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Vanessa had been working as a therapist for fifteen years. She'd see all sorts of people wander in and wander out in all sorts of states. Therapy wasn't like they showed it in the movies. It wasn't quick and it wasn't like some kind of parental bond or close friendship. In fact, a lot of her job was dealing with stubborn, angry people or closed up nervous wrecks. Weeks of effort had to be put in and it could get very repetitive.
That was why she was always intrigued when she had a new client. It was a new person and therefore a new brain to unravel and a new mystery to solve. In her mind, Vanessa fancied herself a detective of sorts. She'd dig around and find clues and, if she was lucky, she'd hit her breakthrough and find the underlying Big Thing, which was the therapist equivalent of the murderer.
Her newest patient wasn't too unusual from what she'd read so far. It was classic PTSD, ADHD and dyslexia, all of which she dealt with quite regularly. Then again it wasn't the conditions that made people interesting. It was the reactions, the way they manifested and the person hiding underneath years of trauma and diagnoses.
Smoothing her shirt down, Vanessa stepped out into the waiting room with a bright smile, ready for whoever was sitting there.
"Nico Di Angelo?" she asked as brightly as she could after little sleep, three clients and four cups of coffee. A boy in the corner raised his head.
He was dressed in mostly black with a fringe that swept over his face and almost completely hid his eyes. He was hunched over, almost curling in on himself, with his hands fidgeting on his lap and his knees crossed on the seat.
"Hi, I'm Vanessa. You must be Nico," she said, lowering her tone a little. Her first assumptions, although she made sure never to grow too fond of first assumptions, was that this was a anxious young man who likely had terrible parents and low self esteem issues.
He was almost pressing his side against the arm of another boy who looked in his early twenties, same as Nico, but had a very different style sense. He wore an obnoxious red shirt, flannel and cargo shorts. He too was fidgety although he smiled brightly, eyes twinkling and curls looking like they might glow. Vanessa's first assumption was again that this was an anxious young man with terrible parents and low self esteem issues. It was funny how things manifested for different people.
"Yeah," Nico said gruffly. He glanced at the other boy who nudged him encouragingly.
"You alright?" the boy asked. Nico took a deep breath and nodded before standing up and following Vanessa.
-
Over the course of the next few sessions, Vanessa learned some things about her latest client. The first was that he was gay. The second was that he spent most of his childhood either in a bar or at a camp. The third was that this young man needed a break.
"Hey, Vanessa," Nico said as he said goodbye to the blonde boy - Will, his boyfriend as she'd come to know - and followed her to their usual room. She sat down and he followed suit.
"Hello, Nico. How's life?"
Nico shrugged. He lifted one knee to his chest and rested his head on it. It was an improvement from when he first came and he tucked both knees to his chest so he was both psychologically and physically creating an obvious barrier.
"Will and I went to visit my sister and her boyfriend," he said. Vanessa smiled.
"That's nice."
"It was actually."
"Where do they live?"
"Rome."
Vanessa had noticed that a lot of Nico’s friends and family lived in Rome. It shouldn't have been surprising given his Italian background. A lot of these people stayed in the sister camp of the one Nico grew up in and that was suprising given how he apparently didn't know about this camp until he was ten.
A other suprising thing about Nico was his relationship with his camp. It both seemed to be his happy place and his worst nightmare. From what Vanessa had managed to grasp of it, it gave off a distinctly cult like aura from its all powerful patrons to its dangerous missions and its (quite frankly put) child labour. However, Nico so far appeared to have a clear cut off libe between the camp and its patrons and it was one Vanessa struggled to understand.
"Did you visit anywhere?" Vanessa asked. What she really wanted to ask was if he had visited Camp Jupiter. It was a pretentious name for what sounded like a pretentious place. However, cult survivors were often drawn back into their organisations simply because that was what they'd always known and if Nico was falling back into the habit then she wanted to know about it.
"We went to an ice cream shop," Nico answered.
"Was it any good?"
"Yeah. Will shared his raspberry ice cream with me."
"Does Will share things with you a lot?" Vanessa leaned back in her chair. Nico snorted.
"He's the most caring person in the world but he likes everything just so. Sharing isn't his strongest asset."
"Do you share with him?"
Nico paused. "In what way?"
Now that was a little more insightful. Vanessa tried her best not to let her spark of joy show up on her face. They'd had six sessions so far and now it seemed like they'd made just the smallest bit of progression.
"In every way," she replied casually. "Objects, emotions, anything."
"I give him my things a lot and he loves buying me things and making me stuff. It's his love language really. I talk with him a lot just not about everything."
There were a few questions circling in Vanessa's mind but she settled on, "Is he a good listener?"
Nico shifted. "He... Well, he is."
Vanessa forced herself to stay quiet for just a few more beats. Nico let out a small sigh.
"He loves me very much and he tries very hard," he said. Vanessa didn't move a muscle. That wasn't an answer. She was waiting for the infamous and yet.
"He just struggles, I think," Nico continued. "He has this view in his head of how things are and he gets overwhelmed when it isn't like that. And he likes to pretend that everything's fine and he's just never been great at accepting that sometimes there not."
"He's a fixer," Vanessa suggested. Nico’s eyes lit up in recognition.
"Yeah! He's a fixer. He likes to fix things and when he can't it makes him angry."
"Does he get angry around you?"
Nico hesitated. "Sometimes? I don't know."
Vanessa frowned. "When he's angry around you, do you think he's angry at you?"
That was an easier answer. Nico shook his head almost instantly.
"No. He's just... Angry. I guess he likes to know how to do things and he gets frustrated."
"Frustrated is a good word," Vanessa commented. She was treading carefully, still very much in the early stages of gauging what kind of relationship Nico and his boyfriend had. From what she'd learned so far, Nico was fiercely protective and she didn't want a wrong word to set them back to the beginning.
"How does he let out the frustration?"
Nico’s eyes narrowed. "You're not thinking he's hurting me? Because he would never."
Vanessa held up her hands. "I'm not thinking anything."
"Bullshit," Nico retorted. "Your job is to think."
"My thought process," Vanessa tried to explain, "is that I want you and your partner to understand each other better and I want you to be safe."
"You think I'm not safe with him?"
It took all her willpower for Vanessa not to flinch. She'd misstepped.
"I've never been safer than when I'm around him. I don't expect you to understand that."
Nico grabbed his coat and stormed out. Vanessa sighed. She was going to have to try something new.
-
"Nico! I'm glad to see you back." She spoke genuinely. A lot of clients stormed out once and didn't bother coming back. Nico frowned. Okay, time for that new tactic.
"Actually," she carried on, "I was thinking that, if and only if you're comfortable with this, Nico, perhaps Will could join us for the first bit of this session?"
Will blinked in surprise. "Me?"
"I thought maybe it would be helpful to get to know you both so I can understand more of what happened last session."
"Fine," Nico grumbled. "Let's get it over with."
Vanessa chalked that up as a small victory. She'd prepared for this ahead of time and there were two chairs for Nico and Will to sit in.
"What happens now?" Nico asked bluntly. Vanessa shrugged.
"Up to you. I just want to get to know you both better."
"Well I'm Will and I work in medicine," Will introduced himself in a slightly flat way as if this were something he repeated a lot.
"Not too different of paths then, you and I." Vanessa took the opportunity to try and be friendly. Will shook his head.
"I'm not good at talking to people," he said. "I prefer bandages. I was a camp medic when I met Nico."
Nico was sinking into the chair as though it might absorb him.
"How old were you?" Vanessa asked.
"Fifteen," Will replied.
Fifteen year olds being doctors and kids as young as twelve running around with weapons? No wonder these kids were messed up, Vanessa thought to herself.
Out loud she said, "That must have been difficult."
Will hesitated, a mix of emotions on his face as though he'd never heard anyone say that before. He probably needed therapy too.
"Look," Nico finally spoke up. "Will’s great, we're great, blah blah blah."
"What's going on?" Will asked.
"She's freaked out because she thinks you might be beating me up."
That was not the way Vanessa put it at all. Will’s face was a pure picture of hurt.
"Do you really think that?"
Nico glared at Vanessa, who met his gaze. Her eyes said as loudly as they could you be a tactless little shit all you want but I am your goddamn therapist I'm used to it.
"Of course not," she sympathised. "It's just standard procedure. Think of it from my perspective."
Will stared blankly at her. Okay, that was interesting. Vanessa changed her wording.
"When you have a patient who has hurt their leg," she said, "you need to check if it's broken even if it's probably just a bruise."
"Yeah." Will nodded slowly.
"So Nico here is my patient and I have to make sure it isn't the worst just in case."
"Oh, right. You could have just asked."
Vanessa thought over her next question. "You've been through a lot together, haven't you?"
"To hell and back together." Nico looked like what he'd said amused him. Will grimaced. Vanessa made sure to add that to her mental cabinet to write down later.
"How well do you think you know each other?"
"Very," Will said immediately. "I know Nico’s coffee order, his sleep schedule, his favourite breakfast."
"The number of hairs on my head," Nico teased.
"What about more than that? Emotionally."
"We didn't have a lot of time for emotions as kids," Nico said. "But pretty well."
"More than anyone else I know," was Will’s response.
"And how well do you know other people emotionally?"
"Not amazing, I suppose. Emotions are hard. People always feel the opposite of what you expect them to feel and then tell you they feel something else entirely."
"Does that make you frustrated?"
Will looked down guiltily. "Yeah."
Vanessa glanced to Nico. "What about you? Do you find emotions frustrating?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "No. I'm fucking Elsa. Conceal don't feel."
"And you think that's healthy?"
Nico faltered.
"Elsa froze all of her home," Vanessa pressed. Silence. It was just then that she noticed the session was coming to an end.
"I think this was helpful. I don't know about you," she said. "Thank you for coming in and sharing. Maybe this will help you until I see you next, Nico. And, Will, thank you for joining us. Before you leave, I wanted to ask you, Will, have you ever been tested for autism?"
Will shook his head. Vanessa smiled. She could see the cogs turning in both the boys heads.
"You might want to have a look into it. See you next week!"
They left and Vanessa slumped into her chair. Maybe they could start getting somewhere now.