Ran, in turn, was unnaturally still and careful as she placed the glasses down on the table. She felt as if everything had turned to glass, including herself, and that one wrong word or movement would shatter everything.

This was somehow worse than meeting the dead Shinichi, or the broken version of herself. At least then she had felt free to let out her sadness, to allow her hurt and her sympathy to show through. But right now she had the feeling that Shinichi was two steps away from -- she couldn't think of it as anything other than completely losing it. Like he'd fall to pieces if she said or did the wrong thing.

And she was afraid that if he did, she'd break too.

Or at least her heart would.

She wanted to reach out to him, hold him, make him tell her everything -- do anything to wipe that look off of his face!

But all Ran had to do was look at her friend to see how deeply that pain was etched and how badly he must have been hurt.

Could anything she do really help?

"Do... do you want me to leave?"

The question slipped out without her volition. She didn't want to leave him here, didn't want to leave him alone when he was clearly in so much pain, but if her presence was only causing him more hurt...