MARSH𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗢 | Theirs (BL)

🌼SIX▫️▫️

MARSHMALO| THEIRS

"Oh, my God!" Rhys ducked down as he saw Elliott almost hit him with the umbrella. Elliott was taken aback; he thought he was a bad guy ringing the doorbell. "Phew, I almost got hit," Rhys took a deep breath and saw Elliott's face changing to an apologetic one. Rhys sighed and entered the house, placing the plastic bags on the floor and locking the door.

"Are you okay? Come on, Elli, it's okay."

“Just got paranoid, that’s all…” Elliott looked away, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Rhys ruffled his hair, saying, “If I was a bad guy, then I must have been sneaking myself in, but I didn’t, right?”

The younger nodded, prompting the older one to ruffle his hair again. “Come on, do you mind helping me with the groceries? Hmm?”

_

"He's very timid and a paranoid boy."

Rhys can hear Mr. Keys sigh. "I know that I don't have a right to ask but can I ask why he's like that...?"

“Sigh, something happened to him a long time ago. He was traumatized, so that’s why he’s been homeschooled. Now he suddenly decided to enroll in public school,” Elliott’s father explained, and Rhys could hear the pain in the old man’s voice on the other end of the line.

“He’s traumatized?” Rhys was curious; he wanted to help the younger boy heal and earn his trust. He was deeply concerned about his nephew, and it hurt him to find out that the younger boy had been suffering.

"I can't tell you the rest... you deserve to know it, but not now— not now... Elliott is still scared, so that's why he's being all paranoid."

After the conversation with Mr. Keys, Rhys rubbed his face. The reason why they sent Elliott here is to be away from the city, the city where he's been hiding. He was glad that his older sister, Elliott's aunt, contacted him and let him know. With that, he volunteered to look after him.

At first, Elliott was very tense but somehow could put on a face that he was comfortable when he wasn't. Then Rhys remembered that Elliott had tried going to high school, not being homeschooled. He managed to stay there for only one year because his traumatization triggered him in some way. After that, he went back to homeschooling.

He was distant to himself, and then suddenly he could be fine to be with, in Rhys's observation.... Elliott could sometimes be strange. When Mr. Keys told Elliott that he's a nice uncle, at first Elliott hated him, even though Elliott hadn't seen him. Elliott resented him and hated his parents for trusting someone easily again, for him to be taken care of.

When Elliott called his father, he told his father what he thought about him.

Then Mr. Keys said that Elliott started to feel safe under Rhys's roof—not that safe yet, which Rhys felt relieved about because the younger boy was slowly becoming more comfortable with him. In the first place, he never thought that Elliott had been through so much, especially being traumatized by something he wasn't aware of. Knowing that the younger boy had trust issues, he assumed that maybe Elliott was still unsure about trusting him.

Rhys could say that Elliott was a good actor. He never thought that Elliott could be a little paranoid, but since the day he almost got hit by an umbrella after taking a cold shower, Rhys knew. He knew that Elliott had been watching his every step, every move. Throughout the weeks, he understood that Elliott was still observing him, and he wouldn't do anything about it.