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   it wasn’t sympathy. he didn’t care    if he cared about jack in the first place, he wouldn’t have bought him from his mother. he was cruel and heartless, but he recognized how terrible it was to buy children. buying and selling children was absolutely inhumane. good thing he has never been concerned about being seen as human to others. he’s seen as a monster, and he’s feared because of this. respected. 

                                                    ( you don’t fuck fontaine                                                          fontaine fucks you. )

   even with the lack of warmth in his eyes, even with his frigid hands and his snake tongue, jack loves fontaine, prefers his company more than he prefers tenenbaum or suchong. why this was, no one understood. sure, sometimes fontaine allowed jack to sleep on his lap, sometimes he told him stories about new york, and whenever jack would cry while getting tested on    fontaine would try to calm him down. a simple pat of the head and a ”it’s gonna be alright, kid, okay?"and just like that    jack gave his loyalty and adoration over to the man who had yanked him away from the womb of his mother. 

                                          ( son, you’re special.                                            you were born to do great things. )

   it was a phrase fontaine told jack once    when the kid wouldn’t stop crying while tenenbaum was working on him. he hadn’t meant to come off as a father figure, didn’t mean to use son in that context    but the next day, jack called him papa fontaine. and fontaine had hit that child in rage. he didn’t apologize. he only left, stayed away for days    weeks. he was not ashamed. he did not feel guilty. he’d wasted the time and money to smuggle in a puppy for jack simply so the kid would forget about fontaine’s lashing out. a female pup    springer spaniel, purebred. even fontaine admits she was adorable to look at. once she arrived in rapture, he boxed her up, dug some holes in the cardboard, then went to find jack. he grunted a greeting in response to tenenbaum when she passed by. she was evidently curious about the box in his hands, though she was wise enough to not ask. 

   jack sits in his room, idly playing with some of the blocks in there. fontaine doesn’t knock or say anything when he steps in, only motions the kid over with his finger and plops the box down on the floor. he lets him open it up, and as expected, the pup eagerly jumps on jack once she sees him. it’s the first time he’s seen jack so genuinely happy    it’s a strange sight, in all honesty. 

” thank you, mister fontaine.. “

   he snorts in response, shrugs a shoulder. he’s as aloof as ever    and yet, he reaches down and pets the kid’s head, momentarily runs his fingers through his hair. he pulls away almost immediately.