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In the beginning a touchstarved and emotionally scarred Karl's only means of showing affection was his "fixing" things and, of course, physical violence.
Rose gets hurt by a kid on the playground and Ethan has to physically restrain him from punching the kids jackass dad out. A car nearly hits Ethan and Karl does punch the drivers lights out, (both literally and figuratively) which he can only do after having picked up the car, opened the door, and tipped the driver out onto the road. They have to relocate quickly after this incident.
But when Rose gets a cold and there's no one to fight, he builds her a music box, a light up mobile, a working train set, and a voice box that he puts inside her favorite stuffed monkey after having secretly recorded Ethan reading her a bedtime story and singing a lullaby.
Ethan's language is far more straightforward, he cooks and buys things that he thinks his loved ones will like, and he has a hard time not being physically affectionate. Especially after having almost lost Rose and having a new lover now that he's broken it off with his emotionally distant ex.
Problem is that Karl just can't seem to get used to it. He's accustomed to physical "affection" being used either as a manipulation or to demonstrate control. And for a long time whenever Ethan would try to hug or lean on him there would be a moment when Karl would either flinch or hesitate. Ethan tries not to take it personally and be patient, but it's hard when you're the one they're pulling away from.
until eventually, he can't keep his thought to himself anymore.
"Seriously? So what? You can't stand to let me touch you unless we're fucking?!"
"Ethan, I didn't say that"
"You never say anything! you never tell me how you feel, and whenever I try to show how I feel you practically jump out of the way!"
"Look, it's not that I don't enjoy physical affection from you it's just that. . .it's just when you catch me off guard I-"
"You're never 'off-guard' you're always tense or on edge about something!"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
Karl stops himself before he gets any further.
Ethan's clearly angry, though there are tears in his eyes. Karl takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself before continuing.
"It-it's easy for me to let my guard down around you and the kid. I think that's why it scares me so much. I don't want to have my walls up between us, but the idea of something happening to either one of you scares me more than anything else has in my entire fucked up life so-"
Ethan tackle hugs Karl, causing him to stumble a bit to catch him.
"Jesus Christ Ethan! you're gonna give me a heart attack like that."
"I don't care. You can fucking deal with it."
Ethan squeezes him tighter and buries his face in Karl's shirt.
Karl wraps his arms securely around Ethan's waist and nuzzles the top of his head.
"Yeah, I think I can."