Post by newwwwusername on Nov 21, 2023 2:50:53 GMT
Prompt : Somehow, Person A finds out that Person B was a victim of child abuse—whether that be physical/verbal/mental abuse, neglect, etc—and Person A comforts Person B about it. Any fandom or original works welcome.
Chronology : Post-canon
Author's note : There's a line (like in the play itself) where Mr. Kirby says "I may have had silly notions in my youth, but thank God my father knocked them out of me" and that's never sat right with me so that was inspiration of sorts for this.
Something that Miriam couldn't help but notice early on in her and Anthony's relationship was the way that he would flinch whenever she touched him too suddenly. He always wrote it off as just reflexes, but the look of fear in his eyes was always a bit hard to ignore.
After a while, she started to give some sort of warning before she touched him so as to not startle him, and that seemed to solve the issue, so they both soon forgot about it.
However, after Anthony went back to the Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael household, he seemed to have some sort of revelation about his own existence. He started to actually relax a little bit. She even caught him playing his saxophone again one evening. It was a nice change.
What she hadn't realized, though, was that his argument with Tony had unearthed some rather unsavory memories from when he was a boy.
His dad had given a rather violent reaction when he wanted to be a trapeze artist, a worse reaction when he wanted to be a saxophone player and a near-fatal reaction when he ran away from home.
He'd always told himself it had been necessary. Tough love, if you will. His father only wanted what was best for him, right? His father knew better, and he knew that he'd be a failure if he didn't go into business.
But... Now he was starting to question if that was really true. After all, now his own son was leaving the business, and the thought of laying an unkind hand on the boy for it made him sick to his stomach.
He shot up in bed one night, panting heavily. He'd had a rather violent dream, only it hadn't just been a dream. No, it was a memory of what his father had done after he ran away. Beating him to within an inch of his life, calling him a no-good failure...
He felt a pair of gentle arms wrap around her and, before he could even process what he was doing, he broke down completely. The familiar voice of his wife muttered some generic reassurances that felt like the most important thing in the world to him in the moment.
Once he calmed down a little bit, Miriam removed her arms from around him and took to gently rubbing circles on his back. She didn't ask what had upset him. If he wanted to talk about it, he surely would.
"I think my father might have abused me" he admitted after a long moment. Miriam felt her heart sink. It all made perfect sense, the flinching, the glazed-over expression whenever the late man came up. She'd met Anthony's father only once before he passed, and it had been incredibly awkward.
"I'm so sorry, love" Miriam muttered, unsure of what else to say. Anthony leaned back into her, allowing her to wrap him in another hug. She'd never seen him so vulnerable before in all their time together.
They didn't exchange another word for the last of the night. They didn't need to. The secret was out, and it had been met with only kindness.
And that's all Anthony ever really needed.
Chronology : Post-canon
Author's note : There's a line (like in the play itself) where Mr. Kirby says "I may have had silly notions in my youth, but thank God my father knocked them out of me" and that's never sat right with me so that was inspiration of sorts for this.
Something that Miriam couldn't help but notice early on in her and Anthony's relationship was the way that he would flinch whenever she touched him too suddenly. He always wrote it off as just reflexes, but the look of fear in his eyes was always a bit hard to ignore.
After a while, she started to give some sort of warning before she touched him so as to not startle him, and that seemed to solve the issue, so they both soon forgot about it.
However, after Anthony went back to the Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael household, he seemed to have some sort of revelation about his own existence. He started to actually relax a little bit. She even caught him playing his saxophone again one evening. It was a nice change.
What she hadn't realized, though, was that his argument with Tony had unearthed some rather unsavory memories from when he was a boy.
His dad had given a rather violent reaction when he wanted to be a trapeze artist, a worse reaction when he wanted to be a saxophone player and a near-fatal reaction when he ran away from home.
He'd always told himself it had been necessary. Tough love, if you will. His father only wanted what was best for him, right? His father knew better, and he knew that he'd be a failure if he didn't go into business.
But... Now he was starting to question if that was really true. After all, now his own son was leaving the business, and the thought of laying an unkind hand on the boy for it made him sick to his stomach.
He shot up in bed one night, panting heavily. He'd had a rather violent dream, only it hadn't just been a dream. No, it was a memory of what his father had done after he ran away. Beating him to within an inch of his life, calling him a no-good failure...
He felt a pair of gentle arms wrap around her and, before he could even process what he was doing, he broke down completely. The familiar voice of his wife muttered some generic reassurances that felt like the most important thing in the world to him in the moment.
Once he calmed down a little bit, Miriam removed her arms from around him and took to gently rubbing circles on his back. She didn't ask what had upset him. If he wanted to talk about it, he surely would.
"I think my father might have abused me" he admitted after a long moment. Miriam felt her heart sink. It all made perfect sense, the flinching, the glazed-over expression whenever the late man came up. She'd met Anthony's father only once before he passed, and it had been incredibly awkward.
"I'm so sorry, love" Miriam muttered, unsure of what else to say. Anthony leaned back into her, allowing her to wrap him in another hug. She'd never seen him so vulnerable before in all their time together.
They didn't exchange another word for the last of the night. They didn't need to. The secret was out, and it had been met with only kindness.
And that's all Anthony ever really needed.