swirlsofpurple

Title; Childhood
Summary; Problems House faces as a child. Angst, hurt/comfort.
DIsclaimer; I own no walls, nor windows, nor doors.
Word count; 690
AN; Concrit is very much appreciated.

House gave the kid a high five as he handed her a lollipop and sent her on her way. He locked the door; he had dealt with enough idiots in the clinic today to last a lifetime. And though he wouldn’t admit it, he did actually like children. Adults had no excuse for their ignorance and stupidity. But kids were just like wild animals, which needed to be tamed over a period of about two decades, to ensure that their spirit wasn’t broken. His father had never cared for undisciplined spirit, so the concept of breaking him in, in under five years had seemed to be the right way to go.

It had left him broken, but not in the way John House had wanted. He had wanted a child who would always follow orders. So when the verbal kicks went unheard, he had put on the spurs. This had only increased Greg’s dislike and distrust of people, and made him behave even worse. In his teens he had wondered whether he had lost the ability to ever care about people in the way other people did, but then realised everyone else was just lying. People cared, just not nearly as much as they pretended too. But he knew he was still emotionally broken in some intangible way.

All of the cold, damp, insect-filled nights had blurred together. Whether they had been in bustling cities, or barren wastelands, whether he had been eight or fourteen. Time had always been the enemy. In the beginning hours of the night, there was the anxiety and anticipation of what he knew would follow as the cold set in. And by the hours before dawn, he felt so wretched even the short time remaining was counted in minutes and seconds. The angry guard that was time stood at the clock tower, forcing him to wait sleeplessly. Eyes forever open filled with exhaustion, and longing.

There were a few nights outside he remembered very clearly, they had been tolerable, sometimes even fun. It had been during the few months they had lived in New Jersey.

----

April 12^th 1972

He lay curled up on a pile of leaves, closing his eyes with the false hope that tonight -unlike all the other nights- he would get enough sleep. When he heard footsteps he looked up quickly, if it was an adult he’d have to get up and form an excuse. But it was just a kid, no older than five or six. The kid was one of their new neighbours, he cursed under his breath as the kid climbed over the fence and walked towards him. One reason he hated moving to new places was this; there always seemed to be other kids asking him why he was sleeping outside, how he got his parents to let him do this wondrous thing, and other stupid questions.

But this kid was different; he just sat by him silently. Greg only realised that the kid had been carrying something when he felt the soft blankets being wrapped around him. He felt unreasonably grateful for the warmth, and decided rudeness would make up for it.

“Get lost.” He demanded while glaring menacingly. Greg figured the look must’ve been lost to the dark because the kid just stood there thinking.

“But then I wont have any blankets.” The kid said after a moment.

First he considered just telling the kid that that was tough and ignoring him. But decided it would be better for future nights to keep the kid on his side. So he just nodded and let the kid slide in beside him.

The sun left green splotches on the insides of his eyelids as he woke. The kid was standing beside him and was folding a blanket with the idle precision of someone who had folded blankets every day since the beginning of their years. Definitely not like an errant five year old that snuck out at night with blankets that were too big for him to fold. The kid had him intrigued.

“Hey kid, who are you?”

“I’m Jimmy.” Jimmy replied as he disappeared over the fence.