Work Text:
Charles went to a therapist once in his adult life, by choice. That didn’t last long. But he’d gone just to check up on things, for the sake of thoroughness. It was possible that there was something totally unaddressed but totally present, something stress-related, that could cause trouble later.
He’d been instructed to talk about himself. That was to be expected. Delving into his past was tedious and the therapist had made no specifications as to what “about yourself” meant, so Charles spoke about his life as it was. He found himself talking mostly about the boys, and his relationships with them.
Given the chance to speak candidly about anything, that was what had poured out of him. The frankness of his own words surprised him. He cared about them, and what was more, he truly knew everything about them.
"Well, you’ve told me all about your clients, but what about yourself?"
Come to think of it, he didn’t really know much about that at all.