Wyatt's blink rate increased - not a lot, but enough that R could see he hadn't made it a daily habit to be touched by corpses. He dropped his hand away from the warmth his heart, still studying Wyatt intently.

Here, in this place. R remembered what happened with Hyperion in Disneyland, how he'd felt something that had jolted through his corpse and realize he wanted more than anything to protect Howard and Julie. He hadn't been able to back then. R listened to that familiar drawl in Wyatt's voice, the twang on vowels that he'd missed more than he thought he would.

R thought he understood now. Replace Hyperion with Aunamee and Wyatt had to make those tough choices he couldn't just blame on hunger, like R could and did. e knew he had to...to commit. Draw that line in the stand instead of staring down at it, swaying uselessly. R slowly nodded. He thought he could get now where he was coming from.

"Ghk," R didn't have a hope of getting anything coherent out, but it was at least worth the effort. He reached out, touched Wyatt's hand resting on the root for a second, and then withdrew it. He turned to watch as the sun began to peek out, the gray of the morning starting to bleed into a gentle orange glow. It was almost pretty, actually.