The tension in the air is palpable, the silence deafening. Yukimura lifts his gaze and meets that stare with a poker face. Does Akaya think he'll be the one to talk first? It would be perfectly reasonable to expect that, if only there were anything he could say that didn't expose this raw hurt and anger that would leave him so vulnerable he'd sooner walk home naked. He has everything to say and nothing to voice.

He won't speak. But he will eventually take his weight off the side of the cabin and step across it to Akaya and reach for his face to cup it. He brushes his thumb across Akaya's mouth. In his mind, it's wiping away whatever traces of that boy might have lingered there.

It doesn't belong.