occurrence? How many times had he waken up in the past weeks and simply started running?

The redhead regretted that she was on a different floor. Maybe she would have seen him before.

No time like the present to make up for it, though. Clerise tucked the blond's head under her chin, wrapping her arms around his smaller frame.

"Hey, hey. Assuming you didn't see, like, H boffing some girl in the halls and are now traumatised--Nightmares are scary ******** s**t."

She'd had her fair share after losing Balthazar. The sight of the ocean at night still gave her the wooblies.

Clerise kept her breathing even, matching it to be in time with the slow circles she rubbed into his back with one hand. The Life hunter was glad to hear that little bark of laughter, as wavery as it was. She was good at comic relief-- she could do that.

Being more than that was hard.

"I had some bad ones," she murmured, her voice low. "After I lost Balthazar. The first time, I woke up screaming. I was in the infirmary, covered in wires and monitors and-- I ripped them out and started flipping my s**t. It was so bad they had to sedate me and then cuff me to the bed." Clerise snickered a little at the absurdity of her own actions. It had been painful then, but she could laugh at herself now.

Her wounds were healed. The least they could do was be of use in healing someone else.

She smiled, a little, and the soothing circles turned into light scritching, up and down Otto's back. "I think you've got it a little more under control than I did."

There would be no asking of what his were about, or what had happened to him. He would talk when he felt like it, to someone he was comfortable with, be it her or someone else entirely. It was a pity Killzone had--

Yeah.

"Well, I wasn't then." Otto was no longer like a leaf shaking in the wind, but Clerise refused to let him go just yet. "I woke up the second time-- and just. I kept screaming. I wasn't so much sad as-- I was so angry."

She brought a hand up to card idly though Otto's hair, lightly scratching at his scalp.

"Rep had to come in and fight me, practically, until I started talking. I've had time to put my pieces back together. You haven't, yet. You don't even want to take your puzzle out of the box."

She hmmed, low, under her breath. This metaphor could get messy, fast. "Forgetting never happens. Not really. Long after your wounds knit back together, the memories remain. The most you can do is ease them, not let them have as much power over you. Because that means the big bads win."

Clerise pressed a kiss to Otto's temple, chaste.

"Everyone has their own way of working past the bullshit this place puts us through. There's no wrong way to do, except not doing it at all."

She nodded as Otto admitted that he didn't know how to talk about.

"You don't have to right now, and it doesn't have to be me. You may not even need to talk about it with anyone but yourself, or your weapon."

Clerise continued to card her fingers through the blond's hair, idle gestures that she was accustomed to more than Otto was. She was relieved that he was calmed-- seeing him in such a state really pulled on the heart strings.

"If you ever need anything--" She asked, pulling back, holding Otto by the shoulders to give him a serious look. "I'll drop what I'm doing."

It's the same thing Clerise offered to any of her friends; she was a fiercely loyal woman to anyone who she considered her friend. She'd set the world on fire for them. For Clarice, Sasha, Dakota, Otto. Any of them.

"You're my friend," she said, warmly, and pressed a palm to his chest. Right over his heart, so she could feel the beat there as it thudded. "Despite what you try to project, I know you're a good person. A nice one, even."

Clerise waggled her eyebrows all conspiratorial. "Don't worry, I won't ruin your street cred~"

She nudged his ribs with an elbow, just lightly. "Hot cocoa before attempting sleep again? Or...I was going to go bribe the overnight labtech in the minipet labs to let me in." Red brows raised expectantly, waiting for an answer.