[ Krouse pulls back from her then. Not far, and not fast. Only enough so they can see all of each other's faces. He looks at her for a second, one that feels long and sweet and cool. His palm comes off of her cheek tacky, so he curls his fingers to brush dry knuckles over her cheekbone. ]

No.

[ He tucks a strand of her hair behind a ear bubbled with scar tissue, amazed all over again at the impossible privilege of being allowed to do so. The unsolvable puzzles of a broken world fade back into noise. They're nothing compared to her question, and to what he knows it costs to ask. ]

I'm not afraid of you.

[ All that time he'd spent being afraid, despite his best intentions. The dull adrenal blurts of instinctive fear when one of her mouths snapped or her limbs twitched too close, the helpless heartbreak fear when she'd start to cry, the worse fear when she'd stop. Fear of breakdowns and their aftermaths, the ever widening trail of bloody wreckage they left behind. The fear that kept him up at night and the fear that kept him out of reach and the fear that kept him going. It's all just ash, crumbled away.

When she held him in her mouth, she didn't bite down. ]

I wanted to kill them too. [ He lays his thumb along the sweep of her jaw, the graceful line of that strong bone. ] And you didn't hurt me. Even when you couldn't see me. You kept me safe.

[ The only thing that hurt him was himself, and he can't blame Noelle for that. Krouse smiles at her, faint but unwavering, the glow of a faded nightlight at the end of a long, dark hall. ]

Hey. [ He says, with a conspiring lilt. ] Do you want to get out of here?