[ Hilda's propensity to selectively forget or purposefully ignore things that she definitely notices has never failed her - especially over the last several years of her life that were spent at the Academy and then at war. Conveniently it's glossed over any sign, gesture or meaning that might lead her to think that Claude cared deeply in the same way that she did. It was knowledge that wouldn't serve either of them in the times they lived in.
Despite her hopes to remain untethered, unbothered and free even that wish is kept within a glass box where she sits on display; she knows the role for youngest - and only - daughters like her in Fodlan. It was likely going to end up in marriage to someone whose family still held some social status or other that would best benefit both of their families than for love. To even have an inkling of hope that Claude felt anything deeper than affection beyond the realm of like fed daydreams of a child that she was beginning to see needed to grow up.
It's a bitter truth to swallow, one that some days she desperately digs her claws into in an attempt to hold onto fleeting days of innocence. At the very least, it's made sweeter by the fact that Abraxas has brought her something that she might very well never have in Fodlan. Perhaps that was enough for now. The rest, no matter how daunting, could follow.
Even if the words he offers don't help shift her views they still manage to warm her some and dispel some of the static at the back of her neck. It pulls a smile to her lips, one that she hopes seems more tender and watery than rueful. ]
Work? But you know how much I hate work. [ She sighs, meaning to break up some of the mood because there's only so much melancholy she can bear. The winter had bled into her heart weighing it down and she wanted nothing more than to chase it away again. The smile still lingers at the corner of her lips as she reaches up to brush her mittened thumb against his cheek. ] But I guess if you two are there to do most of it then it might not be so bad.
[ But quietly she knows that she'd do the same. If not for her, then for them. ]
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Despite her hopes to remain untethered, unbothered and free even that wish is kept within a glass box where she sits on display; she knows the role for youngest - and only - daughters like her in Fodlan. It was likely going to end up in marriage to someone whose family still held some social status or other that would best benefit both of their families than for love. To even have an inkling of hope that Claude felt anything deeper than affection beyond the realm of like fed daydreams of a child that she was beginning to see needed to grow up.
It's a bitter truth to swallow, one that some days she desperately digs her claws into in an attempt to hold onto fleeting days of innocence. At the very least, it's made sweeter by the fact that Abraxas has brought her something that she might very well never have in Fodlan. Perhaps that was enough for now. The rest, no matter how daunting, could follow.
Even if the words he offers don't help shift her views they still manage to warm her some and dispel some of the static at the back of her neck. It pulls a smile to her lips, one that she hopes seems more tender and watery than rueful. ]
Work? But you know how much I hate work. [ She sighs, meaning to break up some of the mood because there's only so much melancholy she can bear. The winter had bled into her heart weighing it down and she wanted nothing more than to chase it away again. The smile still lingers at the corner of her lips as she reaches up to brush her mittened thumb against his cheek. ] But I guess if you two are there to do most of it then it might not be so bad.
[ But quietly she knows that she'd do the same. If not for her, then for them. ]