Sole had made an effort to reach out to her (not literally, but emotionally) and he couldn’t understand why she wasn’t making the effort to reach back. It wasn’t fair! She knew what she was feeling, but he didn’t. Never in his short life had he been so conflicted. His head was tumbling with emotions and feelings and things he’d never thought or felt or even imagined before. He had nothing to go off of, no experience to draw on to tell him what to do, and it was tearing him apart, driving him insane. It was like waking up from a coma and remembering nothing, not knowing who you were or what you were supposed to do but being expected to pick your old life back up again immediately. Sole knew Astraea didn’t understand what that was like; how could she? She was a normal person with normal memories and normal experiences.
But in basic training, they’d given him a gun, and given him a number. They hadn’t said ‘you might want to prepare for emotions and feelings and all that other fun stuff!’ he’d been taught to shoot and to kill, not to talk about his feelings and figure out what they were! Now the urge to reach out and shake her was back, but Sole kept his hands firmly in his pockets, because he didn’t trust himself to reach for her, didn’t trust her not to run. He could see the flight in her gaze, could see the uncertainty that wasn’t there before. And while it gave him hope, it also scared him, because he didn’t want her to disappear. He couldn’t let her. Without warning, without even his own conscious thought, his hand shot out, clasping around her own, feeling the moisture from the rain slick against her skin and squeezing tightly. His face was ashen, pale as he gazed down at her, willing her not to leave.
The distance still separated them, and he didn’t dare pull her closer, still surprised at his own actions as his fingers gently wrapped around her own. He wished he could just…convey all of his thoughts in a touch. It would be so much easier. But he couldn’t, and the fear he saw in her eyes made his own flutter painfully in his chest, and he took a deep, shaky breath. “How do you know I won’t understand?” he demanded quietly. “How do you know unless you tell me? Help me understand. Let me just try.” Her question caught him off guard, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure how to answer. But in the next second, his gaze hardened and his brows furrowed as the rainwater dripped steadily from the ends of his unruly hair, sliding down his cheeks and tracing the edges of the laugh lines beside his eyes. He hardly felt it, even as the water ran down his neck, soaked his shirt and his clothing, chilling him to the bone. He shivered once, but his gaze never wavered as he spoke, voice low, but confident. “Because I care. Isn’t that reason enough?”
((Sorry it's so short. x3))