Chapter 258: A love built by blood
Kellen shifted in his seat, watching the two from behind the desk. Casper shifted on the couch, the crunching and rustling from all of the snacks in his arms moving with him. Casper’s expression was tight, worried, and he was having a hard time meeting Rhys’ gaze.
Rhys stood over the smaller man and if anyone walked in right now, they would think that he was intimidating him. That this was some kind of a shake down.
"I...we never talked about anything like that." Casper muttered eventually and Rhys sighed.
"I shouldn’t be surprised. He rarely spoke to me about it either." He responded and Casper’s shoulders shook. "But, we need to speak about it." Rhys ran his hands over his face before he began to pace the small space. "Gunther and I...no, the apartment complex was fucked up. There were good people there, but most people...well, let’s say I wasn’t upset when a gate opened and destroyed the whole area." The Captain’s smile was hard, bitter. Kellen had to fight himself from getting up and hugging him.
He didn’t want to distract him, not when it was clear that this was hard to speak about. Casper was watching the Captain pace the floor, his eyes wide.
"I, well, I knew that much." Casper muttered quietly and Rhys chuckled.
"Well, you and I have discussed at least this much. You knew I didn’t like my parents, and I’m sure anyone could make reasonable assumptions based on my response." Kellen felt Rhys look at him, but he didn’t keep his eyes on him for long before he turned away. "Gunther’s parents weren’t any better than mine. No, I actually believe that they were worse." Rhys said and Casper swallowed.
"Worse? Worse how?" Rhys made a face full of pain and regret. Kellen’s heart squeezed.
"Gunther he...fuck. He didn’t grow up the way I did." Rhys started. He ran his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated. He either didn’t want to speak of this, or was having a hard time putting his thoughts into words. Kellen had a feeling it was a bit of both.
"What do you mean?" Casper asked. Rhys honestly looked like he was going to cry. Kellen hated that he looked like he was in so much pain.
"Gunther’s family was abusive." He stated. Casper swallowed, but nodded. "So was mine. Those two things are clear. I managed to handle my situation...okay. I won’t say that I didn’t have a hard time, but Gunther and I had each other. I thought we did, but Gunther learned how to deal with the trauma of his family home dynamic in a different way." Rhys laughed, covering his face. It was tearing Kellen’s heart apart.