AoS - Leo doesn't know how to handle the latest episode

[controlsthedwarves]

How am I supposed to tell them apart? I know... know she isn't real but that doesn't stop it. Now she's here, acting like- like nothing's changed...

[Leo, you'll be able to tell, I know it.]

It's going to drive her away again...

[She didn't get driven off before, she left for a mission, remember?]

Right. Right. 'The mission'. Except now, everything's weird between us. I shouldn't have told her. I just didn't think we'd make it. I thought-

[No one's judging you for that choice, I promise.]

I am.

Comments

[bytwo]

[Apparently, on Mondays we wear pink seek out sad-but-cute Scottish boys.

Which is to say, there's a River with a little quirk of her lips like she's trying to smile but can't. Her hands flutter anxiously before settling with one on her arm in a half-hug.] You'll be okay.

[controlsthedwarves]

[Hey look, someone who looks as awkward as he feels right now. Indeed sad-but-cute Scottish boy.]

...How do you know? Nothing's been okay for a long time. ...Long time.

[bytwo]

[Her face crumples at that, like he's just knocked down the house of cards that was her desperate attempt to look comforting.] - It'll be okay.

[controlsthedwarves]

[He doesn't know what to do when her expression falls like that. He might be socially awkward at best and mentally damaged at worst, but he doesn't like hurting someone like that, even on accident.]

I.. I just don't see how. If everything is ruined because.., because of me... If we cant be the same because I'm not...

[He once said he wouldn't know what to do if Simmons was HYDRA; this is almost worse.]

she is the worst at comforting, sorry Fitz.

[bytwo]

[Miserably:] It won't be the same. You won't... [She looks a little like she's about to cry.] But they want you there.

She is too adorable for words. ...But yes the worst at this. XD

[controlsthedwarves]

[How does he stop her from crying?? ...Light, hugely awkward arm pat, have one.]

Some... maybe some of them do, but the rest... I was part of the team before, involved but now I feel like they just... Like I'm just...

[The words don't come easily, frustration pouring off of him as he hunts them down.]

Like I'm there because they feel bad for me.

[But Hunter and Mack? They had reached out to him. It had finally felt right. Good. Almost like normal. Almost. It can't be normal without Simmons there - but now that she's come back, it's anything but normal.]

psychic + diminished ability to control emotional responses = terrible at comforting.

[bytwo]

They want... want you to be better, but you are. Better. But they don't know, and you don't know, and it's... people get confused.

[It's almost like she's talking from experience.]

I know but it still breaks my heart! /pets her

[controlsthedwarves]

How am I better?! Unless better means 'not in a coma'. [It's clear how much he's been holding in on all of this.]

I don't feel better. I feel... [he flounders for a word, but finally chooses-] lost.

[bytwo]

You're finding a path.

[See? She can be comforting. Sometimes. That was totally comforting.]

[controlsthedwarves]

...finding a path?

[Maybe comforting if he understood it?]

I.. don't follow.

[bytwo]

Out of the woods.

[He's not alone in the inability to follow River's logic club.]

[controlsthedwarves]

...out of the woods.

What if there's no end to the woods? I... I've seen the scans. I know the damage's done. It feels like I've changed, but... she can't accept that.

[bytwo]

[She flinches a little at I've seen the scans, but manages to recover fast.] People change. They surprise you. You're not the only one.

[controlsthedwarves]

...I did change. And she did surprise me. [There is a darkness in his words, one born of frustration and sadness.]

She just can't accept that I have.

[bytwo]

She will.