(check description for link)
Sometimes the bandaid needs to come off to heal properly, but that doesn't mean it won't hurt. Nor that undue roughness won't cause its own problems in the process. Such as the lingering ache from getting a first-hand experience in just how much your crush wants to kill you, even if it's kinda deserved.

I got inspired by a now-deleted fic & this aligns chronologically with it, but it should be understandable on its own as well.

• Fandom: Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware
• Relationship: Benry (HLVRAI) & Gordon Freeman (HLVRAI)
• Rating: Teen
• Warnings: CNTW
• Category: Gen
• Characters: Benry (HLVRAI), Gordon Freeman (HLVRAI), everyone else (except G-Man) is mentioned in passing
• Additional Tags: Inspired by Fanfiction, Not A Game AU, Post-Canon, Suicidality, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression, Mental Health Issues, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, got some abuse vibes in here but it's mostly a mix of negative perspective and misguided help, Angst, Whump, Bittersweet Ending, POV Third Person Plural, Unreliable Narrator?, accurate to each POV but ya know how mental illness and stuff is