[ He notices the way she shifts her leg to brush against him, and the contact rips into the conflict he feels, torn between wanting to reach out and hold her, like some attempt to hold it together while it all feels like sand between his fingers. He doesn't know what he wants. It was only some minutes ago he was crying in Gokudera's arms over wanting her. Over wanting nothing to change. And here he is... enacting that change with a packed bag abandoned on the floor in the dark so he can dare to rest his hand on her leg with kid gloves, when this morning he'd kissed her like it was nothing. He doesn't know what he wants. Less than that, he especially doesn't know what to expect, but he can expect that things won't stay the same now. That much he can guess easily. It takes him pause, gaze cast aside and away from her, before he speaks up, eyes fixed on the floor. It's a lot that he's taking any thought at all to allow himself silence to consider his words; he's grown some. Still learning. ]

...Azula... I know we agreed back in Lunatia not to talk about the future. But— Gokudera left and came back, sort of. He confirmed nothing here affects the fate of our lives back home. And— ...now I need to know.

[ He turns to her with a most painful expression, distrust, hope, confusion, sadness, longing, mourning, all of it, written all over his face barely illuminated by the blue light that bleeds in through the blinds, voice thick with emotion he cannot hide even in the darkness... ]

What happened to Mom?