when you're feeling lost

HARPER

It's clear she isn't used to such affection, but it's never too late to learn. He doesn't mind her awkwardness, her doubt. Instead he continues to gently sway them, allowing her words to come freely and at the pace she prefers. There is no rush, no demands on his part. Only a chance to listen in return. To reverse the roles and give her the release she needs.

"Nobody is strong forever," he points out gently. "When I told you I was lonely, did you think for a moment that I couldn't carry the weight of your feelings?" He gently squeezes her shoulder with the hand that lays across her back, careful not to cross any physical boundaries when hugging is already something new for her. "We are stronger in numbers. We are not meant to be alone, or to carry burdens by ourselves. You took the weight from them - and now I'll take it from you. And we carry on that way, giving and taking in turn, so that the weight never becomes too much for one person." Harper wants to see her face in this moment, but he thinks that perhaps she needs the moment to hide away, to conceal herself. So there he remains, in some facsimile of a slowdance with her on the rooftop, hoping she believes him. "You didn't think less of them for breaking down. Why judge yourself? And why would they judge you?"

if brokenness is a form of art
I must be a poster child prodigy