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Date: 2016-09-26 05:50 am (UTC)
dishearten: \ (35)
From: [personal profile] dishearten
( it's true, their rooms aren't very accommodating. that doesn't bother him terribly much, he's never really had a room feel like his own, anyway. his flat in Storybrooke had been all he needed to survive and nothing else, bare bones to the extreme. even as a hunter he hadn't had a room, he'd had a forest floor and a fleet of trees. the cell he'd been kept in during his time at the castle hadn't felt like his, either, though he had never spent much time there, anyway. he doesn't spend much time in his accommodations in Oska or his accommodations anywhere, really. he doesn't really know how to make something feel like his.

Emma indicates he should join her and he hesitates, at least for a moment. Graham and beds just don't mix well, it seems. he does most of his conversing standing, he only spends time in a bed if he's sleeping or he's forced there. choosing to sit next to her is strange, even though she'd convinced him to do it a time or two in Chantes, when he was wanted by the law and forced to stay inside a majority of the time. the Emma with him now won't remember that, but he does, with fondness. even though a handful of history doesn't seem to make him any more certain when he takes the spot next to her.

he's silent for a moment, before realizing Emma doesn't intend to ask questions, and she's waiting for him to start talking. this idea was easier to execute in his head. he doesn't talk about himself often, and for good reason. there's an idle fidget, fingers fussing with his hair, as he tries to find the best place to start. )
The first thing I can really remember is living with the wolves. I don't remember any other family. ( objectively, he knows there must have been one, he just doesn't know how or why he lost them. just that he did, and his replacement was more than enough for him. ) Sometimes I'd run into villagers, or try sneaking to town. They were disturbed by me, I suppose, and they were cruel to my friends. To animals. So I grew to hate them before they gave me reason to.

( he knows that he was young and foolish, and given the chance to do the right thing, he did. that doesn't excuse his actions, though, he accepts he had his own faults. ) Your mother was the first that was really kind to me. Even when she knew my intention, she was never cruel. I'm still not sure why, but I'm still glad to have met her. She was the first to show me the good I had been turning away from. Without her I might have never known. ( he might have never ended up enslaved by Regina, either, but at least some good came from it. the silver lining in a horribly dark cloud. )

Date: 2016-10-02 08:37 am (UTC)
dishearten: \ (6)
From: [personal profile] dishearten
( easier to expect the worst sounds sort of like advice from very long ago, not feeling anything is an attractive option when what you feel sucks. she'd said it to him when he was so desperate to feel something he'd have taken anything. it shows that she's grown and changed, she's not quite the same woman that had let him disinfect the cut on her eyebrow and let him kiss her despite the risk of letting someone closer. it's bittersweet; he's glad that she's found the perspective that she realizes the way she'd been thinking had been detrimental. he just wishes he could have been there to help her find her way. )

It seems like you found a way around it.

( and he doesn't just mean the curse, though, that too. he's glad knowing that Regina's demented stranglehold on innocent people is over. while he can't quite imagine seeing himself back in Storybrooke, even if Emma might like him to, he rests a little easier knowing that the curse has been broken and the town left in good hands. he means that she's grown a little, changed a little. he suspects it's influence of the family she never got to meet until adulthood, yet is it so wrong to be quietly happy they're all together again, anyway?

or, were. if Emma weren't here, instead of where she belonged. )


Bear in mind he nearly killed someone before he had a change of heart. He wasn't an easy person to befriend if you didn't walk on four legs. ( he manages a smile, though, in return. it's uncertain and uneasy but they can handle a conversation about something that isn't ideal, can't they? they've handled far worse before. ) Why's that? If you were raised by wolves too, that's rather eerie, don't you think?

( because when in doubt, make dumb jokes. that always works. or it never works, but Graham tries anyway. )

Date: 2016-10-03 08:04 am (UTC)
dishearten: \ (6)
From: [personal profile] dishearten
( he doesn't actually know her history, not really. he'd seen the smear campaign Regina had painted over the front page of the paper, of course; everyone in Storybrooke had the basic facts. orphaned and incarcerated. there's more to a person than their past, though, and apparently even cursed he'd believed there was more to Emma than what a sealed record could tell.

he's quiet as he listens, not looking her in the eye but focused on her words. the idea of not being wanted isn't so foreign to him, because he'd felt it before. in the midst of villagers when he tried to buy bread or have a drink or even find shelter, he'd never been particularly wanted by anything that walked on two legs. it hadn't bothered him as much as it could have when he had a pack of warm fur and cold noses to go back to that wanted him desperately, but that didn't much ease the sting of being turned away or sneered at. he can't imagine what it must have been like to have a family give her up, he was too young when he'd lost his, he doesn't even remember what having one had been like. he'd seen how it affected her, though, she carried it as obviously as the red leather jacket.

and he knows that when she'd taken the badge from him, she'd been toeing the line of letting herself be a part of something. she was, he could see it, he could tell, even if he hadn't gotten to be there when it happened. her hand is not so far away from his, and while he does tend to be cautious about touching people, it doesn't seem so terrible to reach out. wrapping his hand over hers, even for a moment. a reminder that she's not alone here, either, even if it's everything she's afraid of.

temporary. )


I'm sorry. ( it's a lacking word, but he's got to say it, even if it can't fill the gaps or soothe the sorrow. pack is his word for family, and he really and truly is glad that Emma has hers again, even if her past still complicates things. feeling unwanted stays with you, it'd made him angry instead of distant. he's glad that she's starting to learn differently without the extremes he'd needed. ) I know it's not easy, but remember you're not a lone wolf here, either. Who I used to be doesn't change how I feel about you now.

( and surely Emma can tell Graham is very much on the opposite side of the spectrum from the angry young man she'd met. he cares about her a great deal, probably more than she even knows. )

Date: 2016-10-13 01:14 am (UTC)
dishearten: \ (6)
From: [personal profile] dishearten
( wishing she hadn't suffered isn't the same as pitying her. of course he'd rather she not have been left on her lonesome and left to accumulate such painful scars; that doesn't mean he sees her as less for having survived them. quite the contrary, actually. he's always thought she was stronger than her past implied, knowing more of the picture doesn't change his mind about that.

he smiles a little at the returned gesture, one that he actually feels instead of just a instinctive reaction he's hardly mindful of. he's glad that things between them haven't changed too drastically from where they'd been before. he was afraid of that, and perhaps he shouldn't have been. he would not make that mistake twice. )


Something like that, only I won't expect you to sleep in a pile or let my brother clean behind your ears. ( some parts of the pack weren't as enjoyable as others, honestly... though Graham is still fond of sleeping in a pile, actually. kinda sucks that his brother occasionally absconds to pile with Sunny instead!!! whatever happened to bros before hoes, man... brutal.

as for the compliment, the last she'd given him he knew little what to do with, and this one seems no different. he breathes a laugh, shaking his head. it's definitely a pace late when he answers with a limited, )
I'm glad. ( he'd prefer Emma like him over not, certainly. he just can't manage to actually like himself enough that the compliment makes any sense. he can't fathom being dreamy, and even worse, he can't quite understand why she likes him, either; especially knowing more about him over less. that's a heavy thought, and one that stays caged in his head. he'd rather she not change her mind, even if it's rather selfish of him. he squeezes her palm, a goodbye of sorts, if she can read the communication without any words. surely he's taken up enough of her time as it is. )

Date: 2016-10-29 10:25 pm (UTC)
dishearten: \ (Default)
From: [personal profile] dishearten
The pile isn't so bad. I'm doing you a favor on the ear washing. ( wolf tongues are great on a coat of fur, not so much on sensitive human skin. Brother has learned to focus his desire to help groom on Sunny instead, which is likely for the best. the huntsman can keep up his own hygiene.

it's true, and she's not. unfortunately it seemed the Huntsman had managed to ruffle quite a few feathers, and it was forcing the man he'd become to answer questions he hadn't anticipated answering. perhaps it wasn't a bad thing, to stop zealously holding his past to himself. like it or not, it was a part of him, and if he'd been honest about it? he might not have so many apologies to make. )


I'll see you later. ( it's an agreement, and he likes the reality of it. for however long yet that it will last. he's glad that Emma is here with him, though he knows that's a rather selfish thing to feel. it's not permanent, he knows that, but the idea that they still have time is still a reassuring one. he manages a glimmer of a smile before he slips away, off to the next person that got on the wrong side of his past. )

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Emma Swan

February 2023

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