LftB - You'll be Safe Now

I mentioned on the Jonathan and Adeline picture that Adeline is easily heartbroken to see poverty. Well, imagine what she felt seeing what was going on in Lucio's village! It was she who felt she was going to die witnessing what people had done to Lucio (though, really, the villagers, his parents, and the witchdoctor meant only good in doing all those...they were simply very much backward and was afraid of "the demons investing the kid's body"). She summoned all the family physicians to take care of him, but alas, the damage had been done. All they could do was to ward off infections and ease the pain. But at least they did something...she did something. It would haunt the rest of her days if, at the moment when she saw the violent "practices", she chose to succumb to her fear and didn't try to take the little boy away. So she saved the boy after the practices, cleaned his wounds the best she could, summoned the family physicians, waited for him to regain consciousness, and hugged him right away, not knowing what to say to comfort him.

Though initially Lucio was too weak to be scared, it took time for him to actually get used to Adeline's open concerns and gentle touches, and when he was showered with both, he was more frightened than anything. There were times when he just sat in a corner, hugging his knees, looking at people with what would later be known as his 'neutral' expression, curling himself up even more when someone stood closer. There were times when he hid himself under the bed all day long, too scared to be seen by his adoptive siblings (not to mention watching them play). There were times when he simply looked at Adeline in a mix of confusion and fear, not knowing what he was supposed to do on certain times and afraid there would be painful consequences if he did something strange.

But after a while, he learned that there would be no more painful consequences, that Adeline and his adoptive siblings would teach him things he didn't know about, that nobody thought of him as a devil incarnate at that mansion. He even came to enjoy occasional pats and soft strokes from others, and would sometimes be a little clingy in his own ways.

Even to Leonard, haha. He likes to watch Leonard doing paperwork for his council-related things.

Adeline (c) *LalaLiliLalaLii
Lucio (c) *LalaLiliLalaLii
Looking for the Butterfly (c) *LalaLiliLalaLii
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