Life is full of rules but there's only one worth following. Don't touch. The only rule that matters. Don't touch. Everything else was a guideline. Don't touch. Everyone knew why. Don't touch, or you die.

The instinct is still there, the need for contact. That didn't go away, they don't know how to make it go away. It's there in the back of our minds like a constant itch that can never be scratched. It has to be drilled into children time and time again. Some never learn, those are the ones that become cautionary tales.

Most learn, soon enough. It's one rule that's very clear and easy to understand. The reasons are simple everyone knows. If your skin touches someone else's, you will be dead before the day ends.

All it takes is a couple of nosy kids willing to take the risk. A couple of kids that don't believe, or don't want to believe, the truth. They removed the protective coating that covered their skin and let themselves feel. Their bodies are put on display for days to make sure everyone sees what happens when the one rule that matters is broken.

It began as a precaution. Immunity was lost and disease spread uncontrollably. They were scared. We were scared. There was no fighting an unknowable enemy, the only option was prevention. They had to stop the spread.

They stopped travelling, they stopped going outside and eventually they stopped touching. They stopped the spread and along the way they stopped everything else as well.

Society rebuilt and life renewed but it was never the same. We had lost one of our senses, and we had lost part of ourselves. We continued, but we were confined. The story is told, over and over. The children learn. Don't touch. It's the only rule that matters.

Don't touch, was the only rule that mattered but that didn't mean everyone followed it. There were those that preached, and lived by the idea that touch was the only thing worth living for. They advocated that suicide by touch, although illegal, was the only way to die.

Everyone talked about touch, the way people often talk about the taboo. It was rarely serious, and often accompanied by a disclaimer to make it clear that the speaker would never condone touch. Discussion was a purely intellectual exercise, except when it wasn't.

For a few the concept of touch was very real. There was a growing movement, from those that had been raised without touch, that preached suicide by touch as the only option. Sometimes this concept manifested in hedonism, more often it was a life long quest to find the one person worth dying for.

Jason was not looking for touch. He understood the pull, just as anyone else, and he thought about it occasionally late at night when all the other thoughts were quiet. The idea intrigued him but touch was something unknowable for him and he thought perhaps it should stay that way. Jacob was not looking for someone to touch, which makes his answer to Fizzy's question all the more interesting.

"Are you looking for someone to touch?" she asked.

"Yes," replied Jacob without thinking. He probably would have answered yes to anything she asked, she was a magnet of energy that required attention to run and Jacob was willing to give her everything he had from the first moment he saw her.

Fizzy lit up at his response, as though she'd been wandering the world asking the same question over and over waiting for someone to finally say yes.

"Really?" asked Fizzy settling in a seat near Jacob. "I've never met anyone that wanted to touch before."

"Doesn't everyone?" he asked, still confused by his own responses.

"Well yeah but only in an abstract sense. In the same way I'd love to have magic powers but I know I'm never actually going to have any."

"You don't want the touch," Jacob wondered out loud, his nose scrunching up towards his eyebrows.

"God no," replied Fizzy hands raising in disgust. "I want to live."

"Is it really living without touch?" asked Jacob still unsure of where his words were coming from but slowly gaining fire for an argument he had never expected to have.

"It feels a lot like it," said Fizzy thoughtfully.

Somehow their conversation continued, through the evening, into the days and weeks beyond. Jacob wasn't looking for touch, but he soon found himself drawn to the concept in a way he'd never anticipated. He told himself it was simply so he could keep talking to Fizzy. She liked to argue about touch, that's why she hung out with him. But that argument only lasted so long, their conversations quickly shifted to other topics until they rarely talked about touch.

The strangest thing was, the more time Jacob spent with Fizzy the less he thought about touch. He'd never been consumed by the concept, but it had always been there like a post it note stuck to the back of his mind. It was consistent, until it wasn't. Jacob didn't even notice the niggling was gone until Fizzy mentioned it.

They hadn't talked about touch in months, the mention tripped Jacob as he walked. It felt strange to think about after so long. They're friendship began with Jacob defending touch, but knowing Fizzy made him realise he'd rather live touch free just so he could spend more time with her. That's what made Fizzy's words so unsettling.

"I've changed my mind about touch," said Fizzy fiddling with her hands nervously.

"What do you mean?" asked Jacob trying to understand.

"I think it might be worth it," whispered Fizzy. "It might be worth dying just to touch someone."

"To touch anyone?" asked Jacob, trying to remind himself how he felt the first time he saw Fizzy. Before he cared about time, about conversation, about making the most of every minute.

"To touch someone in particular," said Fizzy her eyes rising to meet Jacobs. Unsure, yet defiant.

Jacob didn't know what to do. He had never been looking for touch and he wasn't sure he wanted it. He was sure of one thing though, he would touch Fizzy if she wanted. Without a thought, without regret. He spend his life not touching her, or he would spend one day in her arms. He would do whatever she wanted. He would give his life to touch her.

The conversation ended, but the thought remained. Jacob went over and over the options in his mind. Unsure of what to say, what to do. How to explain what he wanted. The question lingered over every meeting. Like a spotlight on every word, every movement. It was unbearable and only a matter of time before Jacob burst.

"I don't want to touch," Jacob almost yelled when it all became too much.

"What?" asked Fizzy hurt in her eyes.

"I want to touch you," clarified Jacob quickly.

"I don't understand," said Fizzy hurt giving way to confusion.

"I want to live," said Jacob. "I want to live with you."

"You want to touch me," said Fizzy.

"Yes," replied Jacob although it wasn't a question.

"You also want to live with me."

"Yes."

A moment, that felt like a millennium to Jacob, stretched before a smile broke onto Fizzy's face like the sun bursting over the horizon every morning.

"Okay," said Fizzy simply through her smile.

Relief filled Jacob slowly as he considered Fizzy's response. He wasn't sure what any of this meant, but he began to accept that whatever it meant was good.

"I still want to touch you some day," clarified Fizzy. "But I'd like to try living for a while first."

The world never learned to live without touch, neither did Jacob and Fizzy. Everyone talked about touch but no one else mentioned those that did it. Life without touch was a compromise, one that was either worth it or it wasn't. Jacob and Fizzy could not be sure their trade was fair but life required sacrifice. Some people searched their whole lives to find someone worth dying for, Jacob and Fizzy decided to live for each other instead.

Life is full of rules, and every person has to make their own choice about which ones are worth following. Don't touch. The one rule worth following. Touch. The one thing worth dying for. Don't touch. Sometimes it's worth living for.