Snippet #2576350

Kyle flinched and pulled back from Skylar's angry words. She didn't actually hit him, but the pain was just as great as a slap to the face. He could handle anyone else in that room being pissed at him, even Tallyho who was terrifying and cold in her long-simmering anger, but Skylar's anger physically hurt. His chest hurt and his stupid fancy clothes were too tight again. The silver cape over his shoulders was too heavy; the collar of his white shirt and cravat tie choked him; his long sleeves pinched his wrists; the blue-striped vest squeezed his middle. It was too much. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to... I couldn't stand it happening again. I..."

Then he stopped. Even if he said that thing he's been holding in his heart for years, she wouldn't believe, not after the scene he made. He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her hand again... She probably wouldn't let him. He reached out unconsciously, but pulled back and curled up in on one of the seats in the room holding his head and muttering, "I'm so stupid!" No, he didn't kick and scream. He just stayed there until... "HARPER!"

That blond head shot up. What the hell was that bastard up to now? Didn't he do enough already? His first reaction was anger, despite feeling that painful sting or maybe the pain only amplified that anger. He didn't know which. Dorian was wrestling a blubbering and screaming Harper and blood! He was covered in blood again. The smaller blond got up, shaking at the sight of the blood. A knife skittered next to his feet. There was blood on the knife too. "What the hell?!"

Then Mildred came in, and the wrestling match ended with Harper slumped over and Dorian clinging to him, pinning the older warrior's arms at his sides. What? All that blood and she was concerned about the stupid party and clothes? Was she serious? How could she be serious?

Damn! She really was serious. As soon as both Harper and Dorian were cleaned up, bandaged, and changed into new clothes, the whole lot of them marched out and went through the motions. He couldn't even be happy to see Morgan waving excitedly and Nikita out there. Haru wasn't in the crowd. Where did he go?

That's where he was. After the stupid ceremony Kyle barely even paid attention to, Haru locked them all in a room, fortunately the room that didn't have blood on the floor. Okay, he thought he could deal with other people's anger, but Haru's fierce glare and tone of voice had him shaking again. He pulled at his collar and swallowed. "What happened? What the fuck happened?" Kyle couldn't speak. Harper made a weak attempt to shake off any further confrontation, but it was a total lie. Blood on the floor was never nothing! Idiot! Skylar snapped at him again and Kyle winced, another slap on the face. To be fair, she snapped at Tallyho too, but Kyle was right next to her. He felt it more. Dorian finally spoke, going through the bare bones of the disastrous scene. Kyle would have to thank him for that later. Dorian didn't make any judgment calls or get into all the messy details, but he said just enough.

The younger blond, actually gave a sigh of relief that Haru shooed everyone else out. Skylar and Dorian didn't have to suffer any further for his stupidity. Xabier, Autumn, and Falke didn't have to deal with it at all. They were never involved to begin with, but Kyle did wrinkle his nose at Xabier falling all over Harper. He would talk to him later, if he survived whatever wrath Haru waited to pour out on him. He held his breath as he waited for the blows to fall.

After everyone left, Haru seemed so tired. Kyle pulled his collar again and looked at the ground. He knew Haru's exhaustion was his fault. He started the dumb fight. No matter how much he wanted to pin it on Harper, he knew the truth. He had to face the consequences. "I..." he started but stopped. Haru flopped in a chair and told the three of them to sit down. No way was he going to argue. He didn't really think much about where he would sit, and he didn't have more appetite for the food. Kyle just flopped in the nearest chair without another word. What was Haru going to do or say?

The answer to that question was actually something of a surprise. Haru didn't yell or make threats or in any way act like he was going to explode, which was the thing Kyle was most afraid of. The last time they did something stupid, the cat-guardian did explode. Kyle squirmed. That last time was also when they were locked up. He turned his head around the room, not to ignore Haru, but to confirm that he really was safe.

Every single word said hit home in one way or another. Sometimes the words hurt, sometimes he got angry. I totally do NOT have daddy issues, thank you very much! The man he called father, he knew loved him. He saved his life. He accepted him into his own fully-formed family. He protected him, but never lied to him. He always knew what to do when Kyle got scared.... But Kyle didn't really belong there. His father didn't look anything like him. He never felt like he was good enough, no matter how many times his father told him otherwise. And there was always a certain fear that his new daddy would dump him just like his old daddy, his real daddy. Kyle squirmed in his seat. Maybe he did have some issues related to dads. Damn Haru!

The fights he got into and his lousy grades in school. Those were perfectly dead on, and probably played into his absolute biggest fear. Dammit! Haru did know all about him, yet why didn't that scare him? Why didn't it make him angry that someone was spying on him his entire life?

Not just him either. Haru looked into every single one of them. How? Kyle didn't get to ask, because as soon as Daddy Haru was finished with one of them, he directly turned to the very next person. That's always been the way the cat-guardian did things. Even though, he knew Haru was always like that he still felt uncomfortable listening to these others messed up lives and problems, and having his own put out there for them to hear.

It was true that he never tried getting to know Tallyho and Harper. He didn't know about Tallyho's family and her living alone, not knowing if she'll get enough to eat. He swallowed and squirmed some more. Kyle never had to worry about that and really the only time he even thought of people who didn't have enough to eat were during holiday food drives. But those people who sang during the parade, weren't they her family? They look just like her. More questions.

She was different than him, but she was also alike. Haru says she trusts her conscience, and often hesitates to act because of it. Kyle also trusts his conscience, but he often acts too quickly to listen to it. He never liked Harper, but he still put in the effort to try to help him. He went through that portal to Aires, because the all or nothing proposition pricked his conscience. He was terrified, like Haru also pointed out, but he couldn't let someone else or a whole lot of someones die because he was a chicken. That hero complex. He fights to protect people he cares about, to keep other people from getting hurt, but at the same time, he usually ends up hurting them. Every single time that happens, his conscience rages against him. He tried running away from that, but he just can’t. All three of them run away from something, but for some it’s more obvious than others. He groaned and stared at the floor.

The youngest person in the room squirmed again as the attention turned to Harper. There was less of ‘this is what’s wrong with you and you need to fix it’, but more of a recent case by case analysis of what Harper’s doing and identifying how other people outside of Harper-world react and why, specifically of course Kyle and Tallyho, since they were the primary agents right now.
Everything about that was also spot on, except he really didn’t think his situation with Harper could be as easily resolved as Haru assumed. There was stuff that happened before the situations with Skylar and Xabier that he can’t forgive easily, but he supposed dealing with the more recent and major situations could be a start. Of course it would only work if Harper himself also put in the effort.

Stupid Kyle also realized that stupid Harper deserved an apology. He never thought that daddy hates me story was actually true because of all the whiny nobody likes me garbage he threw at them in the past. The younger blond turned to Tallyho again. She might actually have a reason to say nobody likes her. Every time Harper went into his rages, she was always pushed aside, like both stupid boys pushed Skylar aside in that other room not so long ago. Kyle pulled at his collar. He needed to properly deal with all the crap he spewed today.

The entire interview, or more like a lecture, because Haru didn’t really ask a lot of questions -he told it like it is and expected them to listen- was uncomfortable for all three of them most likely. It was painful but necessary, just like his other recent confrontation with Xabier. Now though, Kyle had the missing piece, the why. He turned to Harper blubbering again in his chair and then over to the table behind all of them that hadn’t been cleared yet. Good , all the utensils were there. This room wouldn’t have blood on the floor too. Kyle will also deal with both Xabier and Skylar, if the May month warrior would talk to him again. He squirmed and pulled his collar again.

From the midst of his blubbering, Harper called back to Haru. “Are we done?” Kyle mentally groaned. It didn’t sound like Harper got anything out of the ordeal. This mess wasn’t over yet. He sighed but was more polite in his own response to everything. “Thank you, Haru.”

Harper may not have gotten anything from it, but Kyle did. He never thought of anything the cat-guardian pushed forward, but now he wondered about what other problems the rest of the group had to deal with. Was it too late to start over? They didn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.