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Started January 06, 2020 by @Fraust

tune

Cas nodded, leaning back against Halm and sighing quietly. This is gonna suck…

Halm gave Cas a little hug, trying to be encouraging.

Cas looked up at Halm from where he was, looking pretty anxious. He really didn't want to look stupid in front of Halm.

"You ready to start?" Halm asked gently. He kept both arms around Cas, looking down at him gently. He figured this must be difficult for Cas to admit.

"I guess so…" He replied softly, closing his eyes for a few seconds before looking back down at the recipe book.

Halm rested his chin lightly on Cas's head, moving one hand to point at the book. It was to the word 'chip' in the title, "Chocolate chip recipe."
"Try and sound this out," Halm said. "Just make the individual sounds."

Cas's gaze flicked across the word a couple times. He could make out the letters, but they didn't mean much to him. "'C' makes different sounds depending on what it's with, though…" He said quietly.

"Right," Halm said. "Do you know what sound it makes when it's with 'H'?"

"Um…" He hesitated for a few seconds. "…'ch'…?" Hhh I sound really dumb… I'm probably wrong, anyways.

Halm nodded, smiling gently.
"Right. So, try saying all of the sounds in this word out loud." He pointed to the ch first, waiting for Cas.

"'I' can make different sounds too, though…" Cas gently ran his finger over the word.

Halm nodded.
"The easiest thing to do is to pick one, and say it out loud. If it doesn't sound like a word, try a different sound."

"But I don't wanna say it wrong…" Cas said weakly.

"Cas, sometimes you have to say something wrong to figure out how to say it right. It's okay, it's how everyone learns." Halm put his hand lightly on Cas's holding him gently.
"No one's gonna judge you."

Cas was already clearly getting stressed, but he still wanted to try. After several more seconds of reading over the word again and again, he finally spoke. "…chip…?" He attempted.

Halm had waited quietly for Cas to read the word out loud, a little worried by how stressed Cas was getting. He broke out in a wide smile when Cas finally spoke, though.
"Yeah," he said with a grin. "That's right." He was incredibly proud of Cas right at that moment.

Cas breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against Halm, closing his eyes again. "It's… it's harder than I thought…" He murmured.

Halm wrapped both arms around Cas again, holding him close.
"It will be," he said gently, rubbing Cas's back a little, "but the more we do this the easier it will get."

Cas nodded, relaxing a little with Halm's help. "It's stressful…"

Halm nodded- he'd felt how stressed Cas had been.
"Do you think there's anything I can do to help with that?" he asked.

"I dunno…" Cas shrugged, sighing softly. "I don't think there's much that'll make me feel better about it."

"Okay then," Halm said quietly. "I'll help as best I can, then. We'll go at your pace."

He nodded again, looking back down at the recipe. "It just looks like a bunch of scrambled letters to me…"

"We just gotta go one word at a time. Do you want to go in order, like we're actually reading, or start with the easier words?"

"What do you think would be easier?" He asked.