Fractured Pieces, New Mirror

Damage repair was a very slow process, even more so than he'd expected it to be. At times, Enrico clung to him and sobbed when he had to leave to go back to the orphanage. At others, the doll simply shut itself into its new room and refused to talk to anyone for days and, usually, they found small patches of blood in the room when he did finally come out.

One of the only good things about the mercurial changes of mind and personality was the fact that at least it had stopped trying to tear itself apart, although the knowledge that it was still hurting itself at all made this a very small comfort indeed. The other was that he'd found at least one method that consistently calmed Enrico down when the doll's emotions began to get out of control.

He was grateful when he'd discovered that the taps could now dispense hot water. While baths seemed to help his smaller companion's psyche, he'd worried about the effect that the icy water would have on the doll over time. As he checked the temperature of the warming water, he kept an eye on the doll as it paced agitatedly about the room and mumbled to itself.

At least he'd remembered to lock the door this time. He didn’t care to repeat the latest incident that had come as a result of Enrico’s unstable mind.

When he was satisfied with the temperature, he caught Enrico before it could make another circuit of the bathroom. “Shh, I’m not going to hurt you,” he soothed when it tried to squirm free, and the doll went still, only making small noises of halfhearted protest as he pulled the oversized clothing off.

Settling Enrico under the warm spray of water, he crouched down to begin washing the doll’s hair. As usual, the tension in its back seemed to ease a little, and he let out a slow breath of relief. He didn’t know what had made the doll particularly antsy and skittish today, but he didn’t want things getting to the point that Enrico tried to harm itself again. He’d just finished washing the doll’s hair and was getting ready to start on skin, when it suddenly and silently leaned forward and buried its face against his chest.

“…Enrico?” he asked hesitantly, caught off guard by the combination of the motion and the silence.

“Do you hate me?”

He swallowed thickly, then put his arms around the doll. “Of course not.”

“Did you hate him?”

The knot in his throat grew larger as he remembered what Renaldo had told him about the doll’s split mind, and he clued in to what it meant. “I-…Why… would you ask that?”

The doll pressed closer, and he heard a muffled sniff. “He woke up an’…and you wouldn’t come back, an-“

Before it could begin to babble, he covered the doll’s mouth with his hand and drew it back into his lap, then moved his hand to begin running fingers through long, wet hair. “That wasn’t your fault. Or his,” he amended quickly, even though in his own mind, it partially was. “I just… had a lot of things that needed to be worked out.”

“Why?”

Trust the doll to still be so innocently inclined towards the hardest questions. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves and picked up the cloth to begin bathing Enrico. “Well, there were a lot of things that never got cleared up before or after he died. A lot of things that are still unclear, even with you here.”

Despite his efforts, the doll picked up on the tightness that he’d tried to keep out of his voice. “Did he make you mad? Was he a bad person?”

“He infuriated me sometimes,” he admitted as he pushed the thick cascade of hair over the doll’s shoulders and passed the soapy cloth down its back. “And…I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure.”

“How come?”

“Because of you.” And even as he said it, something clicked. Something psychological he’d been taught years ago in training, but had mostly forgotten. And suddenly, everything that he’d been questioning for weeks seemed clear. “Not an improvement, just an interpretation,” he murmured, not hearing when Enrico made a confused noise.

Of course. Hindsight was stronger, after all, and now that he’d clued in, it was impossible to not see the parallels, especially when he thought about what Renaldo had told him about the doll’s behavior during his prolonged absence. He could even hear the voice of an abandoned six-year-old, quietly asking yet again if that day would be the day his father came for the promised visit. And, when he pieced it altogether, he realized exactly what it was the midian had done when he’d created this Enrico.

“You can’t be anything but innocent, can you?” he murmured, half to his companion and half thinking out loud.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” Even as he picked up the cloth again to continue washing, his mind was off somewhere else, putting all the pieces together.

"This one will never decide he's outgrown you either. It can't."

Alucard’s words still haunted him, but now because they made sense. The midian hadn’t done a complete rewrite, he’d just made an omission. The original Enrico had grown up enough to realize what lies and abandonment were. To learn hate and build walls. The doll, on the other hand… That ability had been removed.

He suddenly felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. For having been too wrapped up in doubts and discomforts to look at the problem in a more straightforward way. All this time, he’d thought the doll had been a reconstruction, retaining nothing of his old self, when, really, he was nothing more than an adult form of the innocence the original had once possessed.

Hands gently touched his face, and he was startled out of his thoughts and back to reality as he looked down at the doll.

“What’s wrong?”

He smiled, genuinely affectionate for the first time in weeks as he brushed a hand over Enrico’s hair. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

Shutting off the water, he helped Enrico out and grabbed a towel to dry them both, then another to press the water out of his smaller companion’s hair. Then, heedless of their undressed state, he drew the doll into a gentle embrace, shushing its confused sound.

“He and I spent most of our time arguing,” he murmured, and the doll went quiet as he continued the explanation he had cut off earlier. “He had a lot of opinions I didn’t like, and I had a lot of opinions he didn’t like. It was very rarely that we saw eye to eye on anything, and I made a lot of mistakes with him that I wish I could have changed or taken back. I wish it hadn’t gotten to the point that the only thing to do was stand back and let things finish their course.”

“But you didn’t hate him?”

“No. I didn’t like him a lot of the time, but I did love him.”

Enrico hesitantly nuzzled his shoulder. “And me?” he asked in a small, nervous voice.

He brushed a kiss against the doll’s forehead and wrapped him in an oversized shirt. “And you,” he reassured.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

The doll brightened a little bit for the first time in the weeks since the bloody mess in the previous house, and he let out a deep breath as it snuggled closer. They could finish getting dressed later, but for now he slid his arms around the smaller figure, resting his chin comfortably on his companion’s head. Maybe, just maybe… this new revelation would be enough to make things work this time.