Bearclaw Valley you got melted to butter

Am I not allowed to? He asks, still calm. But he feels the first pinpricks of frustration drive themselves up his palms, and he clenches his fists.
I've never known anyone in my life, and this time, I thought—
A heavy sigh that lasts longer than it ought've. He looks away in shame and confusion. They crowd around his head like birds to a bloated corpse. He leaves the sentence to die a quiet death. It chokes in his brain, it rolls over in the metaphorical hospital bed.
I thought I knew you. Wearing your heart on your sleeve meant that there was nothing stopping anybody from tearing it to pieces. Nothing between it and the open air. Life was just a yawning vaccuum that wanted to hurt you. So far. There is heat in his voice now.
Kastner, he's cooled down again. Let me help you. This time, it is him that searches Evien's face for eye contact. The map is treacherous and infuriating, but it is beautiful.