Seraphine's breath caught. She placed her hand over his, pressing it against her cheek.
"I don't understand you," she whispered. "With all the experience I have , and I still can't figure you out. You should be cynical. Manipulative. Willing to sacrifice others for your own benefit. But you're not. You're genuine in ways I'd forgotten were possible."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It's terrifying," Seraphine admitted. "Because it makes me want things I'd given up on. Makes me think maybe I could be more than what I've become. And I don't know if I'm capable of that change."
They stayed like that for a moment, Satou's hand on her cheek, Seraphine's fingers threading through his hair, both of them existing in a space of vulnerability neither was entirely comfortable with.
"Thank you," Seraphine finally said. "For fighting for me. For refusing to let me die. For seeing something in me worth protecting even when I wasn't sure it existed."
