[quote=@Turboshitter]
Wes blushed. Suddenly the off-hand mentions to love and wifehood were becoming very hard to ignore or rationalize as airheaded jokes.

"W-wait. You're serious? Like seriously serious? Me?" he asked, pointing to himself. "You're saying you love [i]me?[/i] Why?"
[/quote]

"Do I need a reason?" Her response was callous, but delivered with her own overbearing cheer that it was hard to find any harmful intent in it. "My wish was to do what I couldn't in life, be a good wife. So just by the merit of summoning me, you have granted my wish! Romantic, isn't it? Out of all the people across time and space that were compatible for me, you were the one!"

It was really all she needed. There was no soul mate waiting for her, or a star crossed lover forever out of reach. All she needed to fall in love was for anyone to call out and give her a chance. That was the despair of Tamamo no Mae. That which she found amidst the 3 days of raining arrows before her life was extinguished, surrounded by the corpses of the tens of thousands who proclaimed her a monster. 

Her hand had unconsciously clenched around a handful of fabric, grip whiteknuckled yet her face remained the picture of joy and exuberance. 

"Is it so wrong to want to love?"

Was it so wrong to hope she [i]could[/i] love?