[ Oh. She is embarrassed then; is always embarrassed when she learns how swift she jumps to hurt where there is none.

But the tension in her releases at the touch; it always does. ]

I want to hear them. It helps me know.

There is no shame in this hardship, it is only—

[ She reaches too. Runs her free hand down the side of his neck, along his shoulder. ]

Anything you do not tell me I will tell myself, and what I tell myself will be something I have crafted just to hurt me.

[ A little huff of breath; her quiet laughter wedded to a sigh. ]

You have heard me do it only now. It did not take me even half a breath to write into my world some lost lover. One you would now realize you had loved in some way truer than you had ever loved me.