[M] Unexpected Deadly Romance (Me and NoviDome)

[NoviDome]

Tom nodded slowly. "Yeah, it was... I-I don't like the word 'traumatic', but yeah. That. I went through a lot of therapy. My dad, too. It was all..." He shuddered a little. "...Quite messed up."

[Sparkz]

Robin looked at him before pulling him into a hug. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I don't want to cause any undue stress." They murmured. "I'm sorry for ever bringing it up."

[NoviDome]

He smiled a little and hugged them back. Even if he was rationally over it, he still had a stress-reaction to the subject, and Robin could feel it in his body. "Don't apologise. Please. I... I can tell you how it happened, if you want. It's okay."

[Sparkz]

Robin felt just how tense he was and they shook their head. "No. No need. You can tell me when you're ready. You're so tense at even mentioning it. Don't worry about it. I'll find out when you're ready to tell me. I won't go looking into it either."

[NoviDome]

He smiled a little. "Robin, it happened a decade and a half ago. I'm never not going to be tense about it, that's just something I... I have to live with."

[Sparkz]

Robin looked up at him. They hugged him even tighter. "Well ... If you want to tell me, then go ahead. Just know that in here for you and I want to listen."

[NoviDome]

He smiled and stroked their hair. "You're kind, you know that right?" He then took a deep breath and started to tell them the story. He told them how he was playing hide and seek in the park with his sister. How he had been knocked out with chloroform and woken up in a garage tied to a chair. How that man had scared him more than he had ever been scared in his life. How he had called up his parents with a knife in his hand. Tom paused there and bit his lips, shaking all over now. "I uhm..." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, looking at his feet. "...I didn't remember what happened next for a long time, but it eventually came back to me. He uhm..." He blinked back tears. "...He used that knife t-to cut out my eye, with my parents still on the phone, and I... I just remember the pain, and screaming, a-and I fell and I felt so... so alone... at some point I felt my dad pick me up and hold me, a-and I passed out." He took a deep breath, holding his own hands to try to stop them from shaking.

[Sparkz]

Robin listened as Tom told them the story. They frowned as he stopped and needed a moment before continuing. They kissed his hand gently to let him know that they were here for him. Robin gasped as he relayed the part where he last his eye. "Oh.... Oh Tom... That's awful." They said softly, tears forming in their eyes too. Robin pulled him in and held him tightly. "But it's over now and you are living your best life." They said softly. They kissed his temple. "You're unbelievably amazing, you know?"

[NoviDome]

A tear rolled down his cheek as they hugged him, and he wiped it away with his free hand. He nodded a little. "Yeah, I... I think I know. Thank you. That man is dead now, which... is a relief," he said softly. He hadn't truly been able to look at it that way until now, and it surprised him a little. He still thought it hadn't been his parents' place to decide Dallas' fate, but he did feel slightly... at ease with the knowledge of his death. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, the... the doctors weren't able to save my eye, and my whole family was just... in disarray. My dad blamed himself, and I think he still does to this day. That man was a... a criminal that he had arrested a while before all that went down. In the arrest, my dad had shot him in the eye. So this was his revenge," he said, gesturing to his eyepatch.

[Sparkz]

They smiled at him and pulled back to help him wipe away his tears. Robin nodded solemnly. They too thought that it was a relief that the man who... did this to a child was dead. Robin looked into Tom's remaining eye before looking at the patch. "May I... May I see your other eye?" They asked softly. The entire story was both shocking and absolutely terrible. A grown adult taking revenge on a man's child was inexcusable and he was obviously sick in the head to do such a thing.