DIVE [1; CHRIS EVANS]

LII.

52. REAL LIFE

Minnie started the new year with a smile on her face, and an I love you spoken against her lips.

She felt truly content and settled for the first time in a long while, able to not be bothered by the bitter air outside that was bringing a rosy red tint to her cheeks and the tip of her nose.

Chris's hands were a gentle pressure on her waist, serving as an assurance that he was right there with her; that they were starting their next year together.

She hummed happily to herself for a moment, ever-so-slightly numb finger tips dancing across the nape of his neck in the small space between where his hat ended, and his scarf began.

"I love you too," Minnie uttered, the words spoken softly enough that she could almost imagine them being picked up and taken off with the late night breeze.

Her response came hand-in-hand with a grin that - to Chris, at least - somehow brightened everything about her.

He couldn't help but kiss her after that, with the soft chiming of a clock chiming hitting midnight somewhere deep within the house and the steady stream of fireworks being set off by distant neighbours in the background to keep them grounded in that moment.

They pulled apart slowly after, not touching but still close enough.

Minnie was struck by a sudden need to be able to commit the sensation to memory. It was so much better than she'd imagined, to be surrounded by people that she loved, and who loved her in return.

To have family, and friends who had become a part of that too, by her side as she considered what was to come for them in the year ahead. She was well past the naivety of believing that it  brought a new start with it, but she did know that it provided different prospects and opportunities; time to fill with more memories that would warm her just as the one she was experiencing did.

Loving Chris didn't dull the affection that she held for anyone else, including those there with them tonight and the mother she'd lost far too soon, but it certainly felt a little different to have an entirely new sort of love filling her, too. And she was quickly learning to accept that liking that change was okay.

As the night passed by, a yawning Rosie was eventually settled on Chris's hip, and Teddy leaned himself against Minnie's side. Her eldest brother and their father stood off to one side talking animatedly with grins on their faces, whilst not too far away, Lizzie and Lola were sharing a whispered conversation of their own.

Minnie stood quietly, doing nothing more than taking in the scene around them with a sense of absolute belonging, and an overwhelming sense of anticipation for whatever was to come.