Re: Gramercy: Harry and Gwen
She hadn't seen his attempt at a reassuring smile in forever, which wasn't a technical time measurement, but it was apropos. It made her think of Freshman year, when she'd had a hard time fitting in with the cheerleaders and popular girls, and he'd always said hi in the halls. He'd stopped to talk, sat with her a few minutes at lunch, and that was all it had taken for her to go from social reject to a nerd that managed to skirt the fringes of okayness in Midtown High. They'd laughed about it after, and he'd worn that same reassuring smile on his lips. Everything is going to be okay, that was what the smile said, and she'd believed it then. They had the entire world at their feet and their lives ahead of them. Now, things were different, and they'd gone wrong in so many ways. But he was sitting here, wasn't he? No serum in his blood. She'd told his Valentine that she didn't have faith in magic's ability to do what science couldn't, but she really hoped this would stick, and she hadn't been this willing to discount scientific fact in such a long time.
"I've been okay," she said, answering the question that he said it would be weird to ask. "Not totally okay, but I think I always find trouble lately. Mostly okay?" Cool. Smooth. Good job, Stacy. Totally cool.
She wasn't expecting him to be candid about what he was experiencing, but that was learned behavior; it had been really hard to get Harry to tell her anything concrete or real in recent months. Everything had become a wordgame, but here he just said this was strange, and she tipped her head and regarded him with interest; no, she didn't think he was crazy at all.
"Do you remember about the wishes?" she asked. Perhaps that was totally a terrible question to ask, but she was all about full-disclosure these days. Secrets had ruined everything, and she wasn't going to fall down that rabbit hole again. Okay, so she wasn't going to tell him stuff that might freak him out, but determining if he remembered wishing seemed important. "What's the last thing you remember about everyone?" She reached across the loveseat and placed her hand over his. She squeezed his fingers light, all it's going to be okay in the reassuring gesture.