Voicemail (IC Contact Post) OLD - at capcha

[abrightboy]

 This is Bright. Leave a message.

Comments

[empathicfault]

Will doesn't know how to respond to...any of that. He ends up letting out a small gasp of a laugh and letting his eyes close. "See? You'd think I'd have known that already. Although I certainly don't mind hearing it again."

He opens his eyes, an almost giddy smile on his face. He seems like he's a second away from laughing again, just out of happiness. He leans in to kiss Malcolm, sweet and slow.

[abrightboy]

Dropping everything he was holding on the floor so he could hold Will instead was so the right move. He leans into the kiss, and when it breaks he smiles a contented, lazy smile, hands sliding up Will’s chest so he can loop his arms around his neck.

“Turns out that was what I needed too,” he teases lightly.

[empathicfault]

"Good," Will replies, resisting the urge to pick Malcolm up and swing him around like an old 50s romance movie. They don't exactly have the room here, but he certainly feels like he's bursting with fondness and joy right now. It might also be noted that his energy seems to have returned somewhat, as has the color to his face.

"We can repeat it as many times as you'd like," he adds, a cheeky smirk on his face. It fades just a little bit, betraying a small confusion. "And if y- wait, you're a werewolf here, aren't you? Not back in the Land?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods with a small, sweet smile, drawing his arm back just enough to tuck an errant curl behind Will’s ear and then brush his cheek lightly with the backs of his fingers.

[empathicfault]

Will laughs, and it's a lighter sound than most people get the chance to hear. "Just making sure. This place is ridiculous." He sounds extremely fond. "In that case, I offer full-body rubdowns in either form, as well."

But that's not what's taking his attention right now. At the moment, he's staring at Malcolm's face. "...you have the most beautiful smile. It lights up the whole world," he says quietly, sincerely. "Lets me see things that were hidden from view."

He'd intended to move on to getting them settled, now that they both feel a little better. But he's having a difficult time separating out his feelings from everything else right now.

[abrightboy]

The smile broadens and he tilts his head curiously.

“What sorts of things?” he asks with a sort of soft awe.

[abrightboy]

Do you blame yourself?

[hippie_ninja]

[he thinks about it and sighs faintly, sad for that long gone part of himself]

I used to. In low moments. But after a while you learn to accept that other people make their own decisions, even if you disagree with them. And then you move on.

He chose to stay. He did what he felt was best, and I did what I could to change his mind. It's not my fault he died. I can't take responsibility for other people's choices.

[empathicfault]

"The worth of a kind hand stretched out, even when it's not accepted. The promise of a day spent alone together, our mutual affection fueling each other. The...gift...that I hold in this place."

He cups Malcolm's chin in both hands and gives him another soft kiss. As he continues, his voice is soft and quiet and very much only for Malcolm. "It might be loud. It might give me headaches. But it lets me see you and your brilliance."

Will pulls back to look into Malcolm's eyes, then, his own expression calm and extremely content. He feels like he's found his center, since coming back from the Breach.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm is extremely charmed by all of that. Endeared. And ever increasingly head over heels smitten by cupid in love. It’s written all over his infatuated face.

“I can bring it by any time you need it,” he promises just as softly. It’s not hard to smile when Will is in the room.

[abrightboy]

That’s a particularly healthy way to look at it. Why do you think you need counselling? [He’s not trying to get out of it; the question is only curious.]

[hippie_ninja]

Because....

[He sighs, takes a sip of his beer, thinks]

I have a hard time getting close to people. Staying close to them. I can make connections but I keep them distant. I never had healthy relationships modeled for me so honestly, I don't even know what to look for.

If he had come with me? I would have left him before very long.

I don't really want to reach the end of my life never having known what it was like to let someone in. A friend, even.

That and I'm sure there's loads of trauma related to the end of the world that hasn't had a chance to surface yet.

[abrightboy]

And this problem with intimacy started before the apocalypse?

[hippie_ninja]

Yeah, uh...

My mom went to prison when I was a kid. I was seven. I haven't seen her since I was twelve. I grew up in the system, mostly in group homes. Connection just never really clicked for me.

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm nods.]

I was going to ask who betrayed and/or abandoned you. What did she go in for? Where was your dad?

[hippie_ninja]

I never knew my dad. She went in on a drug possession, but she stopped trying to get custody of me after she got out. As far as I know she was arrested again after that anyway, so...it wouldn't have worked out even if she'd still wanted me.

[abrightboy]

It’s not better if they do still want you. I know.

None of the foster homes stuck?

[hippie_ninja]

No. I acted out, you know? I stole things, I lied. I ran away. I was never sent anywhere equipped to deal with that, so it meant always going back to the group home.

What do you mean, though? You know?

[abrightboy]

Oh. My dad was arrested when I was ten. For serial murder. He killed at least twenty-three people. He resides in a maximum security facility for the criminally insane. I quite studiously did not act out. It did not stop kids at school from nicknaming me ‘psycho’. And not in the cool way. What I’m saying is that sometimes belonging is beyond your control. If you were acting out, you needed more support, not less. It wasn’t your fault.

[hippie_ninja]

[He's quiet, thinking about that.]

Have you found a sense of belonging here? Is it common for people here to just never have belonged anywhere?

[abrightboy]

I would say… in some cases yes. And yes. Like, for example? My boyfriend is also a profiler. He has an empathy disorder that makes things difficult at home. We both get on way better here than we do where we come from.

[hippie_ninja]

Did you ever have a boyfriend back home?

[abrightboy]

Not… really? I had a girlfriend once. For a few weeks. She actually had infiltrated my family looking for information on my father’s victims, but I think we had something special for a little while there… before she dumped me over voicemail.

[hippie_ninja]

Ouch.

Can't say I'm not guilty of doing that but...at least I felt some guilt for it after.

I'm comfortable with who I am and who I'm attracted to but there's still some part of me that thinks it's never going to be safe to be fully out, you know? Whenever I was with a man I'd watch the crowd to see who was going to take it the wrong way. Not that it mattered after the world fell apart.

[abrightboy]

To be worried about that, a guy would have had to want to be with me. I’m a bit… I have some problems.