[open] you don't know me, but i know you

[cringe]

how to be a monster:
1. learn the taste of dirt and pain.
2. teach it to others till your knuckles bleed.
3. see if that makes it easier to breathe.

She murmurs something and he half-catches it, hears herself and little else. He does not wonder overmuch about this, but he likes that she mumbled something. It’s a hint of unease, but he can take that unease, augment it into something delightful, if he plays his cards right.
(He thinks himself so much more practiced and worldly than he is - a boy playing at wickedness, but who has not yet fully tasted it.)
She shares her name - Citadelle - and he thinks of fortresses. She does not seem so impenetrable, though. Citadelle keeps talking, sharing parentage that means little to him.
“I’ve lost my family, too,” he says, playing at empathy. It’s true enough - he couldn’t tell you where either of his fathers were, he’s never even met his half-siblings, and he has no children of his own - but he does not mourn this loss. Indeed, Rapt would have been at his side still, had Cringe not orchestrated their departure.
“Are you alone, then?” he asks, looking about, as if her absent father might come strolling from the woods, “it can be so terrible, being alone, especially among all this change. So frightening.”
A step closer. He wants to touch her, to examine the pace of her heartbeat. But ah, he has only just learned her name, this woman. He does not yet know how to breach such a fortress.

cringe

ate an edible b4 i wrote this so if it's incoherent im sorry