Those blue eyes, those wide blue eyes, they burned into Max. And Max's heart was pumping, and his own eyes were wide, because he was just as nervous and afraid as the little boy before him. The little version of himself before him. The little broken boy who's heart was bruised, staring at Max with tears stinging his eyes. And Max couldn't stand to stare at the frightened boy any longer, but he needed to tell him something important. Something he himself struggled to believe sometimes but knew was the truth.
"What mom and dad did... it's not you're fault." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. This was a harder task than he thought it was going to be, but he needed this when he was younger. He needed someone to reassure him, to comfort him, to care when no one else did, because the lack of that is what helped to break him. "It's not your fault. It's their fault. They hate you. They despise you, and so does everyone else. And it's going to be that way for a long... long time. And they're not the only ones, because you're going to hate yourself more than anyone else does." He let out a shaky breath, his heart beginning to pound inside of his chest. He couldn't believe what he was saying right now. He couldn't believe what was happening. But he had to keep going, he had to tell the little boy the truth, because if he didn't... well, Max knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew exactly the things the little boy would do, because they were one and the same.
"It's going to be hard. You're going to try so many times to get rid of the pain..." Tears began to prick his eyes and he roughly wiped them away. He didn't need to cry. Not in front of this boy. He wasn't even sure if they boy minded or not, he wasn't sure how this looked to him. No one had ever done this for Max, so he didn't know. He just hoped he didn't take it the wrong way. "You're going to try to die more times than you will ever admit in the future. You're going to end up in the mental hospital so many times you'll think you're actually crazy. But you know what? It's okay. It's.... it's okay to want to get rid of the pain, it's okay to feel bad. It's okay to want to die. You're.... you're valid."
Max broke, tears spilling out of his eyes faster than he would have liked for them to. He fell down onto his knees and wrapped the little boy in a tight embrace, and the boy winced underneath him but didn't move away from him. They both needed this comfort right now, they both needed this chance to make things okay. And Max only wished that he would have gotten this himself a lot earlier, but he was more than happy to be able to do this now.
"You're valid for feeling horrible. You're going to be traumatized and hurting all of your life and it's not going to feel okay. But I promise you something great is going to happen to you." He pulled away and looked the boy in the eye, although his tears were blurring his vision. Giving the boy a tight but genuine smile, he gently tightened his grip on him. "You're going to find someone where you didn't expect to find them. And he's going to make everything so much better for you. You're still going to feel bad, I - I don't think that's going to ever change. But you're going to have amazing partners who love you, you're going to find someone you lost, you're going to have a son. And you're going to have ups and downs but everything..." Taking a shaky deep breath so as to not break down crying again, Max continued, "Everything is going.... to be okay. Your parents never loved you like they should have, but you're going to be loved. You are loved. You... I love you. I love you."