#zeronina

-X-Virus/Cody plays a role similar to an adoptive son to Toby and Clockwork

-Toby, similarly to Clockwork, was designated to find Cody by Slenderman but with Clocky by his side this time

-The 28 year olds found this 17 year old child on his own after killing his adoptive father which struck a chord with Toby nearly on sight

-Cody was usually afraid of other people like Jeff and Nina and intimidated by proxies like Tim, Brian and Kate which kept him practically glued to the two who found him

-The two who had moved into their own cabin a year prior offered him refuge there and he gladly accepted.

-He was a great help to the couple and always eager to aid them with anything, he was very attached to them both and loved going on missions.

-Toby and him shared a friendly dynamic and found similarities in each other that brought them closer while Cody's relationship with Natalie felt much more mother-son than two friends

-Clock took care of him how his mother never opted; cleaning dirt off him, telling him to wash his hands before he ate and so on which he didn't mind because it felt nice to have someone look after him

-Cody has slipped up in calling her "Mom" so much that she gradually pretended not to notice while hiding a bit of a smile

-Nat spends time with Cody so motherly because she genuinely loves kids, she's very protective of him too, so is Toby.

-These three and their found family dynamic<3

Extra:

Nina stepped in the room quickly, shutting the door behind her and watched as her friend made her way around the room and took to hanging the clothes up. She took a deep breath, aiming for the perfect, most dramatic moment to spew her words...

"Drum roll, please." Nina said, Clockwork rolled her eye, fishing around the closet's top shelf for tossed clothing and imitating a drum roll, "Me, Nina 'The Killer' Hopkins," Nina began, Clockwork grabbed a shirt, "Has officially and uncountably, truly, completely, kissed a woman!" Clockwork dropped the shirt she was holding and her head swung around to look at the short girl, "You're into girls?" She muttered in moderate surprise, turning back to her work, "To be honest, I kinda did and didn't expect it."

Nina raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"We've kissed before." She rebuttals

"Oh yeah."

"Was I not official enough for you?" Clockwork laughs, turning to Nina and putting a hand on her own hip, Nina giggles, making her way onto Toby and Clockwork's bed, sitting on the edge facing Clockwork. "Now I get to raise you this question; how so?" She walks to the bed to sit beside her.

"How what?"

"How'd you kiss?"

Clockwork pushed her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, Nina thought for a second, tapping her finger to her glossy lip, "It was sorta spur of the moment, I guess." Nina thought aloud. Clockwork grabbed a tennis ball that she'd dug out out the closet while cleaning and began to bounce it against the wall from the short distance from where she sat, back into her hand.

"We were just talking and laughing while we were walking, Zero just-"

"Wait, it was ZERO you kissed?" Nina nods, Clockwork thinks. "I thought she preferred to stay in the shadows and had a lone wolf thing going on?" The tennis ball bounces back into her hand, "She does a little bit still but I think she was really lonely too despite the front." Nina explains, the ball hits the wall again, "Is that why she kissed you? Because she's lonely?"

"Maybe, I dunno, I think it's justified if that was why though."

"...Eh."

Nina raised an eyebrow, "So," the ball landed back in Clock's hand and she adjusted herself to sit with one leg over the edge of the bed and on the floor while the other crossed. "Did you feel anything," She searched for the right word, "...Special?" Nina laid back on the bed, legs drapped over the side with her arms out.

"It was the same exact same as anyone else I've ever kissed; we kiss, I feel roughly spur of the moment stuff but then literally nothing else after and just went on with my life." Nina explained, "It's boring, feeling nothing over and over and over again. It's like I wasted all my feelings on Jeff and now I'm filling an empty void that eats and shits out whatever I put into it." She went on and in the midst of her explanation, the ball stopped hitting the wall and when she turned her head, she saw Clockwork, staring up at the ceiling, laying beside her with her legs also drapped over the side but with her arms under her head.

"Understandable. Maybe you're just... Aroace?" It was a term Clockwork had heard thrown around a bit by BEN, who identified as aromantic and when he first came out, spent his time explaining the aroace, ace and aro spectrum to Jeff. "What the heck is that?" Nina grimaced and Clockwork explained the whole thing.

"I mean," Nina twiddled with her fingers that rested on her chest, "I'm definitely not asexual." Nina thought aloud, "But, I don't feel much for people romantically and if I did, it'd probably take a super long time, like if I knew them justttt well enough then...maybe." Nina shrugged, "Maybe?" Clockwork turned her head to Nina's, "Maybe." Nina turned her head to Clockwork.

"Would Toby get pissed if we kissed?" Nina questioned, derailing the entire conversation but Clockwork shrugged, "He never gave a shit all the other times." Both girls sat up and did their normal activity, this level of intimacy was just normal to the girls, plus it was a little nice to kiss a girl since Clockwork had spent all her romances with men.

Once they pulled away, they resumed conversation.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Sweet." They laid back down again, "It's nice to kiss though, even if I don't feel anything." Nina mentioned, "Yeah, same. I love Toby and I'm totally concrete in our relationship but it's just sorta therapeutic to kiss women." Clockwork explained, "Think you'll kiss Zero again?" Clockwork asked without facing Nina, who just shrugged, "Maybe."

"Wanna go for a walk?"

"Yeah sure."

[END]