Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate; have a special 2.2k chapter~

Chapter Warnings: Implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced verbal abuse, swearing

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Lotus took a shaky breath, clenching his hands together and hunching over as he exhaled. Rurik reached over to put his hand on their back, earning a flinch. Keeping the hand still, he let the smaller skeleton relax before pulling them closer to him and wrapping his arm around their shoulder. He had no idea what words could possibly help the situation, so he kept silent and rubbed up and down their arm while waiting for them to either keep going or end the conversation.

Thought he would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little curious.

The hug seemed to calm Lotus as he picked up where he left off, "It... it hurt so much... I begged Glitch to stop him, but he only turned and headed for the kitchen; h-he made dinner while I was being beaten in the other room. He sent me to bed without food afterward... he said now I knew how it felt and he was done coddling me. From that point on, he barely ever spoke to me outside of telling me what to do or yelling at me, but I got better at avoiding the punishments... at least until I turned ten. Death started training me to become a reaper; some days he actually did, but if he was in a bad mood or I messed up..." The smaller skeleton clenched his jaw, seemingly deciding against going into detail, "Glitch turned a blind eye to it all; he said Death only hurt me because I was a failure. If I didn't like it, I needed to stop screwing up... so I tried."

"Shit...," Rurik breathed, pulling Lotus onto his lap; his own dad had a similar style of the 'tough love' teaching method, but they usually only smacked him around during combat training and left him to his own devices the rest of the time, for better or worse. If the house ever needed cleaning or maintenance, his dad only needed to use their paintbrush to make the problem go away in an instant.

He was kind of regretting his curiosity now.

His partner laid their skull against his chest, speaking almost in a whisper, "I tried for six years before I ran away, and I hated them for what they put me through. I told myself I would be better than them... and I would never do what they did..." A soft chuckle came from Lotus, but it sounded more like a sob, "... but I was lying to myself." The monster buried their skull in his shirt, their voice straining as they cried, "I yelled at you the same way Glitch used to yell at me. I became exactly what I hated... I became an abusive asshole, the same as them!"

Rurik was seething as he held Lotus tightly, feeling their body quake against him as they softly repeated the damning phrase into his chest. A large part of him wanted to track the bastards down and make them pay for what they did, but the rational corner of his mind reminded him that it might only make things worse for his partner. No, right now he needed to get himself under control and figure out how to help the distraught skeleton in his arms; something more effective than sitting like an enraged lump.

Mentally reciting his counting exercises and breathing in time with them, he slowly felt the anger ebb away. Peering around the room with a calmer state of mind, his gaze eventually fell upon a book lying on the table; one of their self-help books. That had to be it; surely, he had to have picked up on some information that would help. Desperately wracking his skull to recall the chapters upon chapters of techniques and advice, it felt like an eternity before he recalled a section that felt relevant. Taking a breath, he asked, "Did either of them ever say sorry?" His companion stiffened at the question, shaking their skull after a moment without looking up. "Did they ever feel bad or act like they regretted what they did?" he posited.

There was another negatory gesture, followed by a restrained response, "No, they always thought they were right..."

"Then you're not the same," Rurik declared triumphantly, finally getting Lotus to look up at him with confusion written on their blotchy face. Cupping their cheek, he recalled the proper words, "What you did out there was a learned behavior; but your secondary action, how you reacted to the behavior, defines who you are as an individual. You recognized what you did was bad and you expressed remorse for it; I bet it's more than your parents ever did, and that makes you better than them."

"That's...," Lotus mumbled, their eye sockets widening as the words sunk in; before Rurik could think to capitalize on his partner's lifted spirits, they questioned him, "Which book did you get that one from?"

Rurik blinked in surprise, but fought to keep his expression neutral, "... Why do you think that?"

"Your wording's too technical," Lotus sniffed, wiping at his face with his sleeve before proceeding, "You don't talk like that normally, so you had to be parroting it from somewhere else."

"Mmmfff...," Deciding there was no point in denying it, he sighed, "okay, you got me, but did it at least help?"

Thinking for a couple of seconds, a hint of a smile peeked through, "... Yeah, I think it did. You made a good point about not having the same attitude as them... but I still hate the way I reacted. I don't want to be like that; I want to change that behavior."

"How do you do that?" Rurik's skull tilted to the side.

Lotus went quiet once more, taking on a thoughtful expression that slowly grew more disgruntled. He eventually huffed and grumbled, "I remember hearing about something called cognitive behavioral therapy, but I have no idea how it would work."

"Sounds complicated...," Rurik rumbled, reclining back a bit to mull things over... how to make someone not react badly to something..., "Oh!"

Lotus jumped, then shot a glare at him, "What the hell?"

"I remember I had a co-worker who was afraid of snakes a couple months back," Rurik explained quickly, "he saw someone who brought snakes around to get him used to them; called it... descent-... decentivize...?"

"Are you talking about desensitization?" Lotus offered.

Rurik snapped his finger, grinning as he confirmed, "That's the bitch!"

"Alright, but how would that even work?" the smaller monster folded his arms with a skeptical look, "I'm not afraid of you and I'm really not keen on arranging any type of meeting with either of them."

Rurik shook his skull at the idea, "Nah, I'm thinking a better way to stick it to your parents is doing something you were never allowed to do... like jumping in a pile of leaves. You do shit like that enough times and sooner or later it'll stop bothering you."

Lotus opened their mouth to respond, then shut it as their eye light shifted in thought. He muttered, "Would it really be that simple?"

"One way to find out," Rurik flashed a grin, standing up with Lotus still in his arms, grabbing their gloves, and heading for the door.

"W-Wait, hold on!" Lotus shouted, clutching him to keep steady, "I need a minute!"

Sighing and placing the smaller back on the ground, Rurik handed them their gloves and tried to reassure them, "It'll be okay. I'll even jump with you if you want; it was really fun."

Lotus hemmed and hawed, but ultimately gave in and followed him outside. Rurik picked up the rake and quickly reformed the small pile of leaves as Lotus slowly worked the gloves back onto their hands, "So... how are we doing this?"

"Hmm... on three sounds good to me," Rurik decided, tossing aside the rake and pulling Lotus toward the foliage. Still seeing some hesitation in their expression, he grabbed their gloved hand and said, "Nothing bad's gonna happen. No one's gonna yell at you or hit you; if anyone tries, I'll kick their ass so hard they'll be puking up shit for the next month." Taking the resulting snort as the go-ahead, he began counting, "One..."

The hand gripping his tightened.

"Two..."

Lotus took a deep breath.

"Three!"

Rurik lept into the pile, pulling the smaller skeleton with him. Leaves briefly enveloped his vision as they shot up into the air and scattered around the pair. Glancing at his partner, their eye sockets were screwed shut and they were hunched as if bracing for a blow; instead, he stated, "Nothing bad happened."

Lotus's sockets popped open, looking toward him before taking in the sight of the strewn leaves around them. "... Nothing bad happened...," Lotus tentatively repeated.

Slowly but surely, the smaller skeleton's posture relaxed and Rurik asked, "So, how does it feel?"

"Like I just ran a marathon," Lotus sighed, picking off a leaf stuck to his jacket.

A sly grin formed as Rurik gathered a large clump of leaves, raining them down over Lotus's skull as he laughed, "Well, you can't have a marathon without some confetti at the end."

Lotus leaned away from the onslaught, grabbing a handful of leaves and throwing them at Rurik while shouting, "I'll give you confetti!"

The taller laughed more as the leaves dissipated harmlessly in front of him before reaching behind himself and grabbing a handful of his own, "You'll have to do better than tha-ack!" only to get a mouthful of leaves.

"Hah, gotcha!" Lotus cheered, shielding himself with his arms moments later when Rurik haphazardly returned fire moments later. They weren't sure how long they spent throwing leaves at one another, but the fun abruptly ended when Lotus paused mid-throw, ducking into the remnants of the pile.

Rurik lowered his arm as his eye light traced Lotus's line of sight, "Wha...!" A guy in a black hoodie and dark jeans was standing across the street staring at them. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he roared, "Keep moving dipshit unless you want a rake where the sun don't shine!"

The bystander didn't seem deterred until Rurik stood from the pile and reached for the rake, smirking as the human turned tail and took off down the street. Hearing a rustling noise behind him, he turned to find Lotus standing and dusting leaves off of their clothing, "We should get this mess cleaned up and bagged properly now."

Rurik slumped with an exasperated huffed and whined, "But we were having fuuun... now I just want to chase the guy down..."

"All good things must come to an end," Lotus gently took the rake from Rurik's hand, possibly to prevent him from following through on the earlier threat, "It's getting late anyway and I'm not in the mood to work in the dark. Go ahead and get the bags ready and I'll get this pile back under control."

Not wanting to work in the dark either, he retrieved the box of plastic bags and pulled out the first one. Returning with the bag, he reached into the pile and began shoving handfuls of leaves into the opening; once it had a sizable amount in the bottom, he situated the bag with the mouth open so he could use both hands to cram the leaves in faster.

"Rurik," Rurik looked up to find Lotus standing with an expectant stare; the rake in one hand and the other situated on their hip, "It's almost a month after Halloween. Why is there a pumpkin design on the bag?"

"It looked fun," Rurik said simply; it was true, after all.

"Why does that answer not surprise me," Lotus sighed, returning to his work.

Rurik took it as a sign to resume his own work, chuckling, "Because you know me so well?"

"Maybe," the smaller mumbled. The pair fell into quiet concentration for a few minutes until Lotus spoke up, "Hey Rurik? I'm sorry for the whole thing earlier."

"Can't say I really blame you," The taller shrugged, knowing a lot of his old bad habits were a result of shitty past experiences, "Tell you what; you work on relaxing, I'll work on not being a jackass about chores."

"Deal," Lotus hummed with a grudging smile, "I have to say that despite everything, the jumping thing at the end was kind of fun."

An idea popped into Rurik's skull and he sidled over, wrapping his arms around Lotus's waist, purring against their jawline, "You know, we can keep the fun going inside after we finish out here~"

"Keep it in your pants, Casanova," Lotus shoved his face away, shrugging their shoulder to rub away the lingering remnants of the touch. Rurik couldn't help but cackle at the expected reaction; poking fun was just too hard to resist. Fully intending on returning to his work, he almost missed his companion muttering, "... But maybe that would be fine..."

Rurik stared as his partner seemed to puzzle over something while dragging the rake across the yellowing grass. Tearing his eye lights away, he smiled to himself and set his mind toward finishing quickly so he could find out what 'that' meant; in the meantime, he could brainstorm more ways to make chores more fun for Lotus.

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Word Count: 2,219