[Just like that, he's denied. Pushed out and pushed away, Akira's eyes betray some amount of hurt, but he doesn't let it linger. The cold seeps in instead, hardening him, and Akira turns to bury himself in the blankets.
What are you so afraid of? He doesn't have the strength to ask.]
...Coward.
[—The word slips off his tongue of its own accord and Akira startles. He didn't say that, did he? No, no, he must have. It's not as if anyone can speak on his behalf. He would never criticize Solomon for drawing a boundary, and yet he had.
Yet he had.
Akira says nothing more, cocooning himself fully in blankets.]
It's not the first time Akira has called him a coward. It won't be the last. But this one hurts, just a little more than it had before.
...
He doesn't say anything in response. He simply sits, silent, watching to see if Akira's state changes. But exhaustion takes him quickly, under the silence and the breathing and the dark, and "Akira's" rest goes unsupervised as Solomon eventually drifts off against the desk, too spent to continue.]
no subject
What are you so afraid of? He doesn't have the strength to ask.]
...Coward.
[—The word slips off his tongue of its own accord and Akira startles. He didn't say that, did he? No, no, he must have. It's not as if anyone can speak on his behalf. He would never criticize Solomon for drawing a boundary, and yet he had.
Yet he had.
Akira says nothing more, cocooning himself fully in blankets.]
no subject
It's not the first time Akira has called him a coward. It won't be the last. But this one hurts, just a little more than it had before.
...
He doesn't say anything in response. He simply sits, silent, watching to see if Akira's state changes. But exhaustion takes him quickly, under the silence and the breathing and the dark, and "Akira's" rest goes unsupervised as Solomon eventually drifts off against the desk, too spent to continue.]