From the first response Harper can tell there’s something wrong. Edmund is despondent at best, and even without the benefit of knowing the boy and being able to keenly read body language, the tone alone is a red flag. In many ways it’s a blessing that Edmund feels comfortable talking to him freely - or with people in general - because it takes no further prodding for him to open up.
As the boy leans into him Harper wraps an arm gently around him to pull him closer, humming softly to show he’s both listening and understanding. “I think you’re perfectly the right size. What is it you think you need to be doing?” Often children had an idea in mind they needed to be more like the adults around them, but with Frey’s ability to age them, it was a far riskier problem than he remembers it being in the modern world he came from. So first he needed to figure out exactly what Edmund thought the vague, elusive future of “older” held for him.
As the boy leans into him Harper wraps an arm gently around him to pull him closer, humming softly to show he’s both listening and understanding. “I think you’re perfectly the right size. What is it you think you need to be doing?” Often children had an idea in mind they needed to be more like the adults around them, but with Frey’s ability to age them, it was a far riskier problem than he remembers it being in the modern world he came from. So first he needed to figure out exactly what Edmund thought the vague, elusive future of “older” held for him.
Harper
