‘You’ll eat when you’ve learned to behave like a human’
It was never enough for Elijah to mutter it under his breath, even though when he did, it was always audible enough for the other boy to hear. Or would hear, if he could.  Elijah still wasn’t sure just how much of the boy’s, its, body functioned properly.  

It.

Elijah repeated in his head as he scarfed down his food, his eyes steadfast on the blue eyes staring blankly at him. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t hungry.  That wasn’t the point. He wanted the boy to feel hunger, the desperation.   Desperation great enough to leak envy through those dull eyes. Maybe even great enough to pick up the fork he always put besides its limp hands.  But those eyes remained unfocused, vacant of any visible signs of response or thought.

‘Try’, they said.

‘If not, there’s always the feeding tube’, Elijah mimicked. He didn’t remember if he had feigned sympathy when the Earl entrusted the boy to him.  After all, emotions weren’t his strongest suit, and empathy was something he never understood. He remembered searching the Earl’s face for any cues. 

But did I find any? he mused.  Oh well. Not important.

‘You don’t deserve survival if you don’t fight for it’
Elijah seethed.  He wasn’t mimicking the Earl anymore.  Instead, it was the voice of those who handled him before he came to Teacup. Those broad shoulders he learned to hate, but couldn’t stop himself from understanding. More than he understood the Earl, more than he understood the ideals of Teacup, and certainly more than he understood this- boy.

‘You’ll eat when you’ve learned to behave like a human’

Elijah stood up, taking his plate with him. Those blank eyes did not follow.

‘If not, there’s always the feeding tube’

Just some random thoughts on the early days of Elijah and Jackie before they became close. I always imagined BB as a wreck when he first comes to Teacup, almost vegetative and Eli was an angry angry kid. They probably would be around the same age (10~ ish) at this time and Eli was given Jackie to take care of.   Eli being the angry little pessimistic survivalist he was at the time wasn’t so happy and doesn’t try to feed BB like he’s supposed to.

idk.  I guess this is all speculative mumbo jumbo cuz I don’t quite know BB’s full backstory yet. Can I have my stylus back pleaseeeee