[it knocks the wind out of her, but not in the way most heroines are rendered breathless in all of the cheesy romance books she's read. it's painful-- it's fucking painful-- in so many ways that she doesn't even know where to start. she's never heard those words before. not from her parents, not from the circus troupe she was with, not from Melchior. not even from Bienfu, who was her closest friend and companion. it hurts, and what hurts the most is the fact that she finds she doesn't mind hearing them from him]
[she doesn't care what anyone else on this island thinks of her. she's glad for those to whom she's grown close-- Lucina, and Lief, and Nino, and Laphicet. but they could all hate her and she'd let it roll off her shoulders and say that it is what it is]
[but if Akira hated her, she'd be devastated. and that knowledge is fucking terrifying]
[when she finally finds her words, they're low and even, carefully calculated and delivered without an ounce of feeling]
DONE YES
[she doesn't care what anyone else on this island thinks of her. she's glad for those to whom she's grown close-- Lucina, and Lief, and Nino, and Laphicet. but they could all hate her and she'd let it roll off her shoulders and say that it is what it is]
[but if Akira hated her, she'd be devastated. and that knowledge is fucking terrifying]
[when she finally finds her words, they're low and even, carefully calculated and delivered without an ounce of feeling]
. . . what do you expect me to do with that?