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“Mind telling me what this is all about?” Mimi holds out an uncrumpled sheet of torn paper, a piece of one of the defaced found child posters that had been torn down that week. She found it with the rest of his stuff, balled up and hidden under a pile of clothes. Gentu freezes, staring at it for a moment before grimacing and sitting down silently, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “It IS you!?” Mimi crouches down to try and meet his eye, but he avoids her gaze. “Gentu- I can see it all over your face child are you serious?! What has gotten into you?!”
“.. nothin.”
“This isn't nothing Gentu this is serious!! How are we gonna find your family if they don't know you've been found!!” Mimi puts a hand to her head, shocked and more than a little upset. She doesn't want to be upset with Gentu, she REALLY doesn't want to yell at him, but she can't keep her calm when she'd been waiting for weeks to find the person who kept trying to keep Gentu lost. How was she meant to know it was just him all along?
“This isn't a game!! This isn't some funny joke- this is our only chance to find your home!” Mimi raises her voice, trying to get him to understand how important this is.
“I know that!”
“THEN WHAT IS YOUR DAMNED PROBLEM?!” She's yelling now, the pressure of everything that's been happening finally starting to cave, more than she can handle. Gentu just looks off to the side, his head resting on his arms, looking almost annoyed. Why would he do this? Why doesn't he want to go home?! She waves the flyer in exasperation, trying to get him to look at her, to talk to her.
“Why?? Why are you trying to screw this up?! We're trying to help you Gentu- are you not actually amnestic?! Are you running from someone?! if you're not safe you need to TELL US Gentu- if you don't want to be found-”
“ITS BECAUSE THATS NOT ME!!!” he cuts her off, shouting with tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He snatches the poster from her hand, crumpling it back up so he doesn't have to look at it. “ITS NOT ME!! ITS NOT- its NOT me-” he repeats, shaking his head with his eyes shut tightly. Mimi sits frozen in front of him as he chucks the ball of paper across the room as far as he can muster. By the time she shakes off her confusion, he's buried his face in his arms, crying.
“Its- *hgck-* It's stupid. But it ISN'T me.”
“Wh- what are you talking about?”
“I DO wanna be found Mimi I want a home so bad-” Gentu sobs, disregarding her question completely- “I wanna- *hgck-* I wanna go home!”
“I know- I'm sorry I yelled at you hon-” Mimi shuffles over to him to take his hand, trying to get him to look at her- “we'll find your home okay?”
“But the posters- *sniffle-* we CANT use the posters!” He looks at her, pleading and desperate.
“Why not? What's wrong with them?” Gentu looks away, holding back his tears.
“It's stupid.”
“It's not stupid, if there's something wrong, we can make it better. What do we need to do?” He looks at her from the corner of his eye, shame crossing his face.
“it- that isn't my face. The picture- its not me.”
“What? But this is the picture we took of you-”
“I KNOW- *hck* I know but it's not me! I- I don't even know who I am but I know that isn't me!” He seems like he has more to say but he can't hold back anymore and begins to cry again.
“It's okay hon- if you don't like that picture we can take a different one-”
“NO- it ISNT- it's NOT the picture it's ME!!” He exclaims through sobs, shaking his head vigorously. “I’M not me I just know it- I can't even look in the mirror… it's so stupid-”
“No baby, it's not stupid.” Mimi coos, pulling Gentu into a hug. Gentu leans in hesitantly, trembling. “Give yourself some grace, of course you don't feel like yourself. We can take off the picture and just do a description, I'm sure that'll work just as well, okay? It's okay.” she pets Gentu's head gently, taking deep breaths for him to follow. Eventually, Gentu calms down enough to stop shaking.
“I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys…”
“It's alright, I'm sorry I yelled at you over it. That wasn't okay.” Gentu squeezes her tight, burying his face in her shoulder.
“You were just tryin to help.” She nods, thoughtful.
“Is there something I could make you to help with your dysphoria?”
“My dis-what?”
“How you feel like you're not actually you, y'know? Maybe I could make you a mask or something, just until we figure out how to make you feel better.”
“Oh- yeah! Yeah I was thinking about it earlier- I have a drawing I wanna show you!!”