YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THAT EVEN WITH YOUR RELUCTANCE TO TOUCH AND BE TOUCHED ( IN SPITE OF HOW MUCH YOU WANT IT ), YOUR CURIOSITY IS FAR TOO STRONG TO IGNORE ANYMORE. Does it count as a loophole if the one doing the touching is you? And the one being touched is... also you? But not quite you you because despite the fact that this you has gone through a similar ordeal as you, they aren't quite you anymore and you're not them ( yet ever ). No, no, not the moment to get lost in the semantics. It's not like it matters anyway, Loop has already gone and tested their own theories, you're allowed this one moment of selfishness. If they take offence to it then so be it. You'll apologize afterwards. ( Maybe. )
Half-moon eyes stare at you, one eyebrow comically raised as if to ask what you're up to. Many things, really. Some important, some less. Some so annoyingly burning that you have to test them right this instant or you feel like you're going to go crazy. Even more than you have already.
❝ Stardust? Something on my face? ❞
Come on, just touch them. How hard can it be?
❝ Hello? Earth to stardust?? ❞
Just reach your hand out. The worst that can happen is the Universe decides this is a blindingly stupid idea and corrects it.
❝ Hey---- ❞
Ah. Hmm. Huh.
You're not entirely sure what you expected. They look just as surprised as you feel. Even though they don't have a proper mouth, you can imagine it opening and closing silently before twisting into an unamused frown. Yet they make no move to pull away. Rather, they seem to resign themselves to the situation, head tilting with a quiet exhale through the nose. The pointed spike slides in your hand with the motion, its edges digging into your glove. You kind of wish you were holding it with your bare hands. It doesn't feel warm nor cold and it's light as if made of glass yet durable. Strangely, it also feels like holding strands of hair, soft and thin, unruly, sticking in every direction.
❝ Is your hair still dyed? ❞
❝ ... what. ❞ ( 'What kind of question is that? Why does it matter?' You want to laugh. )
❝ Your hair. The roots have pretty much grown out, but the loops kept resetting them. Nothing visible, of course, but a funny thing to keep going back and forth. ❞
If looks could kill, you'd be dead ten times over just from daring to touch them. Which, fair enough. You'd not have the nicest reaction either to somebody sticking their hand in your hair like this.
❝ Stardust-- ❞ but this time Loop stops themselves with another sigh ❝ It was nearly completely black by the time we reached the House. I would have dyed it again once we beat the King. ❞
Hmm. Funnily, you thought about letting your hair grow out entirely. Isa used to be the one who helped you touch your roots up, always so careful to not touch you more than necessary. The number of times you were ready to doze off midway through the procedure is too high to recall.
Almost completely black again, huh. Not like it matters now. No matter how much you wish you could twirl it around your finger, now it's nothing more than a shard of cold warmth that twinkles ever so slightly in the shade offered by the Favour Tree, edge you trace lost in thoughts. What does it feel like to them? If you haven't been touched in hundreds of loops, they must have gone thousands and then some. Are you the first one to touch them in so long?
❝ Pathetic. ❞
Yeah. It doesn't matter which one of you actually said it, it's right.
( Your hand has found their 'cheek' somehow. It's just as chubby as your own. ... Is it? It's just a jagged line. Hmm. )
❝ If you're done basking in my light, ❞ and here you actually allow yourself a snort as they gently hit your hand away with the back of their own hand ❝ I think you have a sleepover to attend, no? ❞
You kind of want to stay with them, though. Maybe it'll be fine if you use a loop for your own selfishness. You can tell Loop also has further questions.