#but I don’t see much of “Milla would be able to immediately smell the cigarette smoke and instantly become uncomfortable or get triggered”

[sheltershock]

I don’t know if anyone else has thought about it, but I think the first time Sasha and Milla met would have gone terribly. Because if you imagine what it’s like meeting them for the first then you think of both of their backgrounds? They would be afraid of each other.

A fire survivor paired up with someone who smells of (cigarette) smoke? With someone who smells like death?

Someone with complicated mother-related issues being paired with a cheerful, outwardly affectionate girl? With someone who’s calling everyone “dear, darling, sweetie, honey, baby”?

They could have that “love at first sight” trope where they meet for the first time and get butterflies in their stomach. But the butterflies are on fire, and screaming, and chewing through their skin because it’s trauma-induced anxiety.

And they smile through their teeth trying to get through the interaction. But then he gets her name wrong, and her heart skips a beat and she has to tuck a suddenly levitating piece of hair behind her ear and they find the other endearing to the point that they can’t bring each other to hold this pain against them. They both intimately understand it’s purely them, and not the other person’s fault.

And over time they spend more and more time together and those butterflies begin to still. Brutal, breath stealing smoke starts to feel more like a gentle hearth you’d crawl next to. Oppressive, maniacal smiles more closely resemble the small grin you’d have when you listen to a song for the first time you know you’ll play over and over again. And then one day neither one of them don’t feel any of that anxiety at all, and they start to realize after that feeling goes away that they might be in love with each other.