“Well all right,” she replied, a little puzzled. She cast around, looking for her hairclip, then fished it from the tangles of her shirt, quickly wrapping her hair up into a bun.
Victor led her to the joined bathroom where he started the hot water. Once it was hot enough he opened the shower door and stepped inside, beckoning her to follow him. A quick hiss came from him as the hot water hit his back but then he looked down at her and smiled a soft smile. “Y’know, I never thought I’d do something like this, Summer. Not just because of my dominant personality, but because if anyone else dared touch me like you did tonight they wouldn’t have been around for much longer. I was beaten, a lot, at the Institute. Yet, with you, it was nothing like back then, and I sure as hell didn’t have any flashback moments there. I don’t even know how to express this with words love, but I’ve never trusted anyone as much as I trust you.” Victor realized, with some dismay, that he was rambling and so rather than keep on rambling he pulled her in for an embrace and nuzzled her neck. “I love you Summer.”
Summer tucked herself under the showerhead, looking up at Victor. She laughed when he ran out of words, gently, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know, Victor darling. I know you do,” she whispered. “I won’t ever hurt you like that. If you had a flashback, I would stop, immediately. I would know. And I love you too.”
Victor shifted; he wasn’t used to this kind of expression, or really he wasn’t used to talking about his childhood years at all. The water traveled through his hair and down his cheeks like small streams as he smiled down at her, his hands resting on her hips. “You’re incredible, you know that?” He punctuated his statement with a quick kiss before turning so that he could get some shampoo and start washing his hair.
Summer ducked her head at the compliment. “This is just what I do,” she told him, backing up a little to be out of range of stray soap. “It’s not really all that special.” It never felt special to her. Sometimes it felt like a weight, always listening and never heard. Really, all most people needed was a listening ear and someone to honestly believe in and care for them.
In the end, she’d learned, mostly that was all she could do; people had to heal themselves. They had to choose on their own to forget, forgive, remember, release — whatever was needed to be at peace with whatever had happened. It was never /easy/. But it was always /possible/, if you didn’t fully give up. Some days, all you could do was hold on to the ground you’d won.
Summer leaned against the shower wall and just watched Victor, as she so rarely got to do.