forum "You DO like me!" "I don't think 'like' is the right word." "You tolerate me." "Maybe." one on one

Started January 29, 2021 by @cryptic-glitch

tune

"Lin, that's horrible! I can't believe they did that to you."

"Hm?" Lin looked over at Orion, seeming confused. "Is that… not normal?"

"Obviously not. We got grounded. Or our phones taken away."

"Oh… I never had a phone." Lin shrugged a bit. "We were used to it. And besides, it was good motivation not to misbehave."

"Maybe. But it was also abuse."

"Oh…" Lin was quiet for a moment, considering. "So… bad?" He asked weakly. "I never really thought anything of it…"

"There are lots of things like that. I had a similar experience. I didn't think that the fact that I could tell the difference between people's footsteps was bad."

"That's bad too?" Lin groaned softly. "Ugh, you're just gonna be telling me my whole childhood and stuff was bad, huh?"

"Yes. Probably." She shrugged. "It's good that you're telling me."

Lin sighed. "Well, what else do you want to know? We did a lot of stuff like that."

"Anything? Everything." She sat back in her chair.

"I already told you some of the training we did… the fire, the underwater thing… sometimes we got locked in the freezer as well. Various stuff like that." Lin shrugged.

"THE FREEZER? Jesus Christ!" She shoved him, hard. "Why didn't you mention that earlier?"

Lin flinched at the yelling and cowered a bit. "S-Sorry! I forgot about it, sorry… they've done worse things than the freezer, anyway. That wasn't too bad. At least I could keep myself a little bit warm with fire as long as I was careful that they didn't see."

"Jesus, Lin. I'm just worried about you. I don't want you to get hurt anymore. Or anything."

"I know, I know… I'm not gonna, though. I don't live with them anymore." Lin smiled weakly, trying to be reassuring.

"I know. I'm glad you aren't. Jeez." She grabbed his hand.

Lin hesitantly laced his fingers with Orion's and hummed thoughtfully. "They occasionally broke our bones and stuff. Again for the pain tolerance, and because apparently bones heal back stronger or something…"

She gripped his hand harder. "I can't believe you went through all of that."

Lin shrugged a bit. "Guess my bones are pretty strong now." He laughed weakly. "We were often deprived of food or water, and I can tell you that dying of dehydration would not be a good way to go. It's pretty excruciating."

"I believe that." She impulsively pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry that your family sucks."

Lin sighed and rested his chin on Orion's shoulder, content to let her hold him. "Yeah… without water, your blood starts coagulating after a while. Then it's just… sludgy blood trying to get through your veins. It's very painful."

"I would think that." She pulled him closer. "Tell me if you want me to let go of you."

"I don't mind… you can hold on as long as you want to. We passed out pretty often during training, but they got mad when we did. It was hard, though… I mean, we couldn't exactly control that."

"Shhh. Stop talking. Just. . .just be here for a minute," she said softly.