[Claude's expression softens in a smile, both when she says she'll take it, but also at the question, his hand trailing down the line of her neck. For one as stubborn and set in her ways as Hayame, all of this must have been an enormous change for her, and yet she's trying to move forward nonetheless.
He doesn't want to say that he's proud of her. It would have the sting of something patronising, or the suggestion that he played a role in what was really an accomplishment of her own. Maybe it would just be easier to suggest that he's happy for her, and grateful to those like Liem who refuse to abandon her, even when she thinks, expects, that they should.]
I'm wide awake. [He's here because he wants to be. Because she looked comfortable. Because he wants to have such an important discussion face-to-face, eye-to-eye, not sitting over her and talking down to her.] How about you?
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He doesn't want to say that he's proud of her. It would have the sting of something patronising, or the suggestion that he played a role in what was really an accomplishment of her own. Maybe it would just be easier to suggest that he's happy for her, and grateful to those like Liem who refuse to abandon her, even when she thinks, expects, that they should.]
I'm wide awake. [He's here because he wants to be. Because she looked comfortable. Because he wants to have such an important discussion face-to-face, eye-to-eye, not sitting over her and talking down to her.] How about you?