You cry, I cry, we all cry!
The "too broken by abuse to know what is normal, acting painfully shy until gradually can be shown that they are loved and start believing in themselves" thing is entirely my jam, and I don't think I've seen it in this fandom. The O.C. fandom had a streak of this. The next delicious part is when he does start trusting but then still has the old habits- like feeling very guilty or panicking over some normal mishap, or hoarding food, or flinching at a touch. Plus all the things that other kids would be used to- school, doctors visits, etc. Plus the other side is the new caretakers seeing all these signs, or scars, and constantly being reminded of it. Something tells me this story is going to have all of this :P But either way I'm super excited to see how this goes on.
