章節 30: Chapter 30

If he can’t go further, can’t name anything, can’t break it down and analyse it, then he has no real hope of getting Alex to do the same. Ryan simply has to be better at feeling than Alex is, and if he can’t, then Alex has no hope of it.

So he doesn’t ask, and he doesn’t name the feeling, and he doesn’t think too hard about why he is suddenly so much more angry when another bruise appears.

He just…doesn’t.

And so they carry on.

* * * *

Ryan has always been a scientist at the core, and he notices patterns the way other people notice colours. It is how, after all, he has developed the ability to communicate with Alex at all, and it is a skill that is only fine-tuned around him—Ryan needs all the help he can get with Alex, sometimes, and his observation skills improve until they border on the frightening.