[The harsh accusation stung more than the bitter frost at his fingertips, and it made his crunching footsteps in the snow stop cold. He had to breathe in short, desperate breaths to get the oxygen needed for the tone he had to convey.
If Badou was here right now, stuck in the freezing wind with him, he'd be in his face, teeth gnashing mere inches from the other boy's. The same effect was achieved by Gau focusing what energy he had into speaking (yelling) into the phone directly-]
...I won't c-change my opinion! Even i-if it's something l-like this!
[The advice is heard, considered and accepted without argument. Gau would save his breath for the arguments that mattered to him. This was one such argument.]
If R-Raikou-san wants to remain here, then I will go through w-whatever the L-Landlord puts me t-through! I will m-make it back to him, f-for as long as he wants to stay here! I-I will not sacrifice his happiness for my own!
[Through death, hell and nothingness and back, he would be with this man.]
[the sudden fire in Gau's voice isn't entirely a surprise, although Badou (more survival minded than anything else) would have assumed it would be an argument to have later, when Gau wasn't stumbling through whatever a blizzard was like, when Badou wasn't up to his knees in swamp water]
[he's wondered every day what it would be like if Dave were here, what the plan would be then; he himself would probably want to stay, while Dave would be itching to get back. and he'd follow his brother's lead, like he always has, because home was where Dave was, even if he would've gotten more of his brother's time here, even if they were definitely safer here (with those hooded men who knew where they lived and what they had been doing)]
[Badou would have felt the way Raikou probably feels, if Raikou's reasons for staying are what he suspects, what Gau has told him in small, haphazard chunks -- that family mattered most, even more than freedom]
[but Dave never would have been alright with it; with being owned, with being property to dump onto islands, to force into happy little homes with parents and siblings. he would have thought freedom mattered more than family (mattered more than Badou, because -- because that's how it was then, even when they were free)]
[as far as Badou is concerned, Dave's is the final word on the subject; it was wrong to be here]
He's wrong. Ya shouldn't hafta choose. Your family or your freedom -- it should be both. It could be both.
[Badou didn't have either, and it hurts to watch, to hear about that kind of loyalty when his is stretched so painfully far away]
There's nothin' stoppin' him from takin' his family, an' you, an' tryin' to get the fuck outta here. It's selfish an' stupid an' fucked up to sit around an' do nothin'. He's makin' you a hypocrite.
[It's impossible to tell, but his hard, firm stance in the snow is starting to shake and wobble with the wind, barely resisting the temptation to fall to the ground.
Perhaps it was hypocritical, if you boiled down the complicated situation to it's simplest terms. But it was more than a choice between family and home, more than between safety and danger, and more than Gau could speak for.
It took him by surprise, though, how much it bothered him- and it wasn't frustration from anger at a completely false fact]
F-For Raikou-san to have his f-freedom and his family it would... I-It would require turning the laws of death around in my home universe!
[He forces his voice to become louder as it trembles with the cold.]
That isn't r-r-r-ight, Badou-san! I-It can't happen like that! No m-matter how tempting that option may seem, you can't do that w-without knowing the consequences of such a short-s-s-sighted wish!
[In his mind, there was one way to turn the laws of nature around according to the existing rules in his home universe, and he would never use Miharu in such a way.]
[voice]
If Badou was here right now, stuck in the freezing wind with him, he'd be in his face, teeth gnashing mere inches from the other boy's. The same effect was achieved by Gau focusing what energy he had into speaking (yelling) into the phone directly-]
...I won't c-change my opinion! Even i-if it's something l-like this!
[The advice is heard, considered and accepted without argument. Gau would save his breath for the arguments that mattered to him. This was one such argument.]
If R-Raikou-san wants to remain here, then I will go through w-whatever the L-Landlord puts me t-through! I will m-make it back to him, f-for as long as he wants to stay here! I-I will not sacrifice his happiness for my own!
[Through death, hell and nothingness and back, he would be with this man.]
Re: [voice]
[he's wondered every day what it would be like if Dave were here, what the plan would be then; he himself would probably want to stay, while Dave would be itching to get back. and he'd follow his brother's lead, like he always has, because home was where Dave was, even if he would've gotten more of his brother's time here, even if they were definitely safer here (with those hooded men who knew where they lived and what they had been doing)]
[Badou would have felt the way Raikou probably feels, if Raikou's reasons for staying are what he suspects, what Gau has told him in small, haphazard chunks -- that family mattered most, even more than freedom]
[but Dave never would have been alright with it; with being owned, with being property to dump onto islands, to force into happy little homes with parents and siblings. he would have thought freedom mattered more than family (mattered more than Badou, because -- because that's how it was then, even when they were free)]
[as far as Badou is concerned, Dave's is the final word on the subject; it was wrong to be here]
He's wrong. Ya shouldn't hafta choose. Your family or your freedom -- it should be both. It could be both.
[Badou didn't have either, and it hurts to watch, to hear about that kind of loyalty when his is stretched so painfully far away]
There's nothin' stoppin' him from takin' his family, an' you, an' tryin' to get the fuck outta here. It's selfish an' stupid an' fucked up to sit around an' do nothin'. He's makin' you a hypocrite.
[voice]
[It's impossible to tell, but his hard, firm stance in the snow is starting to shake and wobble with the wind, barely resisting the temptation to fall to the ground.
Perhaps it was hypocritical, if you boiled down the complicated situation to it's simplest terms. But it was more than a choice between family and home, more than between safety and danger, and more than Gau could speak for.
It took him by surprise, though, how much it bothered him- and it wasn't frustration from anger at a completely false fact]
F-For Raikou-san to have his f-freedom and his family it would... I-It would require turning the laws of death around in my home universe!
[He forces his voice to become louder as it trembles with the cold.]
That isn't r-r-r-ight, Badou-san! I-It can't happen like that! No m-matter how tempting that option may seem, you can't do that w-without knowing the consequences of such a short-s-s-sighted wish!
[In his mind, there was one way to turn the laws of nature around according to the existing rules in his home universe, and he would never use Miharu in such a way.]