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“This is ridiculous” addy said, standing over Dallon who currently looked closer to a shivering ball of clothes then a human. He had gotten pretty good at that, making himself as small as possible. Addy found it sort of cute, as if her mere presence reduced the poor thing to a prey animal, unable to think past the blaring instinct to hidehidehide.
“Nothing to say, hmm? Do you plan to stay here till the party ends? You're not as hidden as you think, A. Somebody’s gonna stumble in here, and then everyone will see what a little fuck up you are. What a pathetic waste of a life.” She punctuated the sentence by kicking Dallon in the side. He sort of whined, pushing closer to the wall. She crouched down so they were at eye level and she forced his head up to look at her “your acting like a child. You couldn’t bare five fucking minutes in public without him, huh? Throwing a fucking tantrum because your boyfriend isn’t here?”
“addy- addy please” he stuttered, looking at her with desperate eyes “I can’t do it. too- too much. Too much too much-” he rambled
She sighed “I suppose you're not much good like this anyway..if I take you home, subject A, your going to be punished severely. Do you understand?”
He nodded, tears streaming down his cheeks “I wanna go home, please, please.”
“Fine.” Addy said, standing up “I’ll go get the other handler, now sit still and stop crying”
—
Dallon bounced his leg, waiting for addy to start talking. This was all part of it, he was aware of that. All part of the punishment. She liked making him wait.
Finally, finally “now, what did you learn from that?”
The question caught him off guard, she never asked that before. He racked his brain for an answer, glancing at her and then away again quickly.
She laughed a little bit, clicking her pen “it’s cute watching that little brain of yours try to work out what I’m getting at. Here, let’s start with something easier: do you think most people like parties, A?”
“I..I guess so?”
“Why”
“Umm” Dallon chewed on his lip “people like..music and dancing and..people. People like to be with people I think”
“So why don’t you like them, hm?”
“..they’re loud, And people will touch me and- and everyone always stares at me..and it always smells like perfume and I just..”
“They make you panic” addy supplied “they scare you”
He nodded, looking vaguely ashamed of that fact
“If you were any other person don’t you think you’d be grateful we let you attend those parties?”
“I..yes? I think?”
“Let me tell you a secret, A” she took a step closer to him “the outside world is full of people, loud people who will touch you without asking and stare at you and whisper and smell too strongly of terrible perfume, that is simply how the world works”
Dallon looked down, desperate to avoid addy’s eyes
“And..oh, look at yourself, love. You spent maybe 20 minutes out there before you were begging me to take you home” she cupped his face “you were out there, A, out in the real world, and still this is all you were capable of wanting. To be electrocuted until your brain whites out and then put in your sterile little box to wait for us to need you again. What exactly does that say about you?”
Tears were forming steadily in dallon’s eyes, his teeth had sunk far enough into his lip that he could taste blood “it was- it was too much- I couldn’t-“
“I know, honey, I know. You couldn’t. Now tell me why”
“Because..I’m..not like them”
She chuckled, patting his head in some caricature of affection and stepping back over to the machinery “you're not a human at all, A. You belong to us, body and mind, but you know all that don’t you?”
A switch was flipped.
Dallon screamed.
—
Dallon watched the door of their cell open, he watched a white shadow shove Ryan in, he watched Ryan say something to him that he couldn’t quite make out over the buzzing in his skull.
He sort of blinked and then Ryan was in front of him, wrapping Dallon in a rib crushing hug. It was nice and..thinking was hard over the buzzing. He was so tired. Ryan was warm.
“I missed you. Fuck- are you ok? I missed you”
“I went to a party” Dallon mumbled into Ryan’s neck “addy took me home”
“What?”
“I wanted you. I wanted to go home”
Ryan pressed a couple kisses to Dallon’s hair line, pulling him closer until they were just a tangle of limbs
Dallon could feel himself dozing off, the buzzing pounded in his head. “I missed you” he mumbled and then he was out