[Right. Yes, he was right before. The exhibit wouldn't help him to explain this. This is on him. He's the only one with the answer. So he could stop right now.]
[Breathing in slow, he doesn't.]
That's why I don't like that place. Because it lied about him. Haruno was a real person once, but he wasn't like that. He didn't have that life. Any of that.
[Someone to make lunches for him. To dry his tears when he cried. To teach him things he needed to know. To just be there, to just exist near him. To just be. To prove his worth by their presence. To look at him with hands lowered, smiles on.]
[His expression is glassy, though not with tears; head tilted to one side like he's observing something. Her, but not. The space just past her shoulder, to see if her shadow reacts strangely.]
Haruno was mostly pretty pathetic, Riley. That's why I didn't want anyone to know about him. Up until this whole . . . [Grimacing, he gestures faintly, unable to come up with the right word for everything that just happened.] Nobody did.
cw dissociation, child abuse/neglect
[Breathing in slow, he doesn't.]
That's why I don't like that place. Because it lied about him. Haruno was a real person once, but he wasn't like that. He didn't have that life. Any of that.
[Someone to make lunches for him. To dry his tears when he cried. To teach him things he needed to know. To just be there, to just exist near him. To just be. To prove his worth by their presence. To look at him with hands lowered, smiles on.]
[His expression is glassy, though not with tears; head tilted to one side like he's observing something. Her, but not. The space just past her shoulder, to see if her shadow reacts strangely.]
Haruno was mostly pretty pathetic, Riley. That's why I didn't want anyone to know about him. Up until this whole . . . [Grimacing, he gestures faintly, unable to come up with the right word for everything that just happened.] Nobody did.