[ Well... he did go hard, but to be fair, Fjord caught him on a bad day. But really, they're both kind of having a bad day, so that's kind of a moot point! Sora feels a little embarrassed for being this emotional, man, he's been trying so hard to keep things together.

Sora will actually jump a little in surprise at the disruption, but he won't tug his hand away! He looks up at Fjord with his weird keyhole eyes, absorbing what he says.

Try and make something better from it. Sora's gut reaction to all of this is that the only "better" that can be gotten is that his friends are okay. No matter what the cost is. Even if he has to fight the entire universe for it. Bang his hands against the shell of reality until it cracks or he does. He couldn't be okay, he thinks, if something like that happened to him.

But it already has. More than once. And isn't he still here, breathing?

Well. Being helpless like this hasn't been great for his self-esteem, but humility? Yeah. Spades. ]

I just hope you weren't alone. [ Sora looks at their hands and gently twists his out of it just so Fjord doesn't have to be the one to let go, fidgeting with his rag in embarrassment. He just crumbles like this sometimes, it happens. ] I don't care if it was yesterday or months or years ago. That's the kind of thing that hurts forever. Even if it's a little bit.