You manifest a ceiling when you shy away

It had been several weeks since she’d last seen Magnus, and while he didn’t consume her every waking thought, she consumed enough for her to be almost concerned. The logical, mature part of her brain knew it was an infatuation, a crush, but the broken, fearful part of her that had been abused refused to accept it. She knew few men were the same as Hideki; cheating, lying, abusive, but she’d spent her entire youth in his clutches, only knowing that side and it was hard to unlearn such an ingrained lesson. After she’d left Iga, she had it in her mind to throw out the thought of romance, deciding that she didn’t need it, didn’t want it, and she largely stuck to that idea.

But, she still wanted to see Magnus. Purely as a friend, of course. She wanted to get to know him better, help him piece together bits of himself...purely as a friend. She chanted that to herself as she got closer to Armada’s border, trailing along the Weeping Woods side before, inevitably, chickening out. Maybe it was for the best that she didn’t see him.