[ His jaw positively drops at her rebuke, eyes wide and dismayed, and he doesn't need to see her expression to know how she must be looking at him. Her tone says more than enough, and how simple and straightforward she makes this sound. This is her choice, and he wouldn't think to take it from her.
But she doesn't have all the details, and her following questions are hilariously on-point. The only reason she's treating him like she is...because she doesn't know. Right? If she knew, she would think twice about this. Dammit, why couldn't he have decided sooner to tell her? Maybe...she wouldn't even be here right now if he had. He owes her the truth.
...But it hadn't changed the way Noctis and the others saw him. Before they had forgotten, anyway. They still treated him the same, like it didn't matter, and Alisaie has the benefit of not being Lucian, or even from Eos herself. She doesn't know the horrors the Empire has committed. They aren't her enemy.
Still, it's far from easy to bridge the gap, the actually answer those questions than attempt to sweep them aside. It helps that he doubts she would let him, sick or not, after how sternly she had shut him down. She's ready and willing to listen, and he is ready to tell her. So why is this still so damn hard?
Because, as ever, he's afraid. Afraid that as soon as she knows the truth about him, she will leave, never to look his way again. Maybe it's an irrational fear, but he has an irrational heart, emotional and tender and genuine, and he has few people he is as close to as he is with her. She is the best friend he has made from this world, second only to his brothers, and if he were to lose her...
His head dips down in a bow, color flaring up in his cheeks, as he knits his fingers together over his bouncing knees. ]
...You...you saw it, didn't you? My...wrist.
[ Though he poses it as a question, it isn't one, really. She must have seen it, and chosen not to remark upon it. She's too sharp to have let it go unnoticed, after he'd drawn so much attention to it the other day. ]
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But she doesn't have all the details, and her following questions are hilariously on-point. The only reason she's treating him like she is...because she doesn't know. Right? If she knew, she would think twice about this. Dammit, why couldn't he have decided sooner to tell her? Maybe...she wouldn't even be here right now if he had. He owes her the truth.
...But it hadn't changed the way Noctis and the others saw him. Before they had forgotten, anyway. They still treated him the same, like it didn't matter, and Alisaie has the benefit of not being Lucian, or even from Eos herself. She doesn't know the horrors the Empire has committed. They aren't her enemy.
Still, it's far from easy to bridge the gap, the actually answer those questions than attempt to sweep them aside. It helps that he doubts she would let him, sick or not, after how sternly she had shut him down. She's ready and willing to listen, and he is ready to tell her. So why is this still so damn hard?
Because, as ever, he's afraid. Afraid that as soon as she knows the truth about him, she will leave, never to look his way again. Maybe it's an irrational fear, but he has an irrational heart, emotional and tender and genuine, and he has few people he is as close to as he is with her. She is the best friend he has made from this world, second only to his brothers, and if he were to lose her...
His head dips down in a bow, color flaring up in his cheeks, as he knits his fingers together over his bouncing knees. ]
...You...you saw it, didn't you? My...wrist.
[ Though he poses it as a question, it isn't one, really. She must have seen it, and chosen not to remark upon it. She's too sharp to have let it go unnoticed, after he'd drawn so much attention to it the other day. ]