He'd heard the speeches. Not on the receiving end of them. No, he was usually on the sidelines, awkwardly wanting to disassociate himself from her as she laid it all onto some ignorant local. Only he never did that. Agree with her or not, he always stood there and listened to it. And when it went bad, stepped in to try and diffuse things for her sake. And his.

Some freak.

He'd never said it. Not even to others. Or to dad. Or even out loud to himself. But now he felt immensely guilty just hearing her voice what he'd never openly said. It was what he'd thought. He'd loved her, of course. She was his sister. And while he hadn't liked what she could do, that was just a part of her he disapproved of. It hadn't effected anything else. Right?

His shoulders sagged as he lowered his head, his fingers tightening around the lump of metal. He wasn't looking at it, but it was shifting into another shape without his notice.

"You're not-" He quickly corrected himself. "We're not freaks. I mean. That's not what I meant." He raised his head a bit. "Do you know what they're saying? That you started your club thing because of me. That I've been hiding this all along. The coach asked me not to sign up when classes start. They can't prove it, but they all know."