Fifteen months and change, and he's never talked about this. Not once. Hell, it must have been almost a year before he so much as mentioned the Paradigm - and that was during a moment when he'd literally forgotten they were dead. (Magic is bullshit, by the way.) The closest he's ever come to spilling his guts was with Max, but... Max was only a kid, even younger than Peter, and he had his own trauma to deal with. So in the end, Qubit had just gathered up the pieces and ... shoved them into the general shape they'd occupied before, and kept going. And since nobody there knew him before, nobody could tell the difference.
Even now - he can't rightly call this "opening up." It's more like... a crack being pried open that was already there. Just because he's learned to live with the cracks doesn't mean they're gone. And while initially it hurt as if it had happened yesterday, now he just feels... numb. Hollow. There's no sense of relief or catharsis, no great weight lifted off his chest. Just... a whole lot of nothing. He can't even summon the energy to go on weeping.
... Well. Irrelevant. Did it help Peter? That's all that matters right now. Qubit meets his eyes again, visibly drained, but still determined. ]
We can work on that. Learning to pace yourself is a good place to start.
[ He leans across the gap and firmly clasps Peter's shoulder. ]
You're never a burden, Peter. Never. You need anything at all, for any reason, even if it's just to talk - my line is always open, day or night. All right? [ He squeezes. ] You don't have to go it alone.
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Fifteen months and change, and he's never talked about this. Not once. Hell, it must have been almost a year before he so much as mentioned the Paradigm - and that was during a moment when he'd literally forgotten they were dead. (Magic is bullshit, by the way.) The closest he's ever come to spilling his guts was with Max, but... Max was only a kid, even younger than Peter, and he had his own trauma to deal with. So in the end, Qubit had just gathered up the pieces and ... shoved them into the general shape they'd occupied before, and kept going. And since nobody there knew him before, nobody could tell the difference.
Even now - he can't rightly call this "opening up." It's more like... a crack being pried open that was already there. Just because he's learned to live with the cracks doesn't mean they're gone. And while initially it hurt as if it had happened yesterday, now he just feels... numb. Hollow. There's no sense of relief or catharsis, no great weight lifted off his chest. Just... a whole lot of nothing. He can't even summon the energy to go on weeping.
... Well. Irrelevant. Did it help Peter? That's all that matters right now. Qubit meets his eyes again, visibly drained, but still determined. ]
We can work on that. Learning to pace yourself is a good place to start.
[ He leans across the gap and firmly clasps Peter's shoulder. ]
You're never a burden, Peter. Never. You need anything at all, for any reason, even if it's just to talk - my line is always open, day or night. All right? [ He squeezes. ] You don't have to go it alone.