fandomtownies | The Perk, Monday Afternoon

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celia bowen

The Perk, Monday Afternoon

Mother's Day had come and gone and Will had managed to push most of his melancholy down and back behind the door where he kept everything that threatened to make him a hollow husk. Repression was a mighty powerful thing.

The first thing Will had done when he'd woken up that morning was go on a very, very long run. He'd run until his legs ached and his lungs burned and only when he thought he couldn't go any further had he stopped. Stopping had put him right in front of the Perk so Will had decided to go inside to cool down and enjoy the air conditioner in there.

After ordering something cool, he found a spot near the window and stretched out, slowly cooling down and relaxing. His legs felt a little like jelly and he thought there might be a mild sunburn on his face and arms but otherwise, he felt pretty decent, pretty good.

As long as he didn't think too much or too deeply, he'd be fine.

[Open post, open place]

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Celia was already nodding before he'd finished. "And as much as I try to control most things, I can't do anything about other people, and sometimes, they're going to hurt me. I think having an outlet like that is important. In my case, it keeps me from breaking the china by accident...plus it just feels better to do something."

"No one's hurt you recently, have they?" Will asked, focusing on that part of her statement because he could.

"I sprained my ankle at work last week and had to fix it, but no, nothing intentional or not brought on by my being clumsy," she said, looking down at her cup. "Not since I've been here at all, really. I'm starting to get the impression that my childhood wasn't really normal, that way."

And really, she'd always known that. But now she could at least admit it.

Will smiled slightly at her.

"I think we're alike there," he told her quietly. "You were hurt a lot intentionally when you were younger?"

He said it easily so he wouldn't get too upset and upset her.

Celia smiled, a little bitterly. "You remember what I told you about my hand and the paperweight?" she asked softly, raising her brows. "That's just the beginning. My father believed in very practical lessons."

But something he'd said worried her. "But...not you, too?" She couldn't stand the idea that somewhere out there, someone had hurt Will as badly as Hector had repeatedly hurt her.

"No, no nothing like that," Will said, shaking his head. "I more meant that my childhood wasn't normal, that's all. I wasn't hurt. My parents weren't like that."

He smiled reassuringly. "How much of a beginning do you mean? Did it get worse?"

Celia shrugged a little, feeling a bit shy about it, and held out her hands, palms up. "I've healed each of these," she wiggled her fingertips, "at least a hundred times each. He cuts them open, and I have to heal them quickly so as not to lose too much blood."

She said it softly, but casually, as though it didn't bother her and was just a fact.

Edited 2014-05-13 00:19 (UTC)

"That's...savage," Will said since it was the first word that popped into his head. "There are better ways to teach control or whatever that lesson might be. That's terrible."

Celia sighed, looking down at her hands before closing them and hiding them back under the table, a little ashamed. "It wasn't just me. He killed a bird, once, to make me feel bad for not being able to heal it. I...still can't heal people or animals other than myself. I'm not sure that one worked. The others all did. I can fix my skin and bones perfect, with my eyes shut."

"But, it hurt you," Will said quietly. He shook his head. "I understand that it worked but does the end justify the means? Celia, you don't think you would have learned how to heal yourself without the abuse?"

"I don't think I'd be able to do it as quickly, or precisely," Celia murmured, glancing up. "I'm as good as I am because of what happened to me. I'm not glad about it, I hate my father, but...I'm proud of what I can do."

She'd never said that aloud, before, about hating her father. It made her feel good to say it, to make it true and put the words out there like that.

Will chewed on his lower lip for a second. "He shouldn't have hurt you. No one should do that to someone they're supposed to love. Not intentionally. Not like that. It's not your fault either. I hope you don't think that."

"No, I know that," she said, glancing up briefly before looking back down at her hands. "I blame myself for my mother's actions, but never my father's. He made his choices, and he'll have to live with knowing what he did to me. I suppose that's a punishment in itself, if he ever develops a conscience."

"I'm sorry it happened to you," Will told her, holding a hand out towards her on the table. "It shouldn't have. No one should have that happen."

Celia hesitantly lifted one of her hands up to gently take his offered one, and tried not to dwell on what her hands had been through before she had someone who wanted to hold them. "No. No one should have that happen to them, but...it doesn't happen to me anymore. And it never will again," she said, her voice growing a little stronger there at the end. "I...I'm sorry for burdening you with this. I don't normally talk about these things."

"It's not a burden," he said, closing his hand around hers and holding it tightly. He even tried smiling lightly at her. "It's probably good for you to talk about it and get it out. Keeping inside just means it festers and eats at you."

"Probably," Celia admitted quietly, returning his smile though it was small. "I think I'm going to break my contract. The, um, magic contract he forced me into when I was five, that binds me to that stupid challenge. Do you think it's a bad idea to try?"

She had no idea what would happen. Usually Celia wasn't one to ask for advice, but she genuinely didn't know what the outcome could possibly be, and she only had a handful of people whose opinions she trusted enough to ask for.

"I don't think it's a bad idea at all," Will told her, shaking his head. "You don't want to be involved in the contract and it wasn't by your choice. Why should you have to be the one that suffers when it's your father that should be doing so?"

Which was exactly what she'd been thinking for most of her life, but had never actually articulated it. That earned Will a much wider smile, and she turned her hand in his so she could twine their fingers together. "Because I don't know what'll happen," she said, lifting a shoulder. "And...I hate not knowing what'll happen. Don't you?"

"This should be your choice," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "So, you should know what's going to happen in your life. This big, huge unknown thing hanging over your head, it's not fair. Not to you."

"It might do something bad, though," Celia noted quietly. "It might do something worse than breaking teacups. I can't risk hurting people."

That was why she'd never tried before. If she shattered windows when she was angry, what would a magical break like this do?

"You deserve your freedom though," Will pointed out. "You deserve to live your life, Celia. Not your father's."

Celia actually blinked quickly at that, casting her eyes down for a moment until she felt confident that she wouldn't cry.

"That might be the kindest and smartest thing anyone's ever said to me, Will," she said softly, smiling slowly at him. "Thank you. And if we weren't in a coffee shop, I could kiss you for it."

"It's the truth. You're welcome," he said and squeezed her hand again. "You can kiss me when we're not in the coffee shop."

Celia, true to form, blushed enough to match his sunburn, but still was able to pull it together enough to glance at him with a flirtatious smile. "Want to walk back to the dorms with me?"

So they could leave the coffee shop, and she could enjoy that freedom he'd reminded her of, you see.

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