It's Zen who reminds her to keep breathing somehow,
when she feels the most like giving up,
how he's beside her,
and somehow it's not just his words
but the wholeness of him.
It's Shirayuki,
who not only whispers reassurances
like secrets between them,
but fits her hand in his,
offers some support,
a kind that seeps between skin and fingertips,
slips between bone,
and offers him strength,
he'd forgotten he's capable of.