[That close, that heartbreakingly close, there's no hiding the way his breath wavers, unsteady. He holds each breath as long as he can, as if, should he let them go, all his control might dissolve.

He clenches his hands in the hem of her shirt. He still doesn't know how to reach out, how to ask for comfort. He doesn't know how to let himself need her, even when he does.]

I made that choice, when I went back. Maybe I didn't--understand, exactly, what it would mean for me, but I...I wouldn't take it back. Even now. I wouldn't.

[He shivers in her arms. It feels like right now she's the only thing keeping him there, the only solid weight holding him to the world.]

I'm just waiting.

[If this keeps going, he's going to cry.]

You're so fuckin' brave.