The garden held the silence around them while the blue flowers glowed softly in the dark.
Yor’s breath ca in shallow and uneven. Her eyes were bright with sothing she was fighting very hard not to let beco tears, and then after a couple of seconds.
She continued.
"They asked to help them," Yor whispered, her voice barely holding together. "They sohow believed I could fix it as if I had the answer. They were so terrified, and I could see the fear in their eyes even though they couldn’t feel anything anymore. Like their minds still knew sothing was wrong, but their hearts had already gone completely empty."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!" She shouted. "I couldn’t do anything. Whenever sothing like this happens, there is no way back... They had to be sent ho to their families, empty and broken because of what I did."
"It wasn’t your fault."
"Yes, it was! I should have known from the beginning! I should have stayed away and kept my distance instead of letting myself want sothing!"
"You just wanted friends."
"And because of that, three people’s lives were destroyed!" Her voice climbed higher, cracking apart at the edges. "Do you understand what that ans? I drained everything that made them human — their joy, their sadness, their love, their anger."
"So you’ve been alone ever since." Reinhard reached forward.
Yor jerked back so violently she nearly fell. "Don’t!" Her hands ca up between them like a barrier. "Don’t you understand what I’ve been telling you? Everyone who gets close to ends up—"
"Empty. I heard you." He didn’t pull his hand back. "How long have I been touching you tonight?"
Her breath caught. "That’s different! Brief contact is—"
"Over an hour, Yor." His voice was steady, certain. "I’m fine."
"But how is that possible?" Yor stared at him in daze as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a hug.
"Does it matter right now?"
"Yes!"
"Then think of as your safe person. The one who can be touched without breaking." He held her a little tighter and let the quiet of the garden settle around them both. "You’ve carried this alone for years, and punished yourself long enough."
"It’s not enough! It will never be enough! Those three people-"
"Made their own choices," he said quietly. "They chose to reach out. They chose to touch you. They kept choosing to co back even when you pushed them away." His hand moved slowly through her hair. "You didn’t ask or force them to, it wasn’t your fault. You can’t control the actions of others."
"That doesn’t make it hurt less."
"No. But it ans you should stop taking all the bla."
Yor trembled against him and said nothing for a long mont. When she finally spoke, her voice had gone very small. "I don’t deserve kindness."
"Everyone deserves kindness."
"Not ."
"Especially you." He pulled back just enough to look at her face properly. "You’ve been punishing yourself for years. Don’t you think that’s enough?"
"You’re insane," she whispered.
"Maybe."
"You should run from ."
"I won’t."
"I could hurt you without even aning to."
"You won’t." He said it simply, without hesitation, as if it were just a fact about the world.
She stared at him, searching his face for the lie or the trick hidden underneath the words. She looked for a long ti, and she didn’t find either one.
Yor hands were still pressed against his chest, and no longer tried to push him. But she didn’t close in either, as if she was stuck between the middle of what was going forward or back.
They didn’t pull him closer either. They just stayed where they were, uncertain.
"You really are insane." Yor muttered, but sothing in her voice had shifted. Like the door of sothing previously locked had been open.
"And now you have an insane friend. Congratulations." A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Yor stepped back from his arms and wiped her face with her sleeve, composing herself with quiet, careful movents. "So what now?"
"Well." He released her face and leaned back slightly with a smile as a soft breeze passed by both of them. "You should head back for the night and get so actual sleep." He paused before his grin grew. "Unless you’d prefer to sleep with instead—"
"I will head back now." The words ca out fast, a light flush rising in her cheeks as she took three quick steps backward.
Reinhard laughed, and the sound of it drifted easily across the empty garden. "et at the Entertainnt Departnt tomorrow."
Yor blinked. "Why would we-"
"To have fun, obviously. I think you’ve earned a bit of that, don’t you?"
"B-But-"
"You’re not allowed to say no. Consider it your reward to for being such an excellent comforter." He reached over and tapped her nose lightly with one finger, his smile warm and unbothered. "You can even wear a face mask the whole ti if you want. But you have to be there, and you have to actually enjoy yourself. Besides, there are no classes tomorrow, so you don’t have any excuse."
Yor bit her lip and looked down at her feet for a mont. "Fine," she said quietly.
Reinhard stood and held his hand out toward her. She looked at it, hesitated for just a breath, then placed her hand in his.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
...
The next morning ca as students made their way in groups toward the Entertainnt Departnt. The building sat at the east end of the grounds, large and open, its glass doors catching the light and its signs visible from halfway across the yard.
Yor arrived first and stood near the entrance with her hands twisted together. Her school uniform is neat and a simple black face mask covering her nose and mouth. Her eyes moved over every student who passed, tracking them without aning to, a habit she’d never quite managed to shake.
"Yor!" Reinhard’s voice reached her before he did.
She turned to find him jogging toward her with an easy smile, his school uniform on but his coat hanging open and unbothered.
"You ca," he said, stopping in front of her.
"You told to."
"You could have ignored ."
She looked away from him, just briefly. "I didn’t want to."
His smile grew a little wider. He caught her hand and pulled her toward the entrance before she could overthink it.
The inside of the Entertainnt Departnt opened up into sothing much larger than it looked from the outside. Three floors rose above the entrance, all of them buzzing with movent and noise. Arcade machines lined the walls along the first floor with their screens flashing in competing colors, music drifted down from different sections above them, and the warm sll of popcorn hung over everything.
"Where do we start?" Reinhard asked, turning to her.
"I don’t know. I’ve never actually been in here before."
"Never?"
She shook her head.
He gave her hand a light squeeze. "Then we’ll try everything."
The first floor held rows and rows of classic arcade machines. Reinhard led her to a pinball machine near the far wall, its glass top decorated with a space the, rockets and stars painted across a dark background.
"Have you played before?" He asked.
"No."
"Watch first, then." He dropped a coin in, and the machine lit up imdiately, launching a silver ball into play. His hands worked the flippers with comfortable ease, keeping the ball bouncing between the bumpers while the score climbed up the screen and lights fired off in cheerful bursts.
Yor leaned in without realizing she had, her eyes following the ball’s path.
It finally slipped past the flippers, and the machine went quiet. He stepped aside. "Your turn."
"I don’t think I’ll be very good at it."
"That’s fine. It’s just for fun."
She stepped up and fed a coin in, her fingers a little unsteady. The ball launched, and she hit the flipper too early. It rolled straight down the middle and disappeared.
"That’s okay. You’ve got two more."
On the second ball, she waited, felt for the right mont, and hit the flipper just as the ball reached it. It shot upward and bounced hard off a bumper before coming back down, and she caught it again.
"There you go!" Reinhard called out, and she could hear the genuine pleasure in it.
A small smile ford underneath her mask, quiet and almost surprised.
Two students drifted past the machine behind them, and one of them slowed. "Is that Yor?"
"Can’t be. She doesn’t hang around with people."
"But it really looks like her-"
"Nah, probably just soone similar."
They moved on.
Yor’s fingers tightened unconsciously around Reinhard’s sleeve.
He felt it imdiately.
"They didn’t recognize you," he said lightly.
"That’s good," she whispered.
Reinhard chuckled as he pointed to other machines they could play on and started walking. She followed him as the noise of the departnt closed warmly around them both.
Yor never once let go of his sleeve.
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