Author's Note:

Helix's first blatantly shippy fanfiction! Much rejoicing all around!

The scene in Day 10 (you know the one, half the fandom kind of exploded because of it) gave me way too many feelings about these two so I kinda took off with it. Same scene, same dialogue, just...includes Sergio's thoughts as well. And a very very brief part at the end that I am under the impression they just didn't show us.

Onward, tiny Helix fandom!

It was a little surprising how quickly Toluk had decided that the man who had attacked him at first sight was apparently trustworthy enough to keep around. There hadn't been much time at all between a fairly distrustful glare to readily supplying updates about the progress of moving out. He just seemed to accept people quickly, though; some people would've been a little more wary of their suddenly-reappearing twin brother, and hell knew Daniel - or Miksa, or whatever the hell he was called these days - certainly knew how to hold a grudge, but Toluk simply rolled with the punches and didn't question things too much. That entire family was weird, though. Even just the knowledge that they were a family was weird. But for the moment, despite the fact that Sergio still wore the jacket with the large Ilaria logo on the shoulder, no one was attacking him. For now.

The good thing about a village that moved frequently was how quickly they were able to pack. There didn't seem to be any set hierarchy, but everyone knew exactly what they were doing and, despite the slightly fearful looks on the faces of the adults who actually understood what was going on, there wasn't any real panic. Just quick efficiency and the occasional shouts for wandering dogs. Whatever was going on, it was apparent they had it under control, and Sergio wasn't at all reluctant to get out of the blowing snow. He hadn't exactly been lying to Hatake a few days ago - hell, had it only been a few days? - and it wasn't like a little cold was about to kill him, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. Nothing about the Arctic seemed to ever actually be warm; even the base with its state-of-the-art technology still had that constant chill that came from being underground. Anana's trailer was somewhat better, but the people out here just seemed overly used to constant freezing temperatures.

The trailer itself looked strangely bare, now. They were packing light, but most pictures had been taken down, the spare gloves had been packed, books had been put away...and it just made everything look a lot more impersonal. Looked a little like his apartment in the States, really. He could hear Anana in what he had assumed was her room and paused in the small hallway, one hand going to his side unconsciously as the wound gave a rather sharp throb. He had no idea where the hell he stood in her books at this point; first introductions hadn't exactly been ideal, and he hadn't had time to figure out how he was supposed to act around this peace officer who had handcuffed him to her couch. And that was the problem, wasn't it? Everyone he'd been around coming into this job had been expected. He'd gotten a chance to read up on them, figure out what they would trust and what to avoid, how precisely to get on their good side. Anana had not been part of the plan. Without her coming around when she did, it was almost certain he'd be a corpse in the snow by this point, but that didn't mean she hadn't complicated everything twice over...and yet he was still here, listening to this woman essentially pack her entire life into a few boxes because they'd inadvertently brought the wrath of Ilaria onto this little roaming village.

Sergio vaguely realized he'd been standing in the same spot for longer than intended and let out a quick breath before stepping into the doorway.

"Your brother said we're almost ready to move out." He was a little pleased that he sounded fairly nonchalant - at least as much as could be managed when discussing getting an entire community into hiding. Anana didn't look over, folding a piece of paper carefully and setting it on the top of a plastic box. From what little he could see of it, it looked like a picture of a young boy, and Sergio wondered if that had been Miksa - if she'd kept a photo of her seemingly-dead little brother on the wall all these years.

"You've been standing there for a while," she noted. "I was wondering when you were gonna say something."

Of course she'd known - it'd be more surprising if she hadn't, really. Sergio let himself lean against the nearest wall, consciously keeping his hands out of his pockets because hands in pockets looked more suspicious and he wasn't supposed to look suspicious...

"I wanted to give you some time."

"For what?" For what indeed? He'd moved plenty, and he knew all about getting up and ditching a place within an hour if it needed to be done, but her situation was entirely different. Anana was still staring at the wall, moving back slightly to lean against the frame of the bed. "This is our home. We shouldn't be running from it."

Hell, he'd never been good at the whole comforting thing...it wasn't like he could relate all that much, and what were you supposed to say in a shitty situation like this, anyway? Everything had hit the fan and there was no way of changing it. There was just action and reaction, and right now the proper reaction was to run. The man shot a quick glance around the room, recalling all of the various apartments and trailers he had stayed in and left, with the duration of the stays ranging anywhere from twelve hours to a few months. What did he know about a place like this being thought of as home for so long?

"I learned at a very young age that gotta build a home out of people, not places." The words even surprised him, and Anana seemed to almost smile, nodding a little.

"Yeah? And where's your home, Sergio?"

It was still different hearing his first name, but he pushed that away quickly. The question was a strange one, though he remembered her asking something similar when they had stopped on the way back to the base. Then he'd given the reflex answer, the one people wanted to hear. They expected something like "I grew up in Brazil" or "I have a place in Atlanta". The fact that he never stayed in one place long didn't seem to matter much. This time the reflex answer didn't seem right, especially given his previous statement, and he let himself shrug some. He couldn't really read her face from this angle, and it was just another tiny thing out of his control in this whole situation, but at least it was one he could fix. The man pushed himself off the wall, moving to stand in front of her, and was pleased when she met his eyes as steadily as ever.

"I, uh..." What was he supposed to say? Brazil didn't really count as home, though the memory of telling Daniel about the familia came to mind. There wasn't really anything tying him down to any place in America, other than a consistent pay check. When he finally came up with an answer, he was surprised at how honest it was - but then again, he'd been a lot more honest than he was used to around Anana in general. "I haven't found it yet."

She seemed to consider that for a few moments, and it was a little disconcerting just how much real emotion she was letting show. He was used to corporate people or military - they knew how to manipulate and show you exactly what you wanted to see. Anana didn't even even seem to be trying.

"You didn't have to come back here." Out of all the directions he had tried to anticipate the conversation going, that definitely had not been one of them. "After what Miksa did to you, how I treated you..." The hole in his side seemed to agree, giving another sharp throb that he tried to ignore. "You could've let them come."

The problem was, she was right. He still wanted to get even for the whole ice axe fiasco, and he was almost positive the bigger man would've killed him already if there hadn't been more pressing matters at hand. The best course of action would've been to follow Klein's lead, get out of Hatake's chains, and wait for Ilaria to break down the doors. He might've messed up his initial mission, but if he helped them retake the base there was a much better chance of getting out alive. It was the logical plan, it was safe...and then Klein had mentioned the plan to get rid of the Inuit village and suddenly sticking with Ilaria just wasn't an option.

The hand on his chest was unexpected, and Sergio couldn't help but tense for a moment. Physical contact he was used to. Physical contact that wasn't somehow threatening or manipulating...that was different. He wasn't entirely sure what his expression was doing at this point, but Anana was still stubbornly holding eye contact.

"Everyone in this village owes you their life."

And this was exactly why he was still here, wasn't it? Because of this woman who had seen him kill those soldiers with the efficiency that came with years of practice, seen him nearly kill her brother, who knew the type of people he worked for and who seemed to know exactly what lengths he would go to in order to make sure he got out in one piece...she knew all of that and somehow was still looking at him like he might be some kind of good guy. Like he might be somehow redeemable, as if she knew more about him than he did and was convinced there was something decent there. But she hadn't seen so many years before this - the people he'd helped, the people he'd killed, the plays he'd pulled on honest men who truly just wanted to make things better...

"It doesn't excuse the things I've done." There was something trying to block off his throat and he tried to swallow past it, vaguely noting that she had stood fully and was mere inches away now.

"You're right. But it can be a start." She sounded so damn convinced, and Sergio instinctively searched her eyes, trying to find some hint of deception, of some hidden agenda. "You can be the man you want to be, not the man they made you."

Dammit, this was a bad idea. He shouldn't even be here - this was probably the worst place to be right about now, save for maybe in isolation with those damn vectors. Being in the middle of the village that Ilaria had already tried to destroy once with a woman who'd threatened to kill him a few times over, and whose brother - one of them, anyway - had actually tried to kill him before... Standing here with Anana telling him he could change, that it could be a start, that he was apparently worth giving a second change despite everything, it was all just a really bad idea, and -

He was kissing her before he realized what exactly had happened. There was a very brief moment when she tensed and the even briefer thought of She might shoot me for this flashed across his mind, but then she was kissing him back and this was a terrible idea, but hell if it didn't seem like the first reasonable thing he'd done since he got to this damn block of ice.

He wasn't entirely sure when they drew apart again, just that suddenly she was staring up at him and - unless his perception of human expressions had suddenly vanished along with his common sense - actually smiling. Why the hell would she be smiling? Seemed like the opposite of a logical reaction to the entire thing from her perspective, but that was definitely a smile and she hadn't shot him yet - hadn't even stepped back, come to think of it.

"You should probably keep in mind," Anana told him after a moment, "I really doubt Miksa will approve."

That was what she decided to bring up. Not the fact that she was a peace officer and he was a mercenary - no, she decided to mention the fact that her little brother didn't like him much. Sergio managed what ended up sounding a bit like a possessive growl as he leaned in to kiss her again, and she had one hand tangled in his hair and she was still smiling and he felt warm for the first time since he'd gotten here, and hell this was a bad idea, but even so...

They'd probably be dead tomorrow anyway, right?