Skan sees that wince, and sighs internally. Even now, there still lives that doubt in you, doesn't it, my friend? That people must think of you that way, even me.
"You weren't the only one he had bullied," Skan says lowly, taking a step out of his professional stance, but just one, wary of his reception, "He'll be wiser now, or at least forewarned. I'm not afraid to become a nightmare, in defense of my family."
And Viktor was that, now, as much as anyone else had ever been. Skan could no more disentangle his heart from this man than tear it from his own breast. But it's more than that, of course. Isn't it always?
What rises in him then is— childish, ugly, and importunate. But in the waiting silence between them, the awkwardness is like a living thing, a slime-mouthed dog that gambols and barks, and sets its teeth to worrying at Skan's leg, with vigor. He feels a terrible need to explain himself somehow, to make Viktor understand. To be understood at all, and not... Not resent him for it.
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Skan sees that wince, and sighs internally. Even now, there still lives that doubt in you, doesn't it, my friend? That people must think of you that way, even me.
"You weren't the only one he had bullied," Skan says lowly, taking a step out of his professional stance, but just one, wary of his reception, "He'll be wiser now, or at least forewarned. I'm not afraid to become a nightmare, in defense of my family."
And Viktor was that, now, as much as anyone else had ever been. Skan could no more disentangle his heart from this man than tear it from his own breast. But it's more than that, of course. Isn't it always?
What rises in him then is— childish, ugly, and importunate. But in the waiting silence between them, the awkwardness is like a living thing, a slime-mouthed dog that gambols and barks, and sets its teeth to worrying at Skan's leg, with vigor. He feels a terrible need to explain himself somehow, to make Viktor understand. To be understood at all, and not... Not resent him for it.
"May I ask you something?"