[Srsly. These are the things that really worry my partner and I if we do move over to the states. They're also the things that make me willing to put up with a lot of less-than-ideal stuff in the UK. And oh Charles, I feel so bad for him. Poor guy.]
It might have seemed strange how accepting Aurus seemed to be of Charles' anger, just letting it calmly break on him like a wave on the shore, as though he didn't take being snapped at personally at all. He was sorry, on the one hand, for causing this sort of emotional turmoil, but on the other hand, he wasn't sorry in the least. He might be receiving Charles' anger in this moment, but he didn't feel that he was really the target of it.
The more they spoke, the more keenly Aurus felt the weight of all the unresolved hurt and rage that Charles kept bottled inside. It rested around the man's shoulders like a mantle, disguised beneath his composure and deportment. If Aurus had known the situation more intimately--known who Erik was and the past that he'd lived through--he might have pointed out to Charles how ironically like him he'd become in his response to pain and loss. But of course he didn't know.
He gave the man a moment at the window before he spoke again, still seated where he was. Now, he felt, was not the time to press the physical. In this moment, his tactic should be different.
"You're right--I don't know what it feels like. I lost my arm once. My student cut it off while we were sparring. It took nearly three months for it to grow back, but it did grow back. It's not the same.
"It is not my intention to trivialize what you have to live with. But I have no doubts at all that the physical limitations aren't absolute. I think you know that too, even without me telling you. So I can only believe that there is something else--a pain that frightens you too much, something that happened to you beyond the injury itself. Injuries, after all, do tend to become magnets for all sorts of meanings.
"I don't ask for you to tell me about it. I don't think we know each other well enough for that yet. But if, in time, you decide to speak of it with me, I assure you that I will listen."
no subject
It might have seemed strange how accepting Aurus seemed to be of Charles' anger, just letting it calmly break on him like a wave on the shore, as though he didn't take being snapped at personally at all. He was sorry, on the one hand, for causing this sort of emotional turmoil, but on the other hand, he wasn't sorry in the least. He might be receiving Charles' anger in this moment, but he didn't feel that he was really the target of it.
The more they spoke, the more keenly Aurus felt the weight of all the unresolved hurt and rage that Charles kept bottled inside. It rested around the man's shoulders like a mantle, disguised beneath his composure and deportment. If Aurus had known the situation more intimately--known who Erik was and the past that he'd lived through--he might have pointed out to Charles how ironically like him he'd become in his response to pain and loss. But of course he didn't know.
He gave the man a moment at the window before he spoke again, still seated where he was. Now, he felt, was not the time to press the physical. In this moment, his tactic should be different.
"You're right--I don't know what it feels like. I lost my arm once. My student cut it off while we were sparring. It took nearly three months for it to grow back, but it did grow back. It's not the same.
"It is not my intention to trivialize what you have to live with. But I have no doubts at all that the physical limitations aren't absolute. I think you know that too, even without me telling you. So I can only believe that there is something else--a pain that frightens you too much, something that happened to you beyond the injury itself. Injuries, after all, do tend to become magnets for all sorts of meanings.
"I don't ask for you to tell me about it. I don't think we know each other well enough for that yet. But if, in time, you decide to speak of it with me, I assure you that I will listen."