"It's all right," he replied, not exactly the way a person might as if trying to placate another. For JC, it really was just all right. There were no hard feelings, just some confusing ones and he didn't need Judas to try and explain why he ought to not have done what he had. He understood. They were friends and that was it.

He tilted his head slightly forward for Judas' forehead to fit into the curve of the back of his neck and shoulder. He slipped his hand up along the bare forearm cuddled against him. He shimmied slightly until they were pressed with precision against one another.

The voice just refused to come and tell him the thins he truly needed to hear. What was the next step? He felt emptier than usual, though. There had been something mounting that fizzled away. And he didn't even know properly what that was.