[Really, it's the persistence that's his undoing every time. At home, here. The feeling isn't quite as bad as before, but the fingers light up his skin, and his face turns slightly feverish.

So he hides it by tipping his head and resting the side of it against Senri's cheek and brow. And he thinks... his body hadn't told him anything different. The broken, sad, cold core of him hadn't ever told him anything new.

It's awful how well his hands fit against each side of Senri's neck under the jaw, the rough thumbs curled up over the cheeks. He turns his head, and... it still doesn't feel any different to him. The waving flame being fueled in him now... is the same waving flame he had in the fun house, on the ferris wheel, carrying Justice on his back, throwing Senri into the waves.]

Why won't... you just give up... [He whispers it, too afraid of the crack of his own voice.] Everything... is the same. I wasn't... supposed to find any of this here. You weren't... supposed to be here. I was coming... and winning... and going. [And now, dammit.

The kiss he gives Senri isn't passionate. It isn't a heartfelt shoujo kiss, like the one that should have happened beneath fireworks. If anything, it's chaste and terrified, and his lips are dry, and he doesn't know how because he never has, and it's over almost before it begins. Guiltily, all of him draws away immediately after, his hands falling, his arms, his foot taking half a step back.]

I want you to keep smiling for everyone, even if it's without me.