Fingers tremble as he feels the warmth on his chest, swearing the pounding of his heart against fragile ribs was something that could be heard from the next room over. Something akin to dizziness washes over him, the silence of the room deafening as a pale hand reaches for Hajime’s. Deprecating thoughts stir in his head as he feels himself shivering under the other’s touch. Komaeda is desperate to get fingers off of his skin, fingers that were merely offering a gesture of adoration that he could only reject with conflicted longing. More than anything he’d want to accept the gesture, to believe that for once someone could make an exception and actually feel something towards him that wasn’t disgust. Depravity clawed at his insides as he dropped Hajime’s hand from his grasp, voice barely audible as he tried to force the statement out.     “ …I- ”     He feels like he’s choking on his words, breath catching as his gaze falls to his feet.     “ No… ”     The word trails off, his inability to form a proper sentence showing even more as slender digits fiddle with the raggedy edges of his coat. His eyes sting but he refuses to admit it, hues sharp towards his shoes, inspecting as if he actually had something to be looking for besides his courage.     “ Sorry, I don’t think I really understand. ”

           CURSED.

The moment fingers are placed against ice skin, his body goes tense.  Satin fingertips lace into bone, sage orbs immediately dropping their sights to the ground ahead as he takes a breath in.  A decaying mind blindly grasps for a memory, the last of the times he’d had a finger laid upon a perishing physique.  The feeling of warmth against his hand is one he’s far from familiar with, a fraction of his judgement twisting his thoughts beyond what the situation truly was, denying true intentions, skewing it until he could only recall the past’s execrable grasp.

It takes a solid few moments before the boy intertwines his fingers with hers, a coy smile forced onto thin lips. Nothing about him feels tranquil, swearing she can feel the trembling that rattles him to the very core.  Breath halts before he can notice, and he’s forced to gasp for air soon enough, realization that it wasn’t of the most reasonable reactions to something as diminutive as a hand finding it’s way over his.  One more quivering breath is taken in, slow and steady as he gathers his thoughts, only hoping that she didn’t think too much of it.

His reply takes eternities to form on his tongue, gaze fixated on their entangled digits.     “ Nanami-san, where are we going...?? ”