#bless he.

[ LINGER ]: taking the receiver’s hand, the sender lifts it to their lips, and gently kisses their knuckles, lingering for a moment before withdrawing.

                                                         -- @scarfbond​

          Nicole knew eventually that if she spent enough time around Link, she’d pick up his habits. Ever since they had met in high school, she’s known him to be a fighter. One of their first interactions was him punching a dude who had been antagonizing her. Granted, she spent time sitting with him for weeks at lunch before then. They had a silent friendship, but one that was full of understanding nonetheless.

          This friendship continued into graduation and beyond, with Nicole now the subject of Link’s more chaotic endeavors. Nothing he does concerning her is ever malicious, just him having an idea and not using his impulse control. Such as trying to rope her into housing twenty live crabs. Or buying the whole lot of those inflatable tube men. Link himself is a chaotic being who Nicole wouldn’t change for the world.

          While she finds herself being the voice of reason who acts as Link’s impulse control, today she seems to have reversed the roles. It was a kneejerk reaction, but in hindsight, it was better that it was Nicole. It was better that she had been the one to punch that girl. It wouldn’t look good if Link did it. In fact, he probably wouldn’t have. He’s been a lot more proper about not getting into fights lately, but comments people made still got under his skin and she saw it.

           Nicole saw her friend hurting silently, and wanted to hurt them. It was someone who knew both of them from high school, and apprently peaked back then too if she feels the need to still go after two people who seldom ever spoke. It happened all rather quickly how Nicole had spun around and delivered a quick jab to the girl’s mouth. Nowhere near as strong as Link, but she watched him train enough to at least know how to throw a decent punch.

           By all accounts she definitely caused a bit of a bloody lip, but nothing was broken, and she’d think twice before saying something to the ‘crazy bitch’, that Nicole is.

           Usually, she’s pulling Link away from confrontations, linking her arm around his and walking, forcing him to walk with her. With it now being Link’s turn to pull her away, he opted to simply loop his arm around her waist and lift her before walking away.

           Once an adequate distance from everything, Link put her back down. Still seething with a deep suppressed rage she didn’t know she had, Nicole hadn’t even noticed her fists were still balled up, she was trembling just barely enough for him to notice. Staring down at her, his own hands on his waist as he observed his angry friend, with a small tilt of his head. After a while, he reached down to take one of her fists in his hand and bring it up to his lips where he could place a small kiss on her knuckles. He lingered just long enough to get her to focus on him, and relax her hand from the tension she had been carrying, from the anger she held in them. 

           Its funny, how he had his own way of calming her down. Usually she leaned on him until he leaned on her back, because she knew Link wouldn’t move her off of him and he’d have to relax for the risk of making her uncomfortable. He decided to show affection to completely take her attention.

           After he released her hand, Nicole simply exhaled a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding in. Leaning forward, she simply rests face first on his chest and just stands there. The tension in her body was gone, but now she was just tired. Anger was so tiring. How did Link do it all those days? How did he still fight, even professionally now, but not be tired as hell after just two minutes of it? She didn’t know, but she did understand that he’s way stronger than he gives himself credit for.