Prosthetics¹||Five Hargreeves

Two

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When Matthew was thirteen, he started to question if he was gay or not. He had told his parents about it, but they told him it was a phase and he'd grow out of it.

Three years later, when he was sixteen he was caught kissing a boy in his bedroom, after the boy left, Matthew's dad yelled at him saying "this isn't normal".

That's when he started to overthink that maybe there was something wrong with him since he wasn't "normal", and to try and "help him" his parents sent him away.

It did nothing, all that place ever did was hurt him. For two years straight he was abused by so-called people that would help him get better.

That's where he met Alex though, they were friends the first year Matthew was there. When the second year came around they became 'friends with benefits', yet they still said "I love you" to each other.

The only reason that Matthew and Alex didn't label the relationship is that they didn't know if it would work out, turns out it did.

At least up until Alex died in a hate crime at the age of nineteen, Matthew was utterly destroyed and heartbroken because of it.

Still is to this day...

He didn't understand why people treated others differently because of their sexuality or what they identify as, and the fact that it would get to the point of killing someone because of it.

Since then Matthew has kept to himself and doesn't interact very often with others unless he has to, only because he's afraid of falling in love and something happening to them.

Matthew stood in front of the sink in the bathroom, washing his hands. Thing is though, his hands were already clean, he only kept scrubbing and so on until his hands got raw and started to sting.

Even then, he kept going.

He stopped when he heard the bathroom door swing open, Matthew didnt bother to look at who it was, mostly because he didn't care at who was with him.

Five stood at a sink away from him and turned on the water, cupping his hands underneath and bringing his hands up to his face.

Matthew looked at him through the mirror, watching as Five washed his face. It had been about a week since they last interacted, and that was when he punched Five in the nose.

They hadn't spoken to each other since then, Matthew was scared to because he didn't know all of what Five was capable of. His training the other day proved some of it.

Five walked past him grabbing paper towels and drying his hands, "I'm sorry for almost breaking your nose the other day," Matthew started, Five looked at him, throwing the paper towels away.

"I deserved it anyway, it's fine" he answered starting to walk to the door, but before he could get any further Matthew grabbed his arm which made Five look back at him.

They made eye contact, Matthew hadn't realized how emerald green Five's eyes were, or how rosy pink his lips were, how his hair was ravened color, or even how perfect his jawline was either.

It was because he was afraid of falling in love with Five, Matthew swore to himself on the night of Alex's death that he wouldn't fall in love. He didn't want his heart to be broken, not again.

Whether it meant losing them in death, or walking out on him.

Matthew looked at the floor while Five still looked at him, "What? Are you gonna hold me against my will in the bathroom?" he asked. Matthew let go of Five's arm and walked out of the bathroom.