Author's note: I'm really sorry about the slow update! It's been almost a month, 'cause school has been eating me alive. This chapter is pretty short, but it's important. Also, to the reviewer who asked (I'm too tired to see what the username is right now.)- Arthur does make a brief appearance, but it's not until a later chapter. Hope that answers your question.

Why?

Why did she have to go and tell them? Was it to punish him? Had she wanted to humiliate him in front of the entire class?

Even if she hadn't meant to, she was successful nonetheless. In the weeks that followed the event, Berwald might as well have been a monster. He saw the way they looked at him, heard the whispers they exchanged, and the way they all skirted around him, as though he could snap and kill them all whenever he liked.

He couldn't understand what was so bad about not wanting to discuss The Incident in front of everyone. Because he knew what would happen if he did. He'd be labeled as an even bigger freak, and things would just get worse for him. It was exactly why he never spoke about it. Not to his parents, not to the psychologist they'd tried sending him to, not even to himself.

Every time they finished playing one of their 'games', he'd stroke the boy's silky blond hair and tell him that he loved him over and over again. During the few times that Berwald forces himself to replay The Incident in his head, he always thinks that he probably did, in his own sick, twisted sort of way.

It's why he could never trust anyone.

Even if they acted like they cared, in the end, they all just wanted to use him or hurt him. Every single one of them.

After it was all over- when the man behind The Incident (His own uncle, to be precise.) had been locked away in prison and he had gone back to school- that was when he changed. He became ever quieter than he had been before, interacted with the other children his age as little as possible, and had a look of fear in his eyes whenever someone would touch him, be it accidental or not.

His mother and father knew that something was wrong, but they had no idea what to do. He wouldn't talk to the shrink they had paid for, and any other solutions they tried failed. Not seeing any other way out, they let their son continue to spiral down, down, and down...

The night he came out to his parents is still fresh in his mind.

They were all sitting on the porch together, and Berwald had told them he had something to say.

"Well, go on with it," his father had said just before he took the last swig of beer from the bottle he'd been drinking out of.

"Ah..." Come on, it's two words, just say it! "I'm... g-gay."

For a moment, there was pure silence.

"What?" His mother asked.

"Ah said that I'm gay."

There had been screaming and crying and kicking and hitting and bits of broken glass scattered everywhere by the time the night was done, and it was all thanks to one sentence. Those two simple words that had taken him years to get the courage to say had ruined his life in a matter of seconds.

He was shocked when Tino sat across from him at lunch the next day. The petite boy plopped down into the spot, gave Berwald a cheerful greeting and began chatting away about something or another. What Berwald doesn't understand was why he was doing it. Why was he bothering to sit with him? Did somebody put him up to it? That was most likely the right answer, but at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that Tino truely, genuinely wanted to be his friend.

He hoped that he did.

And we're getting closer to SuFin! Reviews make me very happy, so don't forget to leave one. As always, thank you for reading!~