boggart aftermath

[cooopout]

[he's just sort of walking aimlessly out by the forest, his clothes unkempt and a completely lost look on his face]

Comments

[strooonger]

Oniichan?

[cooopout]

[looks up, a little startled, and... tries not to flinch]

...Hina.

[strooonger]

Did you see something too?

[cooopout]

...eh?

[strooonger]

I saw you die.

[cooopout]

...what? [weakly]

[strooonger]

It was horrible.

[cooopout]

Hina... [reaching out to you hesitantly]

I--I'm right here.

[strooonger]

I know.

[cooopout]

...I saw you too.

[drops his hand helplessly, his belly sick]

You were upset that I got hurt so often on the job, and told me that I was a neglectful older brother for letting Ankh possess me and leaving you alone for a year.

[strooonger]

That's not true at all!

[cooopout]

[just swallows hard, looking at you helplessly]

[strooonger]

I've never thought that, oniichan!

[regretnooothing]

Shingo-san?

[cooopout]

[freezes, but doesn't look at you]

Eiji-kun.

[regretnooothing]

Shingo-san, what's wrong?

[cooopout]

Why are you doing this? [quietly, wrapping his arms around himself and curling in a little]

[regretnooothing]

Doing what?

[cooopout]

You've made how you feel clear. You don't have to keep driving it home.

[regretnooothing]

I didn't say anything to you. Camp showed you something that wasn't true to speed up your Greeed process.

[cooopout]

[just stares at you, uncomprehending]

But--you told me that it was a problem for you that I was so helpless against Ankh and, and that I was strange for not hating Ankh and...

[he swallows hard, his whole body clenched taut--it hurts so much more now that he can feel properly again] ...and for loving you. You called me 'detective' again.

[regretnooothing]

[taking slow steps forward.]

We all saw terrible things. Ankh saw us demeaning his humanity and hating him. I saw you and him calling me useless and telling me to never return and throw away my self-centered desires.

I'm sorry you had to see those things, but and I would never say those things to you. They aren't true. I wouldn't go back to calling you something that rude again.

[cooopout]

But it was true. [his voice shaking badly] All the things you and Hina and Ankh said to me were true.

[regretnooothing]

They aren't true.

[cooopout]

[just presses his face into his hands, swallowing and trying to reconcile what you're saying with the sick, wrecked feeling in his chest]