[Mukuro listens, giving Riley as much space as she needs to force out the words. The situation is unbelievable, and Mukuro accepts it instantly. In a world after death where people become monsters, what more could really surprise her?
But there's a particular pause, a very specific hesitation in Riley's speech, that draws her focus. An immediate sense of danger, curling low in her belly before she even fully registers it. Something trained into her long before she ever joined Fenrir, when her surname matched Junko's and neither of them had quite grown their fangs. She's very suddenly reminded of Mikan, of every awful mark under those bandages, and even before that she remembers how that fear felt crawling up her spine, how Junko would shake --
She swallows, and speaks, her voice low and slightly scratchy.]
...Yeah. I - me either.
[She realizes, coming back to herself, that she's gone so still she's stopped rubbing Riley's back - and corrects that, immediately. The last thing she wants is for Riley to feel like she's done something wrong, and she knows how very easy it can be to jump to that conclusion.]
cw: parental abuse..... 2!
But there's a particular pause, a very specific hesitation in Riley's speech, that draws her focus. An immediate sense of danger, curling low in her belly before she even fully registers it. Something trained into her long before she ever joined Fenrir, when her surname matched Junko's and neither of them had quite grown their fangs. She's very suddenly reminded of Mikan, of every awful mark under those bandages, and even before that she remembers how that fear felt crawling up her spine, how Junko would shake --
She swallows, and speaks, her voice low and slightly scratchy.]
...Yeah. I - me either.
[She realizes, coming back to herself, that she's gone so still she's stopped rubbing Riley's back - and corrects that, immediately. The last thing she wants is for Riley to feel like she's done something wrong, and she knows how very easy it can be to jump to that conclusion.]
And then...?