One.
"My mother, Lusamine...she was not a kind person."
Selene started in surprise. Gladion was not usually the one to begin a conversation. When he did, it was important. She always listened attentively on those rare occasions.
"She taught us that beauty was pain. And that we should be grateful that she was making us beautiful. She said that beauty was the only thing that mattered in this world, that only the beautiful ones would ever be happy. She'd control everything, our food, our clothes, how we wore our hair, even how we spoke. To each other and to others. The only words we could say were beautiful ones. Anything negative was ugly. Once, I mentioned that I wanted to wear black instead of white and gold. That was the first time." He paused for a long moment before continuing.
"She always went for my left hand. She equated marriage with happiness. So when she wanted to punish me, she would damage my ideal future."
Gladion paused again. The look in his eyes was terrifying, full of the rage, fear, and hate of his childhood, but Selene felt only sorrow. She wasn't scared. Gently, she pried his left hand open from the tight, white-knuckled fist it had become, revealing the crimson crescents he'd dug into his own flesh. Curled up at his other side, Silvally whimpered sadly and nuzzled its master's shoulder. Gladion's expression lightened a bit, and, seemingly drawing strength from his two companions, he resumed his story.
"Lusamine never permanently hurt Lillie, thank Arceus. She thought that a girl with scars wasn't beautiful. But the things she could do that wouldn't leave lasting traces were still terrible." He drew in a shaky breath.
"Her favorite punishment was to lock us in empty rooms for days. Of course, she wouldn't let us get too thin. Being too bony wasn't beautiful either. But she didn't have to feed us. She'd just hook us up to tubes that pumped nutrients straight into our bloodstreams. It wasn't the lack of food that made the punishment so bad. It was the lack of everything. Those rooms were empty black boxes. No sound. No sight. No taste. Nothing."
Silvally laid its head on Gladion's lap, eyes mournful, tail drooping. He stroked the creature's fur with his free right hand. Selene felt the air getting colder as the last rays of the sun dissipated, but said nothing, not wanting to interrupt. This was probably the first telling of his full story.
"Lusamine was not kind. She was insane."
Selene felt his left hand begin to tremble again, and tried to soothe the phantom pain that never really left by rubbing small circles across it with the pad of her thumb. It seemed to help a little.
"She wanted beauty. She made us beautiful. She wanted Ultra Beasts. She got Ultra Beasts. That's the way Lusamine works. When she sees what she wants, she takes it. No regrets, no apologies. And that-"
He suddenly clenched his left hand tightly, trapping her wrist. She bit her lip to stifle the cry that bubbled to her lips. She hadn't expected that.
"-is why I still cannot forgive her, despite what Lillie says."
Gladion sat in silence for a long time, saying nothing more. It was a few minutes before he noticed how harshly he'd been gripping Selene's delicate wrist. He immediately let go. "Selene-"
A finger brushed his lips, the touch as light as butterfly wings. It was enough to quiet him, though.
"It's alright."
Somehow, he felt that those words were meant for more than that one moment.
Das Ende!
-Jade