they say looks can kill and i might try

Jude

Every time we touch, your hands are colder, colder
There's no beating coming from your wooden chest

Her laugh and the tightening of her finger around his settles the sharp angle of his shoulders, relaxing further. The idea of leaving her alone with only her father around is agonizing - even if she wasn’t infected - but he can’t lose this. Can’t even stand to lose her snot and tears and imperiousness.

“Don’t thank me yet, Koa’s head is thicker than Stormbreak’s floating base and I’m not a miracle worker or a mole.” If he doesn’t have to see her eyes maybe he can forget for a moment that, while she is herself in so many ways, there’s something insidious lurking deeper that has made her someone fundamentally different. Softening, Jude murmurs the rest into her hair. “You never have to thank me at all.” He owes her more than he’ll be able to repay in a lifetime, and even this impossible mission isn’t a gesture large enough to make him so much as hesitate before signing up for it. He doesn’t have anyone left in the world but her - safeguarding her health and happiness is the best use of his otherwise unimpressive existence. 

So he’ll sit here with her until her tears dry. He’ll get as many smiles out of her as he can before the sun goes down, and when the moon rises he’ll take heart in Safrin’s presence and start his journey to finding a cure.

- Fin

Frozen grin, a mannequin when I get closer
I can see the strings, they're underneath your vest