He was fresh out of the apocalypse, and well aware the world was fucked.

He's pretty sure anyone within a mile of him can feel the paranoia seeping off of him, but he couldn't care less- not when so much is at stake. Plus, it's incredibly difficult to get used to being trapped in his teenage body again. Puberty twice? Fucking awful.

But somehow, he managed a silver lining. An old neighbor of the Hargreeves family, who had apparently been involved in some sort of accident regarding the family itself, and had just woken up from a coma. A coma where you hadn't been aging.

He tried not to get so excited about it- but what are the chances of one finding a person going through the exact thing they are, so close to them? Especially with how impossible his current situation seemed.

And so he found himself gravitating towards your presence. Your jokes, your habits, your stupid face. It was relieving. Even if he knew that, if he didn't stop this apocalypse from coming, all of that would be gone. It only pushed him to work harder.

Especially after you kissed him.

He wasn't sure what prompted the gesture of affection, but it left him absolutely stunned. So stunned, in fact, he didn't notice you had run off until you were gone. But he can't say he didn't enjoy it. It was his first kiss- well, after Delores, but she was a mannequin whom he'd romanticized due to overwhelming loneliness.

But you were real, and you were like him, and somehow it seemed too good to be true, in the midst of all the other bullshit going on. But it was.