you didn't have to offer your hand

SAMUEL stretch out my life & pick the seams out Sam was quite pleased with how easily the blood was coming off. While the cut was certainly not neat, when the worst was wiped away it was rather thin in some places and he hoped it might heal well, eventually becoming virtual invisible unless someone was...well, as close as Sam was now. He was about to tell Zeph so when their hands met, this time Zeph reaching for his; he looked into the eye searching his with concern, worried he might have accidentally hurt him. "Yes?" Sam asked, thinking somewhere in the back of his mind that he'd grown very used to the nickname so quickly, despite his initial dislike of it: spoken in Zeph's voice, it sounded sweet, like a term of endearment. The question threw him off though; Sam at first tilted his head, obvious confusion in his furrowed brow. "Wh...what do you me-mean?" He mumbled, though as soon as the words were out he began to understand, something about the look in Zeph's face filling in the blanks. "...Oh." So, they were acknowledging it, were they? The tension between them, the thing they both had to feel: it was electric every time they got closer. Sam had thought at first it had just been him, then he had begun to notice the reverent looks Zeph seemed to save just for him, the too-long touches. He had been content to let it linger there forever, just let their future be something in his imagination: to speak it felt wrong almost, as if it were breaking something precious. But Zeph had asked, so he had to say something. "...B-because you are...you have bee..been so good to me, when you d-didn't have to be. You are kind, and sweet, funny...I know we hav..haven't known each other v..very long. But I care about you, Zeph." He took as much care as possible to have the last words come out clear, a smile that threatened some tears on his face as he raised his other hand to rest gently on Zeph's neck, fingertips stroking the hair at his nape once. take what you like, but close my ears and eyes, watch me stumble over and over.