By the ti I’d run out of tears and finished running my mouth full of saliva and inaudible words, I was flat on my back, stretched across a few barstools we’d dragged together.
My head was pillowed against Gimsen’s lap, his rough hand idly patting at my hair while the other reached across the sticky wood to mop up the ss I’d left behind with a rug. It was weirdly tender for a dwarf of his stature, this gruff man wiping away my snot like a father figure I never had, who’d seen it all.
I sniffled, half a hiccup.
"So... You’re suggesting... what, gather evidence? Buy hidden caras, set them up, and- gulp. Set them up and get the law involved?"
"There yee go, lass," Gimsen said, satisfied, his voice a warm rumble above . "Ya figured it out by yourself."
I closed my eyes, trying to imagine it, the evidence, the confrontation, the cops, arrest, then the headlines. It made my stomach twist in a kind of reassuring way.
Gimsen sighed, thumb brushing hair away from my eyes.
"Truth be told, ye should just leave that mansion outright, yeah? Anshur, was she? She’ll never let it go."
I waited for him to continue,
"She sees ya as a rat in her polished halls, aye? A vermin sneakin’ where only silk-stocked folk should step. An educated servant still looks down on ya like you’re dirt, that won’t change. If ye walk out, lass, the problem walks with ye."
I stamred"
"B-but the food, the housing, the bath, then the clothes, Gimsen... It’s all... free, it’s free! Three als a day, dresses I could never afford, hot showers whenever I want... I’m living the NEET dream and... if I leave that..." My throat closed up. "It’ll be more of a curse than a blessing, I won’t survive out there."
"It’s weird, y’know?" I added after a long pause. "Two weeks at best I’ve been living like this, and I’ve already lost all my bearings on how to... actually live, even though I’ve been managing well for the last few years in my own apartnt, I’m scared, it’s scary."
His hand stilled for a mont, then resud its steady patting.
"Well," he said gently, "Ye can always fly over here and live with us. I’ll put ya in auto shop, teach ya to work with yer hands, ye’d earn yer keep and als"
I twisted my head to look up at him, eyes still swollen. "Having a job is against my moral code, unc." I pouted, complete with a little ":
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