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Imagine, your world is crashing down around you. Your sister, if you don’t have one let’s say you do, had previously agreed to meet you and the chocobros at Ceronix Station and chat. When just a few feet from her while you are walking towards her with the chocobros just behind you, she calls out, “Why did you even bother showing up, you know we aren’t family anymore and I hate you.”
She drawls this with such finality and cold heartedness, directly in front of her five year old daughter no less, you almost falter, but after dealing with this kind of hatred all your life you hide the shock and then absolute agony that rips through your chest, and promptly turn on your heel, hissing out a “Fine, goodbye, whatever I don’t care anymore.” and walk back to the Regalia with a shocked group of men trailing behind you.
But the truth is, you do care. More than the Gods, more then anyone can understand, and right now, in this very moment, you are *dying*.
Dying because the one person you would have sacrificed your life for so they could live doesn’t even care about you, but you can’t show the agony ripping through your chest like a Tsunami crashing over a city, again and again. All because you were taught to show weakness in front of others is dishonorable.
But once you're in the Regalia and have driven far enough away you quietly cry as you tell them that was your sister and niece, that that had been your last hope to reconcile with your baby sister and get to know your niece, and no one says a thing, because they don’t know what to say, but once you reach Hammerhead, and you're in the garage with Cid and Cindy and the others, you just break down, shrieking as finally, *finally*, you release all the pent up pain.
Fifteen years of hidden pain comes shrieking out, it gets so bad you can’t breath and you have a full-blown panic attack.
Then they’re there. Just light touches here and there, a side hug from Cindy, and then your closest friend, Gladdy, sits beside you and pulls you into his lap and just holds you there.
“Shh, we’re here, I’m here. We won’t ever let you go. Nothing can change how important you are to us, and to me especially sweetheart. I won’t release you ever.”
He whispers this over and over, rubbing your back oh so softly, and holding you as close as he dares, not caring that your tears and snot soak his shirt, because you’re hurting and he knows you need someone to be there for you finally because in this moment he sees how strong you’ve had to be emotionally for so long and haven’t had anyone to rely on, until now that is, because he was going to be your rock, your center.
Seeing you like this crushed him, and he decided you wouldn’t want for anything if he could help it.
Being an older brother himself, Gladdy knee how important family was, and he knew how important family was to you. It meant more to you then anything, and having your own sister tell you she hated you, that she didn’t think of you as family, it had to be soul crushing, and that made him burn with anger at your sister.
It was days before you stopped shedding tears, months after that to finally respond to anything with more than just a grunt or nod of the head, a full two years before you smiled again. But even then, you weren’t the same bubbly person you were before that event. Except to Gladdy, and even then that was in private.
You learned the hard way not to trust anyone that fully again, and you only fully trusted Gladdy then, and only him. Your rock, your center, was finally new and healthy. No longer dark and crippling and holding you back.
For that you were eternally grateful to Gladdy, and aimed to show him day in and day out how much that meant to you.