[ Ai isn't exactly starved of touch, she doesn't think. She's done so many handshake sessions that sometimes, it feels like the sensation of someone else's hands in hers is permanently imprinted on her skin. But nobody's allowed to get close enough to hold her like this. She does it for Aqua and Ruby all the time but that isn't the same as someone doing it for her.
She knows this is a terrible idea. This will go terribly wrong because it always does - she's never known how to do any of it right and she ruins everything every time. She doesn't dare hope that she might have learned her lesson at last just because she finally paid for her mistakes in blood.
But he's warm. And he's being so gentle with her. And when she'd cried out for his help, he'd been at her side in an instant.
Oh, she's in deep, deep trouble, isn't she?
It's Ai who pulls away first, - after much too long, enough time that doesn't know if she'd been in his arms for minutes or an hour. It's not a rejection - it's a retreat. ]
... I, um... I'll need to take a bath.
[ It's true - but even she knows what a transparent excuse it is and she can't bring herself to look at him as she says it. ]
no subject
She knows this is a terrible idea. This will go terribly wrong because it always does - she's never known how to do any of it right and she ruins everything every time. She doesn't dare hope that she might have learned her lesson at last just because she finally paid for her mistakes in blood.
But he's warm. And he's being so gentle with her. And when she'd cried out for his help, he'd been at her side in an instant.
Oh, she's in deep, deep trouble, isn't she?
It's Ai who pulls away first, - after much too long, enough time that doesn't know if she'd been in his arms for minutes or an hour. It's not a rejection - it's a retreat. ]
... I, um... I'll need to take a bath.
[ It's true - but even she knows what a transparent excuse it is and she can't bring herself to look at him as she says it. ]
I'll be okay by myself now.