[He doesn't need kindness right now. For all he wants it, for all he'd give to hear it, here and now, it would completely undo him. There's too much pain, too much upset, too much gone wrong, anything other than harsh and real would be uncentering. Distracting. His worry is a present thing, and the disgust and indignation with it, but anyone in this position deserves to be angry.
Anyone in this position should be angry.]
We wait. [He looks like he's going to make himself sick even thinking it, let alone uttering it aloud.] Fighting back now is going to get us and everyone else killed.
[There's a moment for everything. There has to be. That's what the whole point of teaching him patience was, right?
By measure, his gaze back is significantly softer, even if it is tinged with a scowl and a tense pull in his shoulders that together speak of nothing but bristling discomfort.]
Did they chip you?
[It doesn't seem common practice out here--one small, seemingly insignificant grace--but it will always be the first thing he asks. It has to be.]
no subject
Anyone in this position should be angry.]
We wait. [He looks like he's going to make himself sick even thinking it, let alone uttering it aloud.] Fighting back now is going to get us and everyone else killed.
[There's a moment for everything. There has to be. That's what the whole point of teaching him patience was, right?
By measure, his gaze back is significantly softer, even if it is tinged with a scowl and a tense pull in his shoulders that together speak of nothing but bristling discomfort.]
Did they chip you?
[It doesn't seem common practice out here--one small, seemingly insignificant grace--but it will always be the first thing he asks. It has to be.]