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[playingtough]

_{[Oh he's angry. It's a sort of grief he doesn't know how to handle so it boils over in the worst way for Hargrove.]}

WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SISTER?!

_{[There's a crash of something, though there's no telling where he is at the moment. Oh wait, the sound of metal weights crashing to the floor as he topples the rack. Yeah, he's upset.]}

WHERE IS SHE!? HER NAME ISN'T IN THE PHONE!!

_{[That last sentence as some bits of air between the words as he knocks something else over. Then his heavy footsteps are moving again.]}

I'M GOING TO RIP THOSE FUCKING ALIENS APART. THEY CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS SHIT!!

_{[And then he's yelling, the phone drops away as he lets go to do... something. A something that becomes very evident with the found of glass breaking and more yelling.]}

Comments

[ziedrich_bearer]

Yeah, he is trying to prove a point. He smiles. Because what else does Billy expect of him.

"I can really go," Gladio says with a smile. "But I think you never learned that the people who care about you are going to want to help you when you make mistakes or when you're upset."

[playingtough]

Gladio was certainly doing that. It wasn't often anyone tried to prove their point to him through positive actions instead of hitting. Or yelling. Being intimidating.

He watches the shield for a long moment before gesturing to the rest of the weights Gladio hadn't tested yet. "Because that's not a norm for me where I'm from," which the guy probably already figured with the ways Billy reacted. "You can help. But only because I said so and I want you to. Not because I need it."

That's a lie. He does need it.

[ziedrich_bearer]

"I don't think you need it," Gladio promises. Because he doesn't. But he wants it.

"Consider it the respect of a fellow warrior if you must."

And then he goes to continue collecting weights to put away. Without the fake curls of course.

[playingtough]

A fellow warrior. Gladio's mentioned something similar before. Something about a kind of... royal military back home for him. How Billy would be good at it. Despite the stinging in his hands, the blond puts weights away, albeit slowly, as he mulls things over.

The weights all get racked again between the two of them, and Billy goes to the benches to start straightening them up again. "Dad wouldn't do this. What you're doing. He'd watch and make sure I cleaned it all up until he was satisfied." Didn't matter the reason for the mess, whether it was because Billy was angry or sad. There was no consoling, no letting the boy work through his feelings. It was always shove them down, don't ask for help, and don't appear to be weak.

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Yeah, he sounds like absolute shit," Gladio admits with a shrug. There wasn't much more he could say than that. But then again, he had a whole different sort of parenting that he'd lived with.

"I hope if I ever have a kid, I'm nothing like that clear piece of Behemoth shit."

[playingtough]

For a long moment, Billy's silent as he gets the benches righted, then moves to the targets for weapon practices. "He is. I doubt you'd come even close to being like him as a dad, if you'd parent anything like you mentor."

He gestures briefly to the mess they're cleaning up around them. Silently motioning how Gladio knew how to deal with different kinds of peoples because no doubt he'd have taken a different approach if it had been someone like Harrington that had made the network post.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Gladio chuckles at that. Yeah, he would parent like he mentors. Perhaps even gentler, and try and be there more for his kids.

"It probably helps that my sister would hover and help out too. But there's only so much the likely queen would achieve for time, you know?"

But yeah, he had learned a lot. He was trained to be a leader of military men. He knows how to do this in particular. And with Harrington, well, he probably would have hugged it out.

"But people aren't always the same with others as they are with their kids."

[playingtough]

Right, Gladio had a sister, too. He wonders if she's ever been here, on this planet, though it would probably only have been a short time. He knows Gladio was probably devastatingly heartbroken when his fiancee was sent home again.

For once, Billy doesn't even think of someone as 'pathetic' for that.

"No. No they're not. My dad used to work at a bank. Security officer kind of shit. Treated people with respect at work. All nice n' smiling. But the moment I stepped any toe out of line at home..."

He pushes the last of the target dummies back into place and fixes its head. "I guess my expectations for parents are low. Real low. Except for you. I've got high ones on you, and you're not even mine."

[ziedrich_bearer]

He misses Iris dearly, but at the same time is glad she wasn't here. It would have been... awkward at best.

"Ah, that kind. While I've never personally known the type, I've heard plenty of stories about people drawn to authority positions. Sometimes they want the power, sometimes they want the leverage to keep them out of trouble. Heard of others that go into the military, lower levels back home, or even into medicine to do it. It's a mess."

So really, it's not a shock that the kid's piece of shit father was like that. Though he smiles as he reaches out to gently pat Billy on the shoulder. Slowly. With enough warning and line of sight for Billy to dodge it.

"Some day, you're gonna find more people like that in your life. Family, it turns out, isn't just your blood. It's also who you choose it to be."

[playingtough]

"Yeah. That kind," he echoes with an underlying venom in his voice. The head he's working on with the dummy falls off, but he manages to catch it and tries again. Doesn't just let it fall and ignore it. Billy really is trying to fix his messes now. Not just make them and leave them for other people.

He sees Gladio's hand and... doesn't shy from it. Allows the positive gesture to him. He doesn't flinch. If that isn't progress, Billy wouldn't know what was.

"I have found people like that. Here, really. I don't get it back home like you know." 'Everyone knows I'm dead when I go home' he thinks to himself. "I got you, and Tommy. And Soldier. Sometimes got that Tony guy. A little bit of Steve, too. Y'know, he tried to wingman for me to date Tommy and I tried to string him along because we were already dating and it was funny."

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Glad to have earned being part of that number. And Steve doesn't strike me as the type to be good at wing-manning. Next time let me handle it. I've picked up plenty of chicks in my time."

He loved Steve, a lot. Saw some of Noctis in the kid, and some of Prompto. But damn if the guy had less social graces than Gladio would have expected of his background.

[playingtough]

"Oh he's fucking awful at it," he laughs, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Yeah? I don't think Tommy and I are gonna leave each other any time soon, so I'll have to decline that offer on being my wingman. Not that I need a wingman for anyone."

Big talk for someone that probably should've used a wingman for trying to get with Tommy.

"But thanks. For comin' to help." It did mean a lot, even if Billy can't say that part out loud yet. He was saying something, even though it was small. A good show of progress the blond had with the Shield. Together with some laughs and stories they clean up the gym together, heading to the diner afterwards to intake some calories.