#secondhandroses thoughts

But as the weeks go by, whenever they kiss, the intensity of the sharp jabs from its silver bristles increases, and so does Clive's hatred for it.

He demands for Dimitri to shave it, making claims like 'it doesn't suit your face!' and 'it's ugly!' even though he thinks quite the opposite.

Not only did the same event give them trauma, but their trauma affected them in a similar way - it made them fixate on the past so much that they ended up harming both other people and themselves, and I think they'd be able to relate to each other really strongly because of that.

In Clive's mind, because they're older, that surely means they're more stable, and since Clive is very unstable himself, he likes the idea of being with someone older who, because of this perceived stability, can both ground and protect him.

....And I think part of the reason he has one-sided beef with Dimitri is that because they (probably) spend so much time together, Clive has come to notice all the little ways Dimitri doesn't fit into this idealised fantasy of an older man he'd constructed, and it pisses him off.