[ It felt right, to explain why he did what he did. Still feels right now, because Nate is never going to apologize for keeping someone honest even when it's increasingly difficult to hold himself to the same standard. He's trying. Every day, another stupid step, another thing he tells himself when he actually looks in the mirror instead of walking past because even the act of self-observation is an act of introspection.
Nate compartmentalized for too long - still does - and knows the tells, the tricks, the angles. The lies you tell yourself.
He's not anticipating another exchange, another call and response like the ones they've had, but Ian does it anyway and that's when he gets it: the avoidance, the runaround. Deflections that mirror his own because he's used the same ones. Single mother, dirt poor, probably did her best but left her kid to his own devices more often than not.
Watching Ian's profile he's conscious of the fact that this doesn't come easy, and people who know this are probably in rarified company. Just barely, at the edges, the boy who clung to him in the rain. ]
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Nate compartmentalized for too long - still does - and knows the tells, the tricks, the angles. The lies you tell yourself.
He's not anticipating another exchange, another call and response like the ones they've had, but Ian does it anyway and that's when he gets it: the avoidance, the runaround. Deflections that mirror his own because he's used the same ones. Single mother, dirt poor, probably did her best but left her kid to his own devices more often than not.
Watching Ian's profile he's conscious of the fact that this doesn't come easy, and people who know this are probably in rarified company. Just barely, at the edges, the boy who clung to him in the rain. ]
What happened?