Love's Healing Touch
His arm came around her shoulders again, not as a question, but as a quiet answer.
“I used to wonder if I’d ever be able to touch someone again,” Adrian said, voice barely more than a whisper.
"You can," she said, turning to him. "You are."
They pressed foreheads, breath for breath. She felt the strength in him, the vulnerability in him, the pain of all those years he'd spent wasting, hiding, alone. But she saw the strength—slow discovery of something deep and true.
It was no fairy tale. It was harder, more subdued. Constructed out of wounds and gentle words, not magic. And somehow it was more beautiful.