⇅; closed rp
@mto-main:
Seeing little cracks form in the porcelain mask Percival had put up in defense Bruce moved up from his chair next to Percival’s bed to take a seat on the edge. As the cracks spread and Percival’s shoulders started shaking Bruce moved his hand to Percival’s nape to pull him off the bed and into a single handed embrace. “C’mere. You’re safe.” The sobbed apologies pulled at his heartstrings but Bruce knew better than to try and take the weight off the world off of Percival’s shoulders. He’d want to do it himself. Bruce knew his aurors; He had spent his entire career working with different kinds of people and Percival, from day one, had looked the type who’d claim himself strong to the point of breaking. “What would you be sorry for?” Hushing his question Bruce pulled Percival to his shoulder to hide him away from the world and gave him a safe space to break down. “You’ve fought the world’s biggest threat and you lived.” Squeezing Percival a little tighter Bruce brought his other hand up to steadily hold it against Percival’s nape. “You can breathe now, let it out.”
Without meaning to he flinched slightly as he felt his mattress shift under the weight of another person despite the fact that it could only be Bruce and no one else. Another chocked sob left him as the other wizard pulled him up and he tensed slightly, almost as if he was waiting for the touch to hurt, only slowly relaxing when nothing happened.
Percival dropped his hands from his eyes and hid his face instead in Bruce’s shoulder, tears streaming down his face and dampening the other’s clothes. He hesitated for a moment but slowly raised his hands to wrap them around Bruce, his grip hesitant at first but then getting stronger as he listened to the words spoken to him. “I… I’m still a failure… I couldn’t even escape after he had captured me and now…” Now he had a leg that he could tell would never be the same again and an eye he would never be able to see out of. Squeezing his good eye shut he let his walls crumble bit by bit, not trying any longer to hide his tears or brokenness. In Bruce’s arms he felt like a kid again - or like the young man he had been when he had first mean Bruce Peterson - but maybe it was alright to feel like this, even if only for this one moment…
