[It's a perspective that's intimately familiar. How long, after all, had Bruce lived inside this very same space? How many years had he spent consumed by his grief, unable to lift his head and see any kind of future beyond the pain that never eased? Time has not healed the wound. Time has not made it any easier to bear.
He suspects that the same is true for Riku.
That doesn't excuse his recklessness, nor does it mean he should be allowed to see it through. It's too easy to destroy the self. Shockingly easy.
Bruce's hand begins to lower, reaching for the smoke bomb he'd slipped inside his shoe; his strategy is to distract and disguise his approach, so that Riku's focus will yield and Bruce will be able to close the distance without incident. That isn't what happens. Riku's fist swings through the air and though the first narrowly misses him only because of the angle he's bent at, it brings them so close to one another that detection is impossible to avoid. There's a moment where Bruce's eyes widen behind his mask, naked surprise that he's been detected somehow- and then Riku's fist collides with his face. It smashes into his nose. The pain is immediate and so is the blood. His eyes water.
So Bruce lunges forward at his knees instead, buckling them as he tackles the other boy to the ground, landing hard in the leaves.]
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He suspects that the same is true for Riku.
That doesn't excuse his recklessness, nor does it mean he should be allowed to see it through. It's too easy to destroy the self. Shockingly easy.
Bruce's hand begins to lower, reaching for the smoke bomb he'd slipped inside his shoe; his strategy is to distract and disguise his approach, so that Riku's focus will yield and Bruce will be able to close the distance without incident. That isn't what happens. Riku's fist swings through the air and though the first narrowly misses him only because of the angle he's bent at, it brings them so close to one another that detection is impossible to avoid. There's a moment where Bruce's eyes widen behind his mask, naked surprise that he's been detected somehow- and then Riku's fist collides with his face. It smashes into his nose. The pain is immediate and so is the blood. His eyes water.
So Bruce lunges forward at his knees instead, buckling them as he tackles the other boy to the ground, landing hard in the leaves.]