Sora held him with desperate, crushing strength, her fingers digging through his jacket as if she were trying to anchor him to the earth. Two months of suffocating dread poured out of her in ragged, trembling gasps
Hide held her close without moving, letting the warmth of her breath against his neck wash away the lingering chill of Risa's corpse.
Slowly, Sora pulled her face back.
Her eyes were red and swollen, tears tracking through the light dust on her cheeks. She reached up with trembling hands, her palms cupping his face, her thumbs brushing against the sharp line of his jaw and cheekbones. She looked at his silver hair, then deep into his ocean-blue eyes, searching every millimeter of his features as if needing physical proof that he wasn't an illusion conjured by exhaustion.
"You're real..." she breathed, her voice cracking. "You're really here..."
"Of course," Hide replied softly, his voice steady and calm. "And I'm not going anywhere."
