[She looks Tadashi in the eye, because she is worth more to herself than this man. She looks Tadashi in the eye when he straightens his own shoulders because he hunches eternally.
She looks Tadashi in the eye and hears what he has to say.
She's not numb. She can't be numb, because numb would imply that she was affected by such things as cold and ice and chill. She wasn't. She controlled such things. Water in her cells and ice in her veins. The senshi who was calculating and cold and methodical, who was ruthless and merciless in the face of pleading.
She was not the blazing fire, the hot-temper, the shouting and screaming.
She was creeping, crawling ice along the ground that wrapped around you and froze you to death before realizing there was even ice at all. She was the sort to drown you and watch it. Heartless.
Or so she told herself.
Because heartless was easier right now than hurt. It was kinder as she looked Tadashi in the eye and saw exactly what she suspected. She'd allow herself to be fragile and upset in the privacy of her own room, away from where eyes could see, away from Tadashi's eyes, which held her in contempt.
Because she was weighed and measured and found lacking.]
Then have a pleasant morning, Hamada-san.
[She didn't wait for anything as she turned on her heel to head back in. He wasn't going to grab her wrist and she wasn't going to cry in front of him again. Her hands were shaking from insisting she could be heartless and the urge not to slap him all at once. She swallowed and kept her shoulders square and her back straight. Let him think her heartless and cruel, she would think that of herself as well. Better that than for her to ever be in any sort of romantic love again.
It wasn't worth it.
Just as she was not worth it to him, she would not allow him to be worth it to her. She knew he wouldn't call out to her.
She knew he wasn't going to say he was sorry.
And she wasn't sure she could allow herself to care, because then she might cry. And she would not give someone who found her lacking the right to see her in tears.]
[Action]
She looks Tadashi in the eye and hears what he has to say.
She's not numb. She can't be numb, because numb would imply that she was affected by such things as cold and ice and chill. She wasn't. She controlled such things. Water in her cells and ice in her veins. The senshi who was calculating and cold and methodical, who was ruthless and merciless in the face of pleading.
She was not the blazing fire, the hot-temper, the shouting and screaming.
She was creeping, crawling ice along the ground that wrapped around you and froze you to death before realizing there was even ice at all. She was the sort to drown you and watch it. Heartless.
Or so she told herself.
Because heartless was easier right now than hurt. It was kinder as she looked Tadashi in the eye and saw exactly what she suspected. She'd allow herself to be fragile and upset in the privacy of her own room, away from where eyes could see, away from Tadashi's eyes, which held her in contempt.
Because she was weighed and measured and found lacking.]
Then have a pleasant morning, Hamada-san.
[She didn't wait for anything as she turned on her heel to head back in. He wasn't going to grab her wrist and she wasn't going to cry in front of him again. Her hands were shaking from insisting she could be heartless and the urge not to slap him all at once. She swallowed and kept her shoulders square and her back straight. Let him think her heartless and cruel, she would think that of herself as well. Better that than for her to ever be in any sort of romantic love again.
It wasn't worth it.
Just as she was not worth it to him, she would not allow him to be worth it to her. She knew he wouldn't call out to her.
She knew he wasn't going to say he was sorry.
And she wasn't sure she could allow herself to care, because then she might cry. And she would not give someone who found her lacking the right to see her in tears.]