#grossname

Oh.

Oh.

For a split second, you’re torn between pushing away, you don’t need anyone’s fucking pity, and something else entirely that threatened to break at the seams, as if the hug was going to squeeze it out of you.

Another second that feels like an eternity passes in silence, no words, no explanation, and definitely no signs of letting go any time soon and...

The latter wins out.

Your arms slowly wind around them in return; loosely at first, but as you exhaled a sigh that wavers at the end, your hold tightens, and you bury your face in their shoulder. The shudder of your breath is sucked back in in a quiet sob, muffled, but distinct enough in the stillness of the surroundings. Everything else about you that was conditioned by now to be a certain way wanted to shove away, make up some excuse to leave, you didn’t need any of this, you were fine, you weren’t about to start fucking crying your eyes out just because you finally gave in to letting someone genuinely offer comfort after what all of a sudden felt like a lifetime of self-imposed isolation--