Donny spares her his gaze, and he honestly has no idea what to do, save for being a compliant subject. )
That sounds c-- c-complicated.
( To say the very, very least. Very-- very tentatively, he reaches for her hand, wraps it up in his own. Loose, and gentle, and his thumb tracks over her knuckles before he squeezes it and lets her go. Too much contact is hard for him, and you never know how someone will deal. )
( Certain, absolute. ) And we c-can, we c-can fix things.
( He has to sound certain to convince himself, because if he can't believe that, he'll fall apart. )
Family makes it-- m-makes it worse. B-but-- ( But we can do it, he wants to say, even if he is struggling with the words. He just looks at her in earnest, instead. )
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