... Yeah. [He responds just as quiet, the soft scrape of emotions caught in his throat. Yeah. It's not the way he ever would have wanted to say it either, after everything, the words ripped out of him out of desperation, too much on the line to risk losing without saying it. It wasn't so much of a confession as it was a plea, but the end result is the same, he acknowledges. Shakes his head after a pause that falls between them, just breathing out.] Yeah, I did.
It's not-- [He didn't expect anything about hearing it back, only needed to make it known, to really reach out to him with everything possible. Shiro would have answered in some way if it'd been a situation where he could have.] I know it wasn't like that.
[....] You still heard me.
[Even if for a moment, he couldn't miss the reaction, despite the uncertainty of what it meant, or how he still feels the aftermath of it burned on his face, the weight of the arm he cut off on his own hands, now resting on his shoulders and around him, determined to be gentle.]