He couldn't help the flinch that came at JC's first words. It hurt to hear, and it didn't exactly help. "There's a big difference when you're just ripping it apart again and again," he murmured. JC didn't know. No one knew. He assumed the flinch was because of his words, a sympathy gesture more than anything else, and it made him sigh. It felt so easy to let JC hug him, letting him close his eyes-

Until JC said that, making Peter freeze. It wasn't the first time, not by a long shot, but it was the first time that unerring sense of the truth was used on him. He choked a little on trying to find what to say, wanting to deny it because it was such a private topic, but... this was JC. He shared everything, usually. How could he feel weird about that?

"What's the point?" he whispered, hating that he could hear those threatening tears in his voice. His accent only became that much worse when he was upset. "Broken or bruised, he knows what he wants and it isn't me. How could I live with that every day, knowing that? It'll just... just get worse."