Going Full Circle

A symbiotic relationship. Like a big parasite. Only even that felt cruel. Maybe he was feeling empathy for something that definitely couldn't do the same for him, but wasn't that kind of the story of his life? There was a veritable string of people lolled out behind him who definitely couldn't have managed to return the favor.

"Oh my god Rory, it was one time," Jude protested, but he was smiling as he did. It felt like normal. It felt like the normal kind of teasing friends gave, and not like someone trying to support their friend through trauma.

"I meant normal like... hanging out with friends. I don't know. I might go to the community center sometime this afternoon. My hand..." He looked down at the bruised mess, briefly flexing it before glancing back to her. "My hand'll be fine. And physically? Fine. I just need to get the mental to catch up."

A movie marathon. Maybe. But definitely not horror.

"God no," Jude said. "I didn't like horror movies before, even bad ones. Considering I'd had Broen jump-scaring me for the past few weeks, I think I'd like them even less now..." He'd started fairly upbeat, but there he'd gone, dragging the mood down, and by the end he trailed off, letting out a groan.

"Did you even end up doing the thing? Because you might have lost your chance if you didn't."

"I don't know," Jude offered with a shrug, not digging into Rory's awkward yes-and-blush even slightly. Nope. He was leaving that one at the door. "He's... he's definitely changing. I guess I'm going to just... give him some space? We're going to have to talk eventually, but right now..."

He clenched his jaw.

"It's too soon, I guess? It was bad enough for me, feeling that the Headmaster was there with this kind of awful looming Time to go back to school, boys and girls! thing going on. Even if they didn't say it, I could feel it. I could feel that if they didn't get stopped, I was going to end up back in class. And it was... it was scary. Really scary. And it has to have been worse for Broen."

He'd been attached to the Headmaster.

That was... It was a sad thought. That Broen didn't have anyone. But it was right. Who did he have? Them. Maybe Zora, but Jude was sliding that into suspect as hell. She was going to get him killed. She was being targeted, the person in charge had gotten away with some of her men, and Broen was literally defenseless. He was literally less capable of protecting himself then Jude himself.

He reached up, dragging his fingers through his hair and trying very hard not to look at the fact that Rory was crying. It was hard not to notice, and even harder, but she was trying to push past it, and he didn't want to... to what, to spotlight it? He just didn't know what he was supposed to be doing. Show physical comfort, probably, only that was impossible.

"You're right. I should... I'll visit. We're probably the only two people in the whole world who knew what it felt like having things suddenly snap back to normal, like nothing had ever broken in the first place. He might want to... to talk about it."

It felt fake, because Broen would never have wanted to talk about it before, but who knew?

She was definitely going to talk to Zora, wasn't she? And he strongly doubted his ability to dissuade her of that decision.

He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Just... Broen doesn't mind you, unless something happened last time you saw him. He's just not used to you. It took a while for everyone to get adjusted, and he hasn't had that time. Didn't help that he couldn't really, uh, get the whole she does this because she cares thing."

He paused, raking his fingers through his hair, and then sighed.

"Try not to be... too intense. She's shaken up. I don't think she realized how big the risk was. It was... I don't know... Denial? This couldn't happen to me. That kind of thing. We were at least more prepared for it then she was."