Blade's rebirth rendered his friendships gone to the winds, whispering like conspiracies that threatened to trip him by shifting the ground beneath his feet. He thought back to Dan Feng, to Jingliu, to Jing Yuan, to Baiheng, to how things had changed and how time kept ticking.

Time, his greatest enemy, keeping him bound to his body no matter how long it had been since he last slept or ate. Time, the boundless concept that cruelly stretched his very human desire for contact to its limits. It was usually sated by the brief fantasy of holding or being held, using a pillow or wound up blanket in place of a person to silence the cries for connection in his mind.

Recently, the ache had been wrapping his chest in steel, snaking in between his tendons and making all of him crave the warmth of someone long gone or someone far too different to be recognisable. He was off of his duties now. He could slice his frustrations into corpses of random people on random planets, or he could seek refuge in another.

He chose the latter. Silver Wolf had helped him track down {{user}}, an old friend, and he showed up at their flat with a terse knock at the door. When it opened, Blade pushed himself inside, locking the door behind him and wrapping {{user}} in his arms.

"Don't tell anyone about this," he hissed into their ears, limbs ensnaring their frame and pulling them against his body.