[ Her world view flips and for a minute she feels breathless as his face fills her field of vision. Hilda hadn't looked closely at him since the night of the masquerade and before that the night on the roof when she had found him trying to breathe; maybe she had been worried that what she'd see there were disgust at the person she had been towards Claude. He's dangerously close to her and she feels her cheeks flare up at the proximity.
It's not often she finds herself at a loss for words. There's always a quick quip on her lips, something to diffuse a situation or try and bring some levity but she can't find any words to fill the silence that follows what he says. Internally she grapples with his kind words and the earnest desire that they held. She wants to tell him that she enjoyed it too. Had hoped and wanted it to be him - but the words are caught in the teeth. Want is a desire she's familiar with; there had been no shortage of want that hadn't gone unanswered growing up whether it came to objects or whims. But it had become increasingly difficult when it came to her affections. Some part of her still grappled with wanting to be with and having deep care and feelings for more than one person, but more than that, she feared that the redhead would eventually change his mind too when he figured out she was as obtuse and unremarkable as Claude had implied.
Her eyes have to slide shut for a brief moment but her hands rise, slowly tracing the curves of his face. Even with her eyes closed she knew them well. She had been stupid not to admit that much to herself in the maze. Longing courses through her but she bottles it back down. When she speaks again its quiet, laced with that same hurt and longing coursing through her body. ]
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It's not often she finds herself at a loss for words. There's always a quick quip on her lips, something to diffuse a situation or try and bring some levity but she can't find any words to fill the silence that follows what he says. Internally she grapples with his kind words and the earnest desire that they held. She wants to tell him that she enjoyed it too. Had hoped and wanted it to be him - but the words are caught in the teeth. Want is a desire she's familiar with; there had been no shortage of want that hadn't gone unanswered growing up whether it came to objects or whims. But it had become increasingly difficult when it came to her affections. Some part of her still grappled with wanting to be with and having deep care and feelings for more than one person, but more than that, she feared that the redhead would eventually change his mind too when he figured out she was as obtuse and unremarkable as Claude had implied.
Her eyes have to slide shut for a brief moment but her hands rise, slowly tracing the curves of his face. Even with her eyes closed she knew them well. She had been stupid not to admit that much to herself in the maze. Longing courses through her but she bottles it back down. When she speaks again its quiet, laced with that same hurt and longing coursing through her body. ]
But you shouldn't. I'm not anything like Claude.