"I don't need it to be any more fucking real," he whispers, his face stretched into a wince. The touch almost makes him jump, and he realizes that it's been days... since that day at the waterfall, in fact, since anyone's really touched him at all.

It's strange how you can get to miss something like that. Just... contact. He's come a long way with being comfortable touching and being touched, here, but he's still a little surprised to realize that he doesn't actually want Neil to remove his hand.