I can't decide if this breaks my heart or makes me grin. I think it's both at the same time, because Matt learning things about himself and Charlie is good, but that he has to learn them because of where they've come from? Not good.

BOYS. Just, BOYS. They make me want to wrap them in bubble wrap, seriously. And I loved these two sentences more than is healthy, because they're such a fantastic combination of backstory and physical, visual image that they make me want to do hearthands at you and them and this WHOLE FIC. *g*

He learned the hard way that twelve years in prison affects how you're instincts are wired, and it all doesn't just disappear when you cross that threshold that is the fence separating you from freedom...Matt learned to start walking around the house louder as he found himself on the floor, wind knocked out of him, Charlie's gaze feral and distant but quickly apologetic as he came into focus.