The words are confirmation, as if Raju needed it, that his weakness has been noted and that this isn’t the last time that Raju is going to see it used against him.

Raju waits, and realizes Francis is waiting too, to keep Raju off balance. He finds himself biting at the inside of his lip.

“I’m not—“ he tries, but sudden sharp, gentle sensation over skin no one but Francis has touched in years interrupts, and stuttering gasps are what make it out before he closes his mouth tight over another smile. His head thunks back against the wood in his hurried look up at the ceiling, to try and hide the break in his composure at least here, if not in his squirming hips and twitching muscles.