[She'll figure it out someday, once she's mulled it over and talked it out and gotten it straight in her head. But that's not what's important at the moment.
Is this how she looked herself, she wonders, during those curses when she'd given everything she could offer to help the two of them be happy?
Hard choices are hard for a reason, and sometimes you have to be selfish to be happy, and hard choices ought to be made because it's the right thing to do. And she has a feeling that maybe, just maybe, that's what Megumi is trying to do now. Hasn't she made enough hard choices in her life to know what goes into them, and how to recognize them?
Then it seems it's true, after all. She never wanted to hurt anyone, and all this time, that's what she's been doing.]
But I'm afraid there's one thing you're wrong about.
[And here is a wry smile of her own.]
I'm not his princess. I'm his friend, and sometimes his opponent, and other times his accomplice; I've been the optimist to his pessimist, and most of the time, I'm the one being hopeful while he's cynical. I'm the same as him in some ways, and I'm opposite him in others.
[She retrieves her own teacup, and pauses to take a sip, letting the words hang in the air as she considers her next ones.]
It was a foolish whim of mine, telling him he could call me that if he wanted. It...means something to me, and it meant something long before I ever met him. But every time he says it...no. No, I'm not his princess. Not yet, and perhaps not ever.
[And her wry smile grows, just a little.]
But that isn't what you meant, I don't think. So please don't think I don't understand, because I do. Or at least, I do a little better than I used to.
[ Action ]
[She'll figure it out someday, once she's mulled it over and talked it out and gotten it straight in her head. But that's not what's important at the moment.
Is this how she looked herself, she wonders, during those curses when she'd given everything she could offer to help the two of them be happy?
Hard choices are hard for a reason, and sometimes you have to be selfish to be happy, and hard choices ought to be made because it's the right thing to do. And she has a feeling that maybe, just maybe, that's what Megumi is trying to do now. Hasn't she made enough hard choices in her life to know what goes into them, and how to recognize them?
Then it seems it's true, after all. She never wanted to hurt anyone, and all this time, that's what she's been doing.]
But I'm afraid there's one thing you're wrong about.
[And here is a wry smile of her own.]
I'm not his princess. I'm his friend, and sometimes his opponent, and other times his accomplice; I've been the optimist to his pessimist, and most of the time, I'm the one being hopeful while he's cynical. I'm the same as him in some ways, and I'm opposite him in others.
[She retrieves her own teacup, and pauses to take a sip, letting the words hang in the air as she considers her next ones.]
It was a foolish whim of mine, telling him he could call me that if he wanted. It...means something to me, and it meant something long before I ever met him. But every time he says it...no. No, I'm not his princess. Not yet, and perhaps not ever.
[And her wry smile grows, just a little.]
But that isn't what you meant, I don't think. So please don't think I don't understand, because I do. Or at least, I do a little better than I used to.