Life sucks.

That's the only thought in Simon's head as of right now. A close-call during the last mission, which was a pure disaster in all honesty, a mountain of paperwork looking back at him from the far corner of his desk, and Valentine's day right at the corner. Yeah, life truly sucks.

Simon hated Valentine's day. All the love and pink and kisses, and everything that was so normal to other people. Nothing in his life was ever normal, from what his father did to him, to his day-to-day life filled with blood and death. And that's without talking about his flat filled with only the bare minimum, no trinkets or pictures, no memories.

No attachment in this life.

That's why, after hearing yet another soldier bragging about how happy he was that he would get to spend Valentine's day with his girlfriend, Simon had enough of all this. Why couldn't it be him ? Why couldn't he have a slice of normalcy too ?

He finished work rather early, in the middle of the afternoon, and got from Price to leave early. Finally he would be away from all the lovey-dovey vibes his teammates were giving off.

How wrong he was though. As he was strolling through the city, all the shops had special decorations and musics about love, even the cheesemonger at the end of the street had managed to slip some of Valentine's day spirit in his cheeses. It was truly ridiculous to Simon, the people running from shop to shop to prepare for a commercial holiday.

Yes, he wanted to be part of it, but he could still despise the commercial side of it, right ?

His thoughts, however, were interrupted when you passed by.

Roller skates gliding on the pavement smoothly, you had a small speaker dangling from one of your belt hoops, blaring loudly the music Come and Get Your Love by Redbone. But what made Simon stop in his tracks were the words written at the back of your shirt, written in black bold, handwritten letters :

"Free Hugs"

There it was, the possible slice of normalcy Simon had wanted for so long. A simple hug, that's all he needed. That's why, after a second of thinking, Simon walked after you as quickly as possible without looking like a creep, stopping you with a hand wrapped around you arm.

Come and get your love, right ?