[Does he feel obligated? Did they trick him into feeling sorry for them? Is this - a trick, too, in some manner or another? A trap, meant to tear the rug out from under them so he can laugh? It would be easier if they could pin that upon him with any ease, press the label of some sort of puppeteer, some masterful manipulator, upon him and threaten him thusly, mocking him for believing they could truly be that stupid.]
[But he is too earnest. He is too open about his uncertainty, not yet learning to lacquer his own will over it - or simply choosing not to.]
[They try. They try to smile, to flash a blinding neon red sign of nice try, but you won't have me that easily, and skewer it through every word and every opportunity and every extended hand. Just let him believe them to be what they are! A jerk, a cruel person, a bully, a demon, someone that no one would want to be friends with!]
[And yet.]
[And yet, between the unwillingness to question the authority in his life, the simplicity of the pronouncement, something about the offer twists in their chest like a splinter of ice.]
[The question bursts from their lips in a startled, uncoordinated burst, far from the careful, eloquent speech they so favor.]
no subject
[Does he feel obligated? Did they trick him into feeling sorry for them? Is this - a trick, too, in some manner or another? A trap, meant to tear the rug out from under them so he can laugh? It would be easier if they could pin that upon him with any ease, press the label of some sort of puppeteer, some masterful manipulator, upon him and threaten him thusly, mocking him for believing they could truly be that stupid.]
[But he is too earnest. He is too open about his uncertainty, not yet learning to lacquer his own will over it - or simply choosing not to.]
[They try. They try to smile, to flash a blinding neon red sign of nice try, but you won't have me that easily, and skewer it through every word and every opportunity and every extended hand. Just let him believe them to be what they are! A jerk, a cruel person, a bully, a demon, someone that no one would want to be friends with!]
[And yet.]
[And yet, between the unwillingness to question the authority in his life, the simplicity of the pronouncement, something about the offer twists in their chest like a splinter of ice.]
[The question bursts from their lips in a startled, uncoordinated burst, far from the careful, eloquent speech they so favor.]
Why?