Destitute (adj.): Absolute want/need
Destitution (n)
Destitution is never easy and certainly isn't fun for those involved. Psychotherapist Kai and one of his patients, a traumatised Tala finds this out the hard way. May be shounen-ai later, undecided. Please R&R!
AU Kai X Tala Pairing
Kai Hiwatari is a young, talented psychotherapist, who consults for all social classes. He is accurate, hard working and professional, but also emotive and compassionate. Kai is highly regarded in his profession and well liked as a person.
Tala Valkov is a patient of Kai's. Now in the care of a wealthy family, Tala was born into a working-class family who were unable to support him and gave him to an Abbey to be cared for. Things did not go as planned however, and by the time Tala was eventually 'rescued' and 'taken-in' by his current carers, he had been left with many mental and physical scars.
I met an interesting new patient today, a few years younger than me yet has had far more life experience than myself, and unfortunately, none of it good. He's going to be difficult to help but I'm not going to give up, he needs someone who won't fail him, he deserves that much. He is very much afraid of people, not that I can blame him, and seems to greatly dislike being called Mr Valkov, so for our first session, I think I'm going t try calling him by his first name, Tala. It is a beautiful name, Native American for wolf, though it is generally a girl's name. Perhaps his parents wanted a girl, or perhaps they didn't realise, or didn't care. Either way, the name suits him and he does seem to have a love for wolves, so it's appropriate.
As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not really sure how best to try and help him. He doesn't want to talk to anyone, he has no wish to relive the nightmare of his life, but rather hide away from the world and try to protect himself. The first thing I need to do is gain his trust so that he is willing to talk to me, not necessarily about what happened, just anything at all. I think what he really needs is a friend, but it would be difficult for anyone to befriend him, his scars run too deep.
Usually, I look at the profile, meet the person and then try to imagine the problems, so I know how best to deal with it, but in this case I just don't have any idea at all. The amount of physical and mental abuse he's suffered and from such a young age, I just can't imagine how that would affect someone, it seems impossible that such a thing could have happened in this day and age, yet it has. I think they were right to bring him here from Moscow, the farther from Russia and his past he is the better.
I would be somewhat interested to view the complete medical report from when he was first examined, I know from the little I have been told that he was not in good condition, but equally, I have no wish to know, because I know it was horrendous. But as well as being malnutrition, beaten and 'trained' excessively, there was also all the mental abuse had been forced to endure, as well as the programming he received. This is going to be very difficult to deal with; he won't take kindly to anyone prying, let alone a 'shrink'. I just hope that I can get through to him, I have no doubt he could hold a constructive place in society and have a happy life if only I can succeed.
I think I'm going to put some studying into the subject, the 'on-goings' in Balkov Abbey are certainly well publicised, though unfortunately the press has a bad habit of misconstruing proceedings, or at least helping the rest of us to. Thankfully, or unfortunately, they have no knowledge of the redhead, who was without any doubt the worst of them, surprising, considering he was their favourite. I can't help but wonder if the boy had been raped, or perhaps I should say sodomized, some of his reactions suggest he has been, while others suggest not. Either way, I think I should stay clear of that subject until I have his complete trust, which will probably be a very long time, if not forever.
After reading the material I can find on Balkov Abbey I can come to only one conclusion, the people who ran it are criminally insane, especially the proprietor, Doctor Balkov. I think it was one of these 'take over the world' plans that you see in movies, but the things they put those boys through is unbelievable. Tala was obviously deemed to be the most worthwhile, which is why they pushed him harder than everyone else, certainly, he seems more like a robot than a boy, but the injuries they all sustained were awful, they can't have thought of them as fellow humans.
He is going to take a lot of reprogramming, which isn't going to be easy, but still, he was beaten or tortured, so perhaps it's possible he rebelled for some reason, maybe that's how they found out what was going on there in the first place? I shall have to ask at some point, though obviously not for a while. It's unusual for me to take such an interest in a patient, I'm not sure whether it's because of my humanitarian feelings, or because he's a challenge, but the more I learn the more I want to know. I don't know whether that's good or bad, I don't suppose it will hurt so long as I keep things in perspective, I certainly don't need to allow myself to become obsessive, or for my concentration to fail me, after all, I have plenty of others in need of my help, just not as much as him.
I need to stop thinking about this and get out for a while. I wonder what there is to do though? I know, I can check what's on at the cinema, I haven't been for a while and that doesn't require dragging someone else around, they never want to do anything this day of the week. Well, I'm not sure about any of those, but I'll go anyway, it will be good for me to get out for a while.
I know it's rather short, but this is just a teaser chapter to find out whether the fic is worth continuing with, please let me know. I'm also curious as to whether to write it as a shounen-ai fic or just a friendship one. Anyway, let me know what you think. Thanks!
