#Also I cut your ask off to keep your privacy 🤭🤭 no need for others to see our lil secrets

[talvenhenki]

erdariel asked: Ok from the prompt thing you reblogged, can I get "You're my friend, of course I fucking care" with platonic Nerys & Julian (with Julian being hurt/sad/not doing good) pretty please? Bc I need more Nerys & Julian friendship in my life

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“What are you doing?”

Julian spun around. It was late, way past midnight, and nobody should have been walking on the Promenade. Especially not Major Kira Nerys, the first officer. No, if someone were to be hanging out on the Promenade, it could have been either Quark or Odo. Or Garak, even. But not Nerys.

“Walking”, Julian lied, “just taking a midnight stroll, major.”

A finger poked Julian’s cheek, irritating him, for some reason. He just wanted to be alone, to be unseen.

“Who are you and what have you done with Julian?” Nerys asked softly. It wasn’t a threatening question; no, Nerys sounded tired. As if she had been worrying for weeks.

“The Changeling is gone”, Julian muttered, “you were there. Weren’t you, major?”

Nerys hummed. “And yet he did not call me ‘major’ like you do”, she said, “when did you change the way you speak to me?”

Julian shrugged. He wasn’t that certain either. Nerys was not the only one; Julian had begun to call everyone by either their surname or rank.

“We’ve been worried”, Nerys said softly, “ever since that dreadful Zimmermann left the station. You haven’t been yourself.”

Avoiding Nerys’s eyes, Julian leaned against one of the circular windows. “Why would you care? I don’t even know what it means to be ‘me’.”

“You’re my friend”, Nerys argued, grabbing Julian’s wrist, “of course I care! Do you...do you think we would not care about your wellbeing? That we’d leave you to suffer alone?”

Shrugging again, Julian allowed himself to slide onto the floor. If this was to be a night of uncomfortable talks, he might as well make himself comfortable.

“I did feel like that”, Julian admitted, “in the Jem’Hadar camp. And right after, too. Everyone seemed to like the Changeling more.”

Nerys knelt next to Julian. “I’m sorry, Julian”, she whispered, “by the Prophets, I’m sorry. I wish I had noticed. I thought...I thought you were sad about your break-up with Leeta. That you just needed time.”

Julian looked at her and saw shame. Oddly, it didn’t make Julian feel better.

“You thought I was depressed?”

Nerys nodded. “And I’ll be damned if I ignore your hurt again”, she said, “because we’re worried. And ashamed. You deserve better than that.”

Shaking his head, Julian avoided Nerys’s eyes again. “I don’t”, he whispered, “I don’t deserve any better. And yet...I want to stop hurting. I want to stop feeling so empty. I want to feel like I belong here again. That I’m not too much.”

Nerys pulled Julian close, hugging him as tight as she could. She was, as usual, a lot stronger than Julian could imagine. She rocked him from side to side - both of them knew how comforting the repetitiveness of it felt.

“I’m sorry, Julian”, Nerys breathed, “oh, I’m so sorry.”

Biting his lower lip, Julian blinked against the emotion that threatened to overtake him. He had felt so alone and when Miles had made his little comment on the Changeling being easier to get along with...it had felt like a betrayal.

“I’ll fix this”, Nerys said, “I promise. You’ll be okay. I’m so sorry we made you feel like an outsider.”

For a moment, Julian could almost forget how bad he had been feeling.