Though Les waited patiently for the man's hands to grasp his arm, inwardly he was a tightly wound knot of anxiety, his stomach a writhing mass. When Felix hesitated, watching Les' hair with a pause, he felt like his skeleton would jump out of his skin and run through the halls.<br/><br/>Les felt an immediate release when Felix finally spoke and let out a fast exhale, realising that he had been holding his breath. With a short laugh, he ran his hand along the center of his part again, brushing the hair into its regular place, more for the other man's sake than his. "You're cute," he teased, pulling stray hairs back behind his ears. "Gotta keep up my good looks, you know." He was so nervous, his hand so shaky, staring down his arm at Felix's hovering fingers. He winced when his touch finally arrived, then let out a soft sigh of relief when nothing happened.<br/><br/>Though the previous night's sleep had been free of his regular nightmares, sometimes he felt the ache of his missing hand without their accompaniment, and this morning had been one of those occasions. Perhaps it was the anticipation, maybe the bubbling panic at the prospect of having to even think about his loss, but still he had done a trillion muscle exercises and taken at least three aspirin before the pain and irritation subsided. It had taken an immense amount of emotional exertion just to convince himself to put on his prosthetic, convince himself it was better than just walking about one-handed, much less continue forward with the whole "let people touch your arm with the intent of doing invasive surgery" thing. It was hard to see the ultimate benefit of something when step one seemed an impossible mountain to climb.<br/><br/>So, when Felix touched his arm and he felt no sting, no additional wriggling in the black pit of his chest, no flashbacks scoring his psyche like some sort of treacherous waking lobotomy, there was an immediate alleviated tension. After a beat, Felix's question finally processed and Lesley nodded his head with a sputter. "Ah, um, yeah. Like, I don't have much feeling at the end but everything else is good," he answered. Almost without thought, he tossed in his own question, "Do you know if it'll help with phantom limb? Or make it worse? If you guys have tested that?" He nibbled on a corner of his lip, averting his gaze. "When I get it, I always have to take off this disaster," he punctuated his words with a nudge at the prosthetic in his lap, "and I was wondering if, like, the muscles being... hooked up to something would help? I don't know. Whatever."<br/><br/>He looked back up to Felix, taking solace in the warm hands on his arms, then laughed. "I'm sorry, I sound so fucking stupid, don't I? How obvious is it that I don't know shit about any of this science-y surgical stuff?" Trying to pull from his well of confidence again, straightening his shoulders and aligning his neck with his spine, he gave Felix a soft tap on the shoulder. "That's why I have you to walk me through this, huh? Brain with a side of looks?" He gave a teasing smile, feeling the success of his flirting as he relaxed. God, he was a mess.