Something about the way Johnny says that: "We're doing this, then" makes Number 6 wonder if he hasn't been waiting for this opening for some time. And now, as he listens, he realizes what it was that Cesar was hinting at before, too. They'd both been pushing him--haven't they?-- little by little, to the edge of this moment, waiting for him to take the dive.
So he does listen, openly and with as little judgment as a man like him can muster. He hears the common threads that unite him and Johnny, despite this hard-to-swallow revelation. He resists looking too hard at Johnny's features, to see if he can find the remnants of the person that was. That person is gone and Johnny has firmly put them in the grave. That much is immutable fact. And now he finally sees why Johnny had been so earnest in refusing to give away Number 6's secret, refusing even the idea of calling him by anything else. The pieces fall into place, at last.
He's quiet for a long moment after Johnny finishes explaining. It's a pensive silence. He's taking his time to digest. Another piece of advice he'd been given by Cesar. It is still shocking, he decides, to encounter someone who has eschewed their previous gender like this. But is it more Shocking than a girl who can change form with a thought, or phase through walls, or shoot magic from her hands? No. He decides it isn't.
"The physical parts of you that might say otherwise are of no concern to anyone but your lovers, whom I already know are in complete support of you." There, that was the hardest part out of the way.
"I know what it is to live a lie, day in and day out. And you already know why that is. It's no way to live." Miserable, just like Johnny said. It is miserable. Number 6 is... miserable.
"So, you are who you say you are." It's what Johnny had said to him, and it's advice worth taking. "And I believe you. I... respect you still."
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So he does listen, openly and with as little judgment as a man like him can muster. He hears the common threads that unite him and Johnny, despite this hard-to-swallow revelation. He resists looking too hard at Johnny's features, to see if he can find the remnants of the person that was. That person is gone and Johnny has firmly put them in the grave. That much is immutable fact. And now he finally sees why Johnny had been so earnest in refusing to give away Number 6's secret, refusing even the idea of calling him by anything else. The pieces fall into place, at last.
He's quiet for a long moment after Johnny finishes explaining. It's a pensive silence. He's taking his time to digest. Another piece of advice he'd been given by Cesar. It is still shocking, he decides, to encounter someone who has eschewed their previous gender like this. But is it more Shocking than a girl who can change form with a thought, or phase through walls, or shoot magic from her hands? No. He decides it isn't.
"The physical parts of you that might say otherwise are of no concern to anyone but your lovers, whom I already know are in complete support of you." There, that was the hardest part out of the way.
"I know what it is to live a lie, day in and day out. And you already know why that is. It's no way to live." Miserable, just like Johnny said. It is miserable. Number 6 is... miserable.
"So, you are who you say you are." It's what Johnny had said to him, and it's advice worth taking. "And I believe you. I... respect you still."