#HEEM HEEM.... THEY LOVE EACH OTHER!! EVEN IF THEY DONT UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER!!!

[fauvester]

Do lim and garak ever have a genuine bonding moment?

OUGHH I think he has to get a lot of his therapizing done offscreen and internally. He needs to put aside his anger and see his father and his contemporaries for the flawed-but-trying people they are. Iskra doesn't really help, but eventually 'if you'd been born into his position you would have done the same thing to protect Cardassia that he did, except worse, because he's smarter than you' settles in.

Garak has to learn to speak his mind more plainly because Lim sees his vague allusions and crafty lies as a cowardly way to hide unpleasant truths. Galactic politics necessitates that he tones his monomaniac Cardassian exceptionalism down, and eventually that may grow to reflect his genuine feelings (but if asked he will certainly lie, so who knows?) Lim needs to grow up a little, see that his parents are also just people trying their best like he is, and maybe go through the mundane trials of adult life on a stunned and recuperating planet to sand his edges off. It's very gradual.

Also tbh they need some time to develop things in common... Lim isn't very well read, doesn't like to talk for fun and is inconsistently disparaging of anything unnecessarily decorative. But eventually he develops an appreciation for creature comforts and realizes that that doesn't make him a bad person, and then he and Garak can debate about what color to paint the house siding or whether or not the azaleas will grow in full sun.

But he very much benefits from some good yadek hugs now and then...