"No, we don't blame him," he says with a sigh, nuzzling the arm around him. "Confronted with the same circumstances, I dare say any of us would have reacted similarly. He was simply closest and fastest."

He draws his nails lightly across her arm, raising goosebumps on her skin.

"Ah, sister-mine. I have far, far too many teenage suicides stuck in my realm for 'growing up' to ever deserve to be prefaced with 'just'."