The Secret's in the Telling
S J Smith
Summary: Joe's life is built on secrets.
A.N.: Written for D. M. Evans, for the prompt of "The Secret's in the Telling" by Dashboard Confessionals.
There were secrets and then there were secrets. He had lived with them all his life. What he could tell, what he couldn't; the things his mother warned him not to say. He wasn't to speak of his father's job or his mother's activities out of the household. He had to keep quiet, bite his tongue, when the other kids teased and mocked. His temper didn't always allow that; sometimes, he'd come home sporting a black eye or a raspberry on his cheek.
After his parents were murdered and Dr. Nambu took him in, the secrets grew. It wasn't like he could tell anyone why he raced so sporadically; why he couldn't keep a steady girlfriend. He couldn't talk to anyone about the feeling that came over him when the team destroyed a Gallactor base; of the rage at watching that bastard, Katse, escape them, time and again. He hated talking to the I.S.O. shrinks; didn't like burdening the others on the team. How could he tell them about his blurring vision; the headaches that sometimes sent him crashing to his knees? Dr. Nambu would take him off the team; keep him from doing what he felt like he was meant to do.
So many secrets and there was only one person he could tell.
Joe Asakura stared at himself in the mirror, the lower half of his face soaped up for shaving. "Let me tell you a secret…."