[His expression flickers between something confused, frustrated, searching... before it just settles into something oddly soft.]
You really are different.
[It's said with the glimpses of a smile, hesitant and not exactly reaching his eyes but.... wow, he wasn't sure if he was proud or slightly relieved or just... too confused to think straight. He's not the best with confronting emotions so deeply, so back down to the corners they are shoved while he gets his composure back together.]
Sorry. Pushing you like that wasn't what I was going for. [He gives the wisp of a shrug, and eye contact is a non-existent thing as he continues, but his voice is much gentler than it had sounded before.] Anyway...
I don't know why you're asking me about the past when I'm pretty sure you already know the answer. But that's exactly why it matters.
[Not for the same reasons either might have had in the past, but because moving on despite that past was the only way either could be accepted for anything of merit.
...
There's a long pause, his hand rubbing against the back of his neck as his lips press tight. With a huff, he plops himself to a seat on the ground - not breaking that personal bubble, not leaving, just... hopefully turning this into a conversation.]
...I can't make promises, Asch. I can't take back things I've said or done or thought. I can't pretend to understand what you've gone through. I can't say sorry and expect that to fix anything.
So I won't.
But know that I made up my mind not too long ago about you.
[And his tone should be enough to say that it's not what Asch may have wanted back at the clinic. Dislike, annoyance, an a million bad memories? Yes. But it wasn't hate. Or, at least, it was trying its best not to be.
Someday, maybe they could start over. Maybe not now, maybe not here, if Asch was already so touchy on the subject.
But someday, maybe they could just exist as people.]
2/2
You really are different.
[It's said with the glimpses of a smile, hesitant and not exactly reaching his eyes but.... wow, he wasn't sure if he was proud or slightly relieved or just... too confused to think straight. He's not the best with confronting emotions so deeply, so back down to the corners they are shoved while he gets his composure back together.]
Sorry. Pushing you like that wasn't what I was going for. [He gives the wisp of a shrug, and eye contact is a non-existent thing as he continues, but his voice is much gentler than it had sounded before.] Anyway...
I don't know why you're asking me about the past when I'm pretty sure you already know the answer. But that's exactly why it matters.
[Not for the same reasons either might have had in the past, but because moving on despite that past was the only way either could be accepted for anything of merit.
...
There's a long pause, his hand rubbing against the back of his neck as his lips press tight. With a huff, he plops himself to a seat on the ground - not breaking that personal bubble, not leaving, just... hopefully turning this into a conversation.]
...I can't make promises, Asch. I can't take back things I've said or done or thought. I can't pretend to understand what you've gone through. I can't say sorry and expect that to fix anything.
So I won't.
But know that I made up my mind not too long ago about you.
[And his tone should be enough to say that it's not what Asch may have wanted back at the clinic. Dislike, annoyance, an a million bad memories? Yes. But it wasn't hate. Or, at least, it was trying its best not to be.
Someday, maybe they could start over. Maybe not now, maybe not here, if Asch was already so touchy on the subject.
But someday, maybe they could just exist as people.]