He twitches away when Castiel moves back towards him. Tries to find the words to explain that it was- it was all Nova not the- not anyone else. (He can't though, not really.)

"I- as you- say, sir?" he whispers at the last - he doesn't believe Castiel, not really, he can't (he wants to).

Castiel doesn't seem to fully believe that he's accepted it, but lets it go. "Very well." He turns back towards where the groceries are sitting on the counter. "It's late. I'm sure you're hungry. We can continue training after you eat."

He ducks his head, thinks - he's...not entirely certain he could actually eat that much more. "I- you've- had more today than I normally get?" he says quietly. "It's...but whatever you say?"

"I see. Because you've been so underfed for so long, you've now grown unaccustomed to food." He hesitates. "If you're not too tired, we can train now."

He nods. "M'fine sir, can train if that's what you want?" (He doesn't sound completely certain, but that might just be that he isn't certain about anything.)

Castiel considers for a moment. "We can train in here. There are some less strenuous excercises I can show you." He turns to go into the living room. "We can go in here."

"Yes sir," he agrees, and will follow him into the living room.

This type of schedule continues for days; a meal in the morning, training, usually another, smaller meal, and a more relaxed training session. The two are still highly uncomfortable around each other, trying to make the right moves and say the right things, which of course gets them nowhere.

Nova continues to be an attentive and focused student, if wary of getting anything wrong. (Mistakes he makes are met with panic, and attempts to make it right, in the futile hope it won't be noticed.) But he does make progress, even if he doesn't exactly seem to think he is.

He still tries to clean and tidy, and when he's not being trained, he moves around quiet as a mouse, trying not to attract any attention. It's probably not obvious that he isn't really sleeping as much as he should.

Castiel comes back from another shopping trip to replenish their supplies, and moves immediately to the kitchen to put them away. "I'm back now, Nova!" Castiel calls.

Unlike previous instances of this, Nova doesn't immediately appear in the kitchen to greet him.

Castiel doesn't go to check on him right away, assuming he's fine. By the time he finishes unpacking the supplies, though, Nova still hasn't made an appearance. Castiel wanders deeper into the house, scanning for the nephilim. He's starting to get concerned. 

Most of the rooms are empty. In fact, Nova's room appears empty as well. The bed has been shifted slightly, however, leaving a gap between the headboard and the wall that is probably just big enough for him to fit within.

Castiel walks up to the gap, quiet, careful not to scare Nova. "Nova? Are you hurt?"

He still flinches when Castiel addresses him, half starts to scramble out. "I- m'fine?" he says.

(His arm is bleeding, from scratchmarks probably made by his nails, but he uses his other hand to cover that.)

"Why is your arm bleeding?" He leaves space between them but kneels down next to the boy. "What happened? Were you attacked?"

"I- no? I just- I didn't mean to?" he flinches slightly, curves his hand tighter around his arm, nails starting to dig into skin.

Castiel reaches out and grabbs his injured arm by the wrist, pulling it gently toward him. "You've been doing this to yourself." There is a long pause. "Why?"

He makes a low scared sound, briefly tries to escape the grip and then goes pliant. "i- it's- I don't-" He isn't sure he can explain, but not being hurt had felt wrong, and unsafe, and- "Should be hurt," he mumbles, low and worried. (He doesn't want to be, but he knows he should be.)

Castiel lets go of his wrist when he started to struggle but looks profoundly confused. "Why is there any reason for you to be hurt? It is my duty to prevent you from being hurt, Nova."

"I-I I know you've been- helping me. And I'm grateful. I am." (It's important Castiel knows that.) "B-but I'm wrong. And bad. And the-the only way to fix that is to- to- remind me. And hurt me. And-and-" his voice catches and gives out and he curls in on himself, wrapping his arms around his knees and burying his face into them.

"There is nothing bad about you, Nova." Castiel sounds almost urgent, he doesn't understand how Nova could actually be so disparaging of himself. "Hurting yourself won't do anything to help. I apologize for not realizing how you felt earlier. I could have prevented this."

"But- I- They always, they always said-" he rocks himself. "They said I had to- they had to- they had to- make me- I- they told me." (There's a level of 'why would they lie to me?' wrapped in his words.)

"They told you those things to make you cooperate. To make you obey. There is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing that needs fixing." His voice is quiet but intense. He wants Nova to understand this.

Nova stills, staring blankly at Castiel's shoulder. That doesn't-

It sounds too good, sounds wrong (he wants it to be true).

"I- as- as you say," he mumbles eventually, the closest he can get to agreement.