Chapter Text
The first thing Tomoe notices when he wakes up is the quiet. He listens intently, but the sounds are muted, soft around the edges, reducing from a grating roar to a dull murmur. It’s pleasant, in a way, like the whisper of wind through the trees, a light breeze gracing his skin in butterfly kisses. He basks in it for a moment, having not realized just how much the simplest sound made his ears ache, made him cringe, until its absence loudly announces itself.
It makes him wonder what else he has to experience.
Curiosity overpowers any lingering nervousness. He blinks his eyes open to find Nanami’s face hovering close to his, her brows knit together in worry. She says his name, but her voice is so low he barely hears her. Or, at least, he’s not accustomed to the volume in which she says it. Has she always spoken so softly?
He reaches up as she cups his cheek in her hand, offering the same affection to her in return. Her skin feels warm under his fingertips, but not overly so, her temperature a few degrees cooler. Suddenly, he can’t detect her pulse — not from the sound of her heartbeat nor the rush of her blood in her veins. A frow furrows his brow, and he presses his fingertips a little more firmly to her cheek.
“Are you all right?” they ask at the same time and then, stunned, they stare into each other’s eyes.
That’s when he realizes that she’s fine — that he’s just like her and she’s just like him, and that this is normal for someone who was a fox but is no longer — and a breathy laugh escapes him.
He brings her hand to his mouth, and he kisses her palm. Touching her isn’t so overwhelming anymore. It will take some getting used to, but he decides in that moment, that the lack of distractions, the lack of stimulation, lets him focus fully on her for the first time.
No longer does he have to be attuned to the scents that surround him. No longer does he have to twitch his once fox ears at every little sound, attempting to pick out the relevant information from the background noise. She is here in front of him now, just like he’s in front of her, and they see each other in the same way, and they sense each other in the same way.
He collapses in a sigh, and then he smiles.
“I am all right,” he assures her.
And, finally, she smiles too.