"Or maybe it wasn't a good time after all. Sorry."

"Well - I don't know - what am I supposed to say? What does that even mean, anyway, I don't - I don't know anything."

"There isn't an official list of responses. It means different things to different people. To me it just means - I like you, I care about you a lot, I want to be near you and talk to you and help you and hug you and make sure you're okay. And... that if you eventually decided you wanted to get married and have children, and wanted to do those things with me in particular, I'd say yes."

"It is okay that you're confused. I did not expect you not to be confused. I know you. You can take as long to un-confuse as you need to, and if there's any way for me to help, I happily will."

"Thanks. I have so much to catch up on and it's kind of - overwhelming. Does the dress look nice? I don't think she'd have let me pick one that she didn't like - well, she probably wouldn't even have one she didn't like - but I mean does it work on me, does it look - princessy?"

"You look very princessy, and very pretty. It's a good dress. Maybe, since I'm going to be all settled down staying in the palace now, I'll make you a better one sometime. I thought of something while we were all sitting in the entrance hall earlier, by the way - how much did you catch of why Ranae was so quiet?"

"You could tell why she was quiet?"

"Yeah. She was - holding back. I'm guessing Cearl warned her that you're shy, and not to overwhelm you, so she was restraining herself from saying a million things and being all weepy and excited. And she seemed curious about us but I couldn't tell what she was curious about specifically - could've been the same things as Cearl, but it seemed like more than that. Do you want me to tell you this kind of stuff after whatever conversations we're both in, if I feel like you might have missed something?"

"Yes. Please. It helps."

"Okay, I will."

"She asked me a few questions, while we were going through her dresses, but mostly it was about how I grew up."

"Yeah?"

"What kinds of books I'd gotten to read, how I learned to play piccolo, whether I was too cramped - like, physically, not getting to stretch my legs, seemed to be the question - in a tower all the time, what foods I like. Things like that."

"Seems reasonable. What do you think of her?"

"She seems - nice, I guess. Kind of - fluttery? Does that make sense? I'm very short on baselines to gauge people by."

"Yeah, I think I see what you mean by 'fluttery'."

"But nice. She was trying really hard. It's not her fault I've got no idea how to deal with her."

"You can learn."

"I'm worried I missed critical socializing skills that people can only pick up when they're five, or something."

"I do all right, and I didn't have the world's most inspiringly normal childhood either."

"Unpleasant. No privacy, but no friends either. The people who ran the place were about an even split between 'really invested in rules for their own sake' and 'just likes hurting people and keeping the kids in line is a good excuse'. About the only two skills I picked up there that were still useful outside were reading people's moods quickly, and hiding."

"How old were you when you got out?"