I don't think that they'd understand
Broken. That's all he was. He was nothing but a broken man. And that's all the world saw when they looked at him. They saw the sad, pathetic drunk; the man who couldn't hold himself together without the help of the alcohol running through his veins. Without the clutch of a bottle in his hand, without his house filled with empty cans and bottles, his sins on display to anyone who would come by and visit him in his hours of need.
Ha. Not that anyone ever came in. Not that he was worthy of any attention by the public. He was broken. He was ruined. He was nothing to them. Something to be avoided at all costs; someone who had thrown every bit of his life away, lost it all at the bottom of a bottle.
But they didn't understand. They never saw the truth. They never saw the aching heart he carried with him. The bruised and shattered pieces of a soul that had been torn apart, with no one there to try and guide them back together. They never realized just how broken he truly was--how truly shattered he had been--to bring his life to this.
They simply watched. And they judged. And James let them.
Until he met her.
I just want you to know who I am
Her touch soothed him, a feeling he hadn't experienced in ages. Her smile brought out his own, an interesting expression that he couldn't recall the last time was on his face. Her laugh made his own sound joyously in the streets, in his home, and his heart felt lightened.
The taste of her lips brought a passion back into his life, brought feeling back into his heart and soul. It touched those pieces that hadn't been encountered in so long. Touched his person to the very core. The shattered and broken part of him, the pieces that had lain forgotten and abandoned, she brought back to life with her understanding.
Because she understood. She could see him. Know him. Even if the world couldn't, even if they couldn't, even if they judged--she knew what was right in front of her. She could see him. For what he was.
The shouting of his soul to be known, to be heard, to be loved, was finally heard.
By her.