[He knows better than to try to make her look at him right now, even if it's what he wants most desperately for himself; he tucks her head underneath his chin instead, and tightens his arms around her as much to help try to quell her trembling as to reassure her that he's here.
He wants to tell her that he'll never let that happen to her. He wants to, and yet he can't — because it's already happened to her, and he wasn't here to stop it, and all that promise will do really is remind her of his absence and his impotence against preventing the other.
A Rosalind so miserable he wouldn't have recognized her. What a repugnant, sobering thought.
He sucks in a slow, agonizing breath.]
I don't want a baby if it means your misery.
[He doesn't. And she didn't turn the focus of the topic to children specifically, but he does, because sometimes they're both a little bit awful in this one particular way, implicating the things they both want most for the sake of delivering a more self-centered point.]
I don't want to be married if it means that. Rosie, I don't want to be happy if it's not something I can share with you.
[Narcissus always did prioritize one thing above all else, after all.]
I just...I don't understand why you can't have both. What you see, that I don't...that's stopping you from having both.
no subject
[He knows better than to try to make her look at him right now, even if it's what he wants most desperately for himself; he tucks her head underneath his chin instead, and tightens his arms around her as much to help try to quell her trembling as to reassure her that he's here.
He wants to tell her that he'll never let that happen to her. He wants to, and yet he can't — because it's already happened to her, and he wasn't here to stop it, and all that promise will do really is remind her of his absence and his impotence against preventing the other.
A Rosalind so miserable he wouldn't have recognized her. What a repugnant, sobering thought.
He sucks in a slow, agonizing breath.]
I don't want a baby if it means your misery.
[He doesn't. And she didn't turn the focus of the topic to children specifically, but he does, because sometimes they're both a little bit awful in this one particular way, implicating the things they both want most for the sake of delivering a more self-centered point.]
I don't want to be married if it means that. Rosie, I don't want to be happy if it's not something I can share with you.
[Narcissus always did prioritize one thing above all else, after all.]
I just...I don't understand why you can't have both. What you see, that I don't...that's stopping you from having both.