[ It seems almost too easy. It's not as if he's promising her love or romance, as if's asking her to be his lover or something that. What he is offering is companionship and a kind of care that's on a level entirely different to what they have before, something stronger, because they work well together and because there is a certain strength about the two of them. He isn't asking for her to love him or to think of him in that way, at least not right now (or so she hopes, anyway, an 'intimate way' could be very platonic) and even if she wasn't certain about the chance of her ever feeling that way she knew it would never be something she would do.
Still. There's a craving, deep in her heart, for that kind of intimacy. To have someone that wants to sit with her and read a book or settle by the fireplace and talk, someone to share her meals with... The last few weeks had been very lonely, everyone doing their own thing, and if it hadn't been for Nico Hermione thinks she would have spent the future of the holiday alone, locked away in her house battling her own sadness and wondering if her heart was going to be capable of surviving this at all.
She wants to believe that this is all he wants, but she's not an idiot, for all that she walks into stupid situations with her hands held up in surrender sometimes. There has to be more here - for as lonely as she thinks he is she is sure there must be someone better for him out there, someone he could genuinely love. Neither of them have mentioned that word aloud yet, dismissing it entirely, but she knows what she wants. She would like to love someone, here, to let that blossom into tenderness and kindness in the best of ways.
Breathing out, her hands find his. ]
Gilgamesh, you're - that's really very nice of you. To offer, I mean. But I'm not sure I'm ready for anything like that, especially not with someone that I'm not in love with.
[ There's a part of her that grips his hands a little tighter, though, cheeks pinked, that betrays how much she might want the companionship he wants. Her smile is still soft and sweet, though, her voice earnest. ]
I'd like to think we understand each other, you know, and we can work together and it will be amazing, but we don't have to rush into - well, I mean, I know that in your world girls get married young but I would make a terrible wife right now. [ And in general, she's sure. ] I want to make you happy too and I'll keep you company, I'll read with you and maybe we can walk together and you can see more of the lion, but - I can't do the rest.
[ Not yet, it hangs on the edge of her tongue like a promise she doesn't dare make. ]
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Still. There's a craving, deep in her heart, for that kind of intimacy. To have someone that wants to sit with her and read a book or settle by the fireplace and talk, someone to share her meals with... The last few weeks had been very lonely, everyone doing their own thing, and if it hadn't been for Nico Hermione thinks she would have spent the future of the holiday alone, locked away in her house battling her own sadness and wondering if her heart was going to be capable of surviving this at all.
She wants to believe that this is all he wants, but she's not an idiot, for all that she walks into stupid situations with her hands held up in surrender sometimes. There has to be more here - for as lonely as she thinks he is she is sure there must be someone better for him out there, someone he could genuinely love. Neither of them have mentioned that word aloud yet, dismissing it entirely, but she knows what she wants. She would like to love someone, here, to let that blossom into tenderness and kindness in the best of ways.
Breathing out, her hands find his. ]
Gilgamesh, you're - that's really very nice of you. To offer, I mean. But I'm not sure I'm ready for anything like that, especially not with someone that I'm not in love with.
[ There's a part of her that grips his hands a little tighter, though, cheeks pinked, that betrays how much she might want the companionship he wants. Her smile is still soft and sweet, though, her voice earnest. ]
I'd like to think we understand each other, you know, and we can work together and it will be amazing, but we don't have to rush into - well, I mean, I know that in your world girls get married young but I would make a terrible wife right now. [ And in general, she's sure. ] I want to make you happy too and I'll keep you company, I'll read with you and maybe we can walk together and you can see more of the lion, but - I can't do the rest.
[ Not yet, it hangs on the edge of her tongue like a promise she doesn't dare make. ]