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The first time it happened, Cypher was just out of the shower and noticed Killjoy had woken up and mumble the line with a small sniffle before quickly picking it up, hugging her stuffed dinosaur tight. He just chalked it up to Killjoy being Killjoy and didn't think much about it.
The second time was while he was checking on her thru a camera he had placed in her room as a test run (with her consent), but both had forgotten about it until this day. Killjoy had woken up after a long night and almost teared up when she saw dino on the ground again. "...I'm such a horrible parent." She said before picking it up again. Cypher was now concerned.
The third time, Killjoy had woken up before Cypher, and he heard her say "I'm just like them, I should never be a parent." while audibly holding back tears. It was enough that Cypher woke up and went "Sweetheart? What's the matter?" despite being groggy and not knowing what was happening.
Killjoy was startled and didn't expect Cypher to be woken up; she didn't think she was that loud.
"I- I'm fine." She hastily rubbed away the tears. "Dino was on the floor again. I keep knocking him over in my sleep. I'd be such a terrible parent haha."
Cypher looked at her smile that didn't reach her eyes.
He knew that there was some family history that led to Brimstone essentially taking her in, but he never pried; while it was tempting to dig it out, he knew that it would shatter her trust in him.
"Sweetheart, just because you knocked him over in your sleep doesn’t make you a bad parent, nor does it mean you will be." He holds her hand and kisses her forehead.
"But..." She begins, barely above a whisper, "what if I'm just like them?"
Cypher frowns at this. He assumes that she's referring to her parents, and he's now resisting the urge to find them and send them an angrily worded letter a declaration that he'll be taking her. Midway he realizes that the latter part of the letter should actually be directed to his commander and he was not ready to deal with that yet.
"I don't know what they did... but I can assure you, you're far brighter, kinder, and simply just better than them in any way possible. They no longer could stand on the same ground as you the moment they gave you up."
Killjoy remained silent for a moment before peeking at him and leaning into his outstretched arms, still sniffling.
"I don't know Aamir. Why did they hurt me? Why wasn't I good enough? Why? I wasn't able to make them happy, how could I ever make our children happy? How could I be enough? If I was, Brim wouldn't have needed to save m-"
"Sweetheart, please. They were fools for thinking you were nothing short of perfect." Cypher hugged her tight, letting out something that sounded like a low growl. He had to temporarily ignore the 'our children' statement less he reduced into a blushing mess.
"They would have never been happy. It was never your job to make them happy." He continued, kissing her on the head. "You have us now. You have Brim, and you have me. and Izzie, Jett, the whole Protocol."
"Except Reyna," Killjoy quietly pointed out.
"... Ok except Reyna."
"Point is, you would be a great parent. Your own parents don't dictate what kind of parent you will be." Cypher pulled away for a short while and plucked Dino from her hands to hover in front of his face.
"The fact that you care makes you far better than they ever were."
That single line broke Killjoy into a sobbing mess and he held her again while soothingly rubbing her back. He was formulating a plan to make her ex-parents' lives mildly inconvenient forever, but Killjoy knew him far too well:
"Leave them alone Cypher. It's not worth your time."
Cypher jumped slightly and was suddenly met with Killjoy's disapproving stare while still in his embrace. "I- I wasn't-"
"Don't lie, I know you would. They think I'm dead anyway. Best not to get involved with them." Killjoy looked away.
"... Would you tell me the story someday?" Cypher whispered.
"Only if you tell me yours."
"We have a deal, my little engineer."