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"What's wrong with you?"
The number of times Mike had been asked that goes beyond the pale. Not that he ever didn't deserve it, given how often he's lashed out at the world. As hard as he's tried, it's been a struggle trying to get control over himself. Over the grief that made him so impossibly wild. He can't forget when Abby asked him why everyone looks at him with so much anger.
He can't forget when Vanessa had demanded it of him, either, when he had screwed up bringing Abby to Freddy's. Feeling the disappointment of the one person who had believed in him. He'd had a lot to make up for. Still does, in a lot of ways. He's putting himself back together with duct tape && chewed gum.
"What is wrong with you?"
It's not asked with anger this time, or outrage, or shock. It's asked with a smile, with a giggle, && Vanessa's hand taking his chin. Her fingers cradle his jaw as she looks into his dark brown eyes with something like love.
"You're so silly sometimes," she adds. Gentle, fond. Like he's something worth fussing over.
He's never been spoken to that way before. He's certainly never been called silly. He's been called a lot of other things, but he's never been in a position to be silly.
Then again, he's never spent a Sunday afternoon baking cupcakes for no particular reason with a family all his own. Abby giggling, Vanessa reaching for a washcloth. He never been a normal man in a normal home, with room to be silly. A lifetime of things have changed for him in a very short period.
Vanessa gently wipes the frosting off of his face like it's the most natural thing in the world, && it just hits him that this is how he wants life to be from now own. He doesn't dare close his eyes.
Nothing is wrong with him. Not anymore.