[ five doesn't get angry, actually. what happens is that his eyebrows drop, expression smoothing out in surprise. still waters.
she's right.
he doesn't like it.
she says, oh, i don't doubt that you have done terrible things. she says, you remain capable of goodness, of sacrifice. she says, someone who chose, rather than was ordered to do something.
five's all small frame, young face, but that's all a lie: not one he means to tell, but one nevertheless. the boy who fell headfirst into an apocalypse (who grew up with a family, who had a home, who had never stolen from a body, let alone dropped one) is long, long gone. he's older than any of his siblings got to be, and tired, and snatched away from a chance to rest.
here's the truth: he's never heard praise like this in his whole life. it's more than he knows what to do with, hands ill-suited for much outside of causing harm, for holding anything as soft as a kindness.
he could, should refute her. he knows every reason why the name doesn't belong on a person like him.
but he doesn't answer at all in the end, just hangs his head and breathes out slow. ]
no subject
she's right.
he doesn't like it.
she says, oh, i don't doubt that you have done terrible things. she says, you remain capable of goodness, of sacrifice. she says, someone who chose, rather than was ordered to do something.
five's all small frame, young face, but that's all a lie: not one he means to tell, but one nevertheless. the boy who fell headfirst into an apocalypse (who grew up with a family, who had a home, who had never stolen from a body, let alone dropped one) is long, long gone. he's older than any of his siblings got to be, and tired, and snatched away from a chance to rest.
here's the truth: he's never heard praise like this in his whole life. it's more than he knows what to do with, hands ill-suited for much outside of causing harm, for holding anything as soft as a kindness.
he could, should refute her. he knows every reason why the name doesn't belong on a person like him.
but he doesn't answer at all in the end, just hangs his head and breathes out slow. ]