[it shouldn't be so touching to hear that. she should be hardened by now. but she sees paul reach out a hand, and despite herself, she takes it. one thing that she never heard enough of when she had the original crisis was how they shouldn't have done this to her. how her parents were wrong for what they did. it was twelve years ago and she's mostly over it by now, but any sort of kindness that anyone elects to extend to her will always, always be appreciated.]

Why are you apologizing? [she almost looks confused, but she does understand why he's doing it. or she thinks she does, at least.] I'm the one who brought it up. I'm just not very good at figuring out why people do things, and that goes double for gods.

[she squeezes his hand. looks down at the table, then back up to him.]

There's someone from back home who said one time that he thinks all our lives are unfolding in the right direction, and that stuck with me. I don't know if that means there's a reason behind everything we've been through, but I think it means that you and I are both here, now, having this conversation because it's where our lives have taken us. [and very suddenly, she almost looks... there's a combination of shame and embarrassment on her face.]

I know that's not what you're looking for, and maybe it's stupid to listen to the words of the guy who wrote seventeen songs about partying as hard as physically possible, but... I don't know. It's helped me. Knowing that I'm in the right place, going the right way. Once I stopped being stubborn about it and got some help from my friends to guide me, at least.