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You clung tightly onto your thighs as you tried not to think about what happened earlier today. You had been assigned kitchen duties and when you were carrying some plates, your foot got caught on the leg of a table causing you to trip. The plates flew from your hands and shattered loudly onto the floor, the sound echoing out into the empty dining hall. The head chef whipped around from the noise, his face turning red with anger as he started to yell loudly at you for your clumsiness.
Your eyes now shut tightly as you recalled all the terrible things he said to you, your grip on your thighs tightening and your nails began digging into your skin a bit through your uniform. You couldn’t help but be reminded of your trauma from when you were young. Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes as the memories came flooding back. You couldn’t hold it in any longer as tears started pouring out. You held your face in your hands as you sobbed, rocking back and forth in an attempt to regulate your emotions.
You were so trapped in your own head that you hadn’t heard the door open. Suddenly you felt a hand on your face causing you to jolt back. You moved your hands away from your face to see who had touched you. It was your darling Copia. You hid your face in your hands once again as shame washed over you. The last thing you wanted was for him to see you like this. “Amore what’s wrong?” He spoke softly, his face full of worry from what you could see between your fingers.
You tried your best to hold back your tears. “I-I’m sorry Copia, I’m f-fine! don’t worry about m-me.” you managed to choke out between sobs. “You’re clearly not fine cara. Please talk to me.” Your crying had started to slow at this point but you continued to rock. You still felt so embarrassed that he found you crying. Your mother had often made fun of you for crying, especially about things that seemed meaningless to her but meant a lot to you.
You wiped away falling tears with your sleeve, “I’m sorry for crying..” you mumbled weakly. Copia removed one of his gloves and gently caressed your face with his thumb. “Please do not apologize, there is nothing wrong with crying my dear.” He got onto the bed next to you and rubbed slow soothing circles into your back. Your tears continued to slow from his comforting touch.
You rubbed your hands together nervously as Copia took one of your hands into his.
“Are you feeling better my angel?” his voice held the same softness as before.
“Yeah, I’m feeling a bit better now..” you gave him a reassuring smile.
“Would you like to talk about what happened now? It’s fine if you’d rather not.”
“No, no it’s alright. I had kitchen duties today and I dropped a few plates so I got yelled at…”
“I’m so sorry that happened! Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah I wasn’t physically hurt, the chef just said a lot of mean things and it caused me to go into a breakdown.”
“I understand completely, it can be emotionally damaging when someone yells at you. I’ll make sure to talk to the chef tomorrow.”
“Thank you Copia, it means a lot.” You smiled at him again, feeling like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.