Minor(?) spoilers for those who haven't finished Finding Paradise. An alternate slash expanded scene with most of the dialogue lifted from the game. This bunny wouldn't let go of me until I wrote it. Chapter title from the Finding Paradise OST; suggested listening if this ficlet were longer lol

It's so still. Like shouting into a blanket.

"What we do is different than just…" She gestures, helplessly, wrestling with the truth of Neil's words, "just this."

He's impassive. "How is it different?"

"Because there's more to it!" Goddamn it. "There's more to what we do. We fulfill wishes. We give meaning to people's lives." Her throat aches. Her eyes, stupidly, are stinging. "What we do… It has to be more than that of an imaginary friend." What the hell is the point, otherwise?

"It's a lot more elaborate, for sure," Neil says, after a long moment. He steps toward her. "But for someone who had to fight just to let go of fantasy and embrace reality… Maybe our existence was merely an unwelcome amplifier. A reminder of the make-believe, the imaginary… And the endless possibilities that make reality seem less than what it is."

Hearing the skeleton of her thoughts bounced back at her is somehow both comforting and strange. She sighs, adjusts her coat.

The doctor's voice filters in from above like a deity, and Eva sighs again.. It's all been for nothing. "I guess we don't have time to implement any substantial changes." The cold weight of failure is settling in her stomach, and cold snow is falling from the atomic sky, and Neil is speaking.

"We might not have time… but what about her?"

Faye stares at them, face neutral.

Her mind somehow blanks, but she takes in Neil's words with painfully sharp clarity. It's brilliant; it's insane. Faye, a figment(?) of Colin imagination, taking over for them? "The– The ethical implications of that…" She can't even look at him, trying to process. "There's a reason that's never been done, Neil! There's no precedent–"

"It hasn't been done because no patient's had the opportunity," Neil shoots back, and she swears his eyes are glowing behind those infernal glasses. "And we could make the precedent!"

The alternative is failure.

She answers with sputtering boilerplate about the contract.

"When has that ever stopped us?" A lopsided grin. Hollow, like her chest feels. Or maybe she's projecting.

The world shakes and flakes off more debris. She feels coldly calm, even though her heart is racing. "Neil, you–" insufferable, cocksure–

"Go on. I'll be right behind."

flippant, maddening– She holds up a finger, takes a breath. "Neil, you–" Drops her arm and moves toward him, shaking her head. "You have to do one, one thing for me. Just, just don't–"

And she knows exactly what it is, and she's about to say it, but now she's right in front of him, and grabbing his shoulder, and who told her body to do that–

She kisses him. It's firm, and fast, and her fingers on his shoulder shake. And then his lips start to move against hers, and she pulls away, and steps back.

She opens her mouth. "…Don't say I never trust you."

Then she turns away from him, and logs out.

He stares at the spot where she left, blinking, a few times, as if the mirage of Eva might pop back in to say what the cucumber just happened. No, he knows what just happened, but… what?

A jagged flash of a chuckle leaves him. He shakes his head, adjusts his glasses. She… sure is something.

He summons the interface.