[Sometimes his brothers respect his space too much, maybe more so now. Did things change that much in two years? He's not that hug-shy, but perhaps he's cultivated his so-called emotionally unavailable bad boy image since.

...right now he just really wants a hug. So much so that he's actually hugging a stuffed dragon. The beanbag cushion creaks in that way that beanbags do as he shifts, as though he could burrow right into it.

Turns out, there are things in the universe that he would rather not know.]

...it's not your fault. You can't help what's happened where you're from, not any more than I can do anything about what's happened or will happen back home.

[He sighs, finally opening his eyes again, feeling more wrung out than earlier.]