retroductions | reverie overflow.

[Complication.]

So then where does the issue lie? Are you afraid of disappointing him? Me?

[Any regard possibly running lopsided.]

You, of course you!

Sprezzatura…

[Are they still clutching onto her mug? He’s going to at least to try to bring it down to the counter, unfurl her fingers from it.]

Why do you think you’ll disappoint me? We have not set expectations. We have not defined anything. I only wish to understand what you want and feel.

[ he can do so; she forcibly flexes her own fingers to straighten out from their clutching.

nearly more breath than voice, ] ...I don't want what happened with Theo to happen again.

[And so their hands rest upon the counter, Sholmes' own touch never quite leaving the curve of her fingers.

Theo? She has not mentioned the name to him before, but he is a rather nosy detective. He has gone through that blasted book harboring the names and pictures of those they have lost to solitary, and he pulls it up from the dredges of memory again, filing through the list. He is fairly the name "Theo" was present.

The rest is an easy deduction.]

...You are afraid of losing someone dear to you, and hurting all over again.

Oh, my god. I told you this... [ other hand pinching the bridge of her nose, voice soft, self-mocking ] I told you this... during that Doki Doki Bingo.

You did, but you did not mention a name. Which suggests, at least, an origin point to the pain, one more harrowing than the rest; and one that I am sorry you had to experience. Truly.

[There is not much he can do to heal that wound. He would not presume to try.]

...I cannot tell you what will happen in the future, whether I or anyone else will be swept away without warning. No one here can. But would you regret, someday, not trying to seek happiness, and choosing to abstain out of fear, instead?

[ no, she thinks. I wish I had never opened my heart! ]

I do not need love to be happy. It has done me no favours!

And surely you cannot admit that it has made you less happy when you've had it.

How can I know?! I only had it for weeks!

Weeks that must have had some impact, else you’d not be so upset right now. It would not be so hard for you to talk about.

It is hard because of what he went through! Herlock, he running from cultists of his god. And if he never wakes, then it means he has been overtaken by angel inside him.

[ no matter the ending, the outcome is the same: God still got its chosen one. ]

[Sholmes does not think this invalidates his claim. Only that it adds to it.]

…Sprezzatura. Because he is in Solitary does not mean that he is lost to you forever. Only that we have not found a way to awaken those gone to sleep, not just yet.

[ shudders. and if he comes back, that's right--what then, once she's let herself fall in love with someone else?

she wraps an arm around her middle and leans forward. oog. stomach hurts ]

What do I do...

[Considerations, considerations. He can only unearth more, being who he is. This poor woman, though. So harried with indecision, inability to know which path to take.

He thinks for a moment.]

Do you believe your heart can only be given out to one person, and one only?

[ little pieces of her heart live in the pockets of no small number ]

I think I am too selfish to abide not being sole recipient of someone else's.

[ which makes her a hypocrite. ]

[He's not so inconsiderate to call her that to her face, but he can point out-]

But you are fond of more than one person. You've just told me so.

Yes. So I.... shouldn't. It would never be fair to you, or him.

I don’t think that’s necessarily true, either. If either party is fine with it…

[He trails off. Knowing this, he should fetch his other strings, too — not to make a point, but so that she is aware.]

I have another red string, too, my dear. [He holds it up, gently between two fingers. It’s twined with gold and yellow, much like hers.] Mr Inui and I have agreed upon it together, yet not exclusively with each other. I have seen other romantic inclinations in his strings, too.

[He doesn’t know if this helps, or hinders, or something in-between, but Sholmes certainly wishes to be transparent as possible.]

Oh.

[ naturally, right away, there's that pang of jealousy or disappointment. the reason she should not be entertaining what she so badly wants to entertain. she furrows her brows slightly, watching Sholmes' red string shift in the artificial diner light.

does this make her "the other woman"?

again?

again...? ]

What is it about this place...

[Tries to read the expression on her face, to see what he can garner from it. "Oh" does not tell him much.]

Hm? What do you mean?

[ her expression is pinched, a little maudlin, a little self-pitying. it's the expression of someone who feels abruptly let down, that's right—or something close to feeling let down. ]

Higher society is all complicated webs, but... this place puts even it to shame. Everyone so entangled with one another.

[In that case, her expression is very telling.]

Are you disappointed? No matter how tangled the web gets, more and more with each passing day, this does not change how I feel about you.

[ can't even meet his eye. ]

I told you I'm selfish, Herlock. I can't stand to be "other woman".

[Here, he frowns.]

Why do you think that label would be the first thing to apply? "Other". As though you would not be not held in equal regard.

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