she's the kind of girl you can never please
The lack of reaction is deeply comforting following such an intimate and perhaps taboo confession. The strength of Alys' hand belies the equal strength of her character, and Ru thinks that perhaps this is the first step. Peeling back the persona for someone new instead of a well-formed friend or frequent acquaintance. Admitting hard truths, even if she cannot linger on them long."You would make a good therapist if you were not so talented as a seer," she compliments, a tiny twist to the corner of one side of her mouth denoting both sincerity and the struggle it takes to keep conversing with the weight of her own sudden clarity on her shoulders. Shoulders that, unlike Alys, are not nearly so accustomed to the burden of honesty.
"It's true I have kept myself solitary since my son's death." It is spit out with less grace and poise than her normal tone and manner of speech would be found doing, but it's the only way she can face the topic at hand. "Maybe...if you would be open to the idea, perhaps we can meet like this more often? Dinners, shopping - outside of Academy business?" Hotaru has never so blatantly requested the beginning of a friendship before, and it feels stiff on her tongue, but Alys' hand in her own is a rock that she clings to with the hope that she's not reading everything wrong.
Hotaru
