A/N: And we're back to regular chapters! Thank God, right?

Among the most prominent of the reasons Gladion despised Hau was that he had the potential to really, really like him.

It wasn't that Gladion was a jerk or didn't realize that friends benefitted other people. Besides thinking they'd get in the way of his personal goals, he also happened to have a fear of being abandoned again. The only friends he'd ever had disappeared from his life, and he couldn't remember the entire scenario, but he remembered just enough so that he could feel the pain of it and know he never wanted to feel that way again.

If he gained friends at this age and they left him, it would probably hurt even more.

What if he got attached to someone who started treating him like Lusamine did?

What then?

Would he be able to escape, or would he ultimately get trapped in the same cycle all over again?

Gladion didn't know, and he definitely didn't want to find out. He wanted answers, but he was also scared sick of them.

What was it about Hau?

Hau was, in the first place, an attractive person. Not physically (Gladion assumed; he spent most of his time hating the kid and trying to keep it that way rather than looking at him), but with his permanent smile that seemed to shine as bright as the sun itself and his jumpy nature...

No. Gladion was usually driven away from people like that.

No, he knew what it was.

He'd grown up in an environment where it wasn't okay to feel things except for, perhaps, satisfaction—because God knew he wasn't going to feel happiness in that place. If he was upset or displeased, he was punished. That was how it worked. It didn't matter if Lusamine was the one at fault, which she almost always was. It didn't matter if he cut himself and cried and screamed, just to try and make her notice.

No matter what he did, it was never enough.

It didn't matter what he did to make his sorry excuse for a mother happy, or the toll it would take on him. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

To Lusamine, it was never enough.

Gladion didn't know if Hau was just pretending—he probably was—but he was the opposite of Lusamine. If Gladion was feeling something, even if he was feeling it a little too strongly and feared he would lose control, Hau would encourage him to talk about what was going on and assure him that what he was feeling was fine. When the blonde was feeling bad, the green-haired boy would comfort him, not slap him across the face or scream at him or throw him against the wall like Lusamine had.

But Lusamine had acted kind and loving towards the people who didn't really know her. She had a mask going, just like both Gladion and his sister had when living with her. People thought she was the most caring, elegant woman they'd ever met, and they couldn't have been farther from the truth.

Even when Lillie was working hard to heal Lusamine, Gladion couldn't truly forgive her for what she'd done, and he thought it was another miracle that Lillie could.

Actually, he didn't know if his little sister actually forgave their mother or if she was simply overcoming her feelings because Lusamine was, in fact, their mother.

Gladion knew he could never forget what Lusamine had done, and he could never overcome it to go and take care of it. He allowed Lillie to talk to him or send pictures and messages to him to show their mother's progress, but she would never be able to coax him into seeing her again.

Early on, they'd made the development that Nihilego hadn't "possessed" their mother, and that it just released neurotoxins into her brain that reduced her inhibitions. And that wiped away any ounce of potential for forgiveness that Gladion had left in him.

Maybe Lusamine would have been able to control her animalistic urges had it not been for the neurotoxins, but what kind of person, what kind of mother, had those urges in the first place?

This was another thing Gladion didn't want to know the answer to.

He had to spite Hau, because what if Hau was another Lusamine? What if Hau had another side that he and Lillie didn't know about, and that Selene and Elio were hiding from them? He'd brought this up to Lillie and, laughing childishly, she'd assured him they'd be able to tell if somebody like Lusamine ever tried to get close to them again. Which he hoped was true, but he could never be sure.

What if Hau was fooling him just like his mother had fooled all those other people?

He couldn't risk it. He didn't have to absolutely hate Selene and Elio, because he understood them for the most part, and he could keep a steady distance from them.

Hau was something else. Hau made him want to be closer, and that couldn't be good. He was scary because he was too simple, and Gladion feared if he wasn't.

Gladion didn't need somebody who scared him to death in his life.

He didn't need another Lusamine.

And so, he didn't need Hau.