(Dove rambles a lot about Thad and caretaking and being taken care of.)
The ask I'm working on inspired me to put this down into words, but lately I've been thinking a lot about Thad and care-taking. Both him as a caretaker and him being taken care of.
I don't think he's naturally attuned to either honestly.
With regard to being taken care of Thad very much can't stand it. Being taken care of by others makes his skin crawl. To him it's something better suited to others. Others deserve to be taken care of more than himself. He's just not comfortable being taken care of by others, he's not used to it, that selfless sort of display being turned towards himself.
In part, it has a lot to do with his upbringing. Thad was raised to be this competent, independent individual and given his background (and his personality as a youth) was very unlikely to have been doted upon by others. But it also has to do with his history as a clone and a villain, and how people perceive him typically in negative terms that also compounds that idea he doesn't deserve it.
Now regarding his ability to take care of others. I think Thad is very competent in the skills of taking care of others. He can make sure you're well fed, hydrated, he can patch you up, and stitch you up expertly, but he doesn't consciously think of himself as a caretaker or that he has the emotional capacity for it. But only when he's really thinking about the fact that he is taking care of someone else. Once again how he is perceived by others, who people think he is as a person does play into his own idea of himself and what he is capable of.
A part of me wants to say he might not enjoy taking care of others but I don't know, honestly. I do think there's a point to him where he feels in his body that he doesn't have enough to give anybody. Which mixes with those feelings of distrust he natural feels towards others/that distance he naturally puts up along with that natural feeling he has of not deserving things or being associated with “good”.
It also could just be a psychological kind of block where he's like 'I'm not a caretaker because of WHO I AM' aka a villain. But at the same time you see how he interacts with people he loves and cares about (Deb/Melvin/Olive/etc.) he doesn't view the things he does with them as caretaking.
He is like a stray cat bringing treats to people he likes. It's not caretaking in his brain. I think that also affects his perspective of himself. Thad associates with mischief when doing good/leaving those 'treats' for others or 'bothering'/'annoying' people for things he wants (usually physical affection of some sort) because he thinks of himself as a burden.
These are implicit thoughts not like at the forefront of his mind but subconscious. Subconsciously he thinks there's something inherent in him that is lesser or undeserving. And that's all because of his upbringing and history of chasing after Bart and constantly being his shadow, which has helped form those subconscious feelings inside of him.
Additionally I think when he's thinking about how he is taking care of someone there's a general nervousness in him that is concerned with doing a good job. He consciously doesn't think of himself as a naturally attuned caretaker but he does take care of people that he cares about instinctively. If that makes sense.
There's like a conscious/unconscious divide in him. He's not incapable but if he's consciously thinking about it he does not think of himself as capable.