Leon could feel her reading the changes through the hug itself—her arms picking up on something different in how he felt, the quality of him shifted in ways her body recognized before her mind could name them.
She pulled back far enough to actually look at him.
The questions were already lined up in her expression. His trial, how long it took, the changes she was already sensing in him, the unfamiliar object floating beside him, why he felt like the same person yet somehow fundamentally different from the man who'd walked through that tower entrance with her.
She had no doubt the answers would confirm exactly what she believed about him.
Leon kissed her forehead.
Brief and clean. The hug broke before it reached the half-minute she always needed to properly reacquaint herself with his scent—a habit she'd never once acknowledged out loud, but he'd noticed enough times that it had become one of those quiet things he understood about her without either of them ever discussing it.
