“ We both have a lot in common, you and I. We've both made some of the worst mistakes in our lives, and now we're paying for them in different ways. You, with this literal prison, and ours ... well. I never expected night terrors and relapsed trauma responses to feel so embarrassing. I wonder if we'll ever be able to see one another if you're ever released. Perhaps we could bond over what fools we were. ” Ever the talkative one, it seems Shielbert is speaking for both of them.
{ Say what ya really mean }
For a moment, there’s silence.
Rose can’t do anything but stare at the boy, and for a moment he feels the whisper of something pitch black and blood curdling clawing up his throat.
Anger. Rage, even. A dark, endless void filled to the brim with tar, boiling hot.
He can’t believe that anyone would think to compare their situations. Did this BOY think that this stay in this Literal Prison was devoid of nightmares? That he hadn’t startled awake in the middle of the night, gasping as if he’d been denied oxygen, swearing he could still feel some brute’s hands around his neck, unsure of what day – what YEAR – it was?
Bond over what FOOLS they were? Did he somehow think their actions were SIMILAR? He and his brother prancing off to sew discord throughout the entire region, putting people’s lives at risk with no plan, no careful calculations, no sleepless nights agonizing over every point of data and worrying sick over what might go wrong – simply to save FACE?
What happened to him wasn’t a mistake, it was a sacrifice. Rose had lost everything. EVERYTHING. Everything important had been stripped from him – he barely felt human anymore. No loving family, no friends waiting for him on the outside, no bountiful riches, no company, no prestige – no FUTURE.
It made his blood boil. How DARE this boy think the two of them were one and the same? That their situations were ANYTHING alike?! Rose almost says it, too–
But. He doesn’t. He can’t.
No one deserved to be treated the way he had been. Not a soul. Especially not someone so young and with as much promise as Diarmuid’s boys, as frustrating as he found the news of their various misdeeds. And more than that, Shieldbert had extended something towards Rose that people rarely did anymore.
In his own frustratingly egocentric way, the boy was indeed trying to offer an olive branch of understanding, and it’s more than he could ever expect from anyone else.
Rose gave a small sigh, letting the anger flow out of him like a peaceful wave. Then, he smiled up at the blond – exhausted but genuine.
“I’d… I’d like that. Thank you, Shielbert.”
Assuming, of course, he made it that long.