J'aime les choses. Je les ai mis ici.

Yuzu Kato

‘Borrowing from the Tiger’s Majesty’.

baby asra whose early childhood was spent in the loving arms of aisha and salim, the softest™ parents ever, who did their best to show asra how much they loved him, who raised him to associate touch with affection, with love. baby asra who, even after aisha and salim were taken, dreamed of them, and in his dreams they would hug him and reassure him: we love you so much, habibi. never forget that, please. faust hugs him when he asks, but it’s not the same as baba’s arms around him, or mama kissing him goodnight.

but then asra grows up alone on the streets of vesuvia, at least til he meets muriel. and he’s excited, but muriel doesn’t show love through touch, not like his parents did. muriel instead makes sure asra eats; he makes sure asra sleeps someplace warm and dry; he makes sure the other kids don’t bother asra like they used to. asra learns this, learns that muriel hateshateshates being touched (at least by the other kids – with asra, he tolerates it). 

so he starts showing his love in the same ways. he steals pastries with sweet fillings, and gives muriel the freshest fruit he’d found in rich people’s trash, and he asks the magician to show him how to enchant muriel’s shawls to be warm, to never snag or fray. slowly, but surely, asra forgets what it was like to be hugged; slowly but surely, he stops dreaming of his parents, as he focuses less on how to get his parents back and more on how to survive day-to-day.