[@Crimmy]

[b]Luke Schwarz[/b]

[b]"You think so?"[/b]

I found that a bit hard to believe. It wasn't as if I were Louis Armstrong or a Strawberry Sherbet...

Maybe it was being a bit hard on her, but "like" felt like too strong a word for Gratia's opinion of me. Maybe "tolerate" or "accept" would be better. After all, it's not as if I was that likeable of a person that even she, with her boredly disdainful nature, could really "like" past all of my qualities that she would find annoying.

She would not mind dealing with me, but I didn't easily buy that she would look forward to it in any respect. But, given that it's Gratia, maybe that's simply as close to "liking" as you can get in my situation. After all, she didn't treat me like I saw of how she did Napoli. In a very objective line of thinking, I was in a way better spot already. 

Poor Napoli...

So maybe my definition of "like" was too narrow-minded?

Hrm.

... She didn't tear me down when she had plenty of ammunition that first night on the cruise, did she? She could have easily told me it was a stupid sentiment, that I was an absolute retard to chase some ideal so nebulously defined, that it was just a half-assed attempt at a reason to be here by a guy who could only half-ass everything she was doing here.

She could have done so easily. She would have done so readily. Nobody would have found it beyond their expectations in the slightest.

And yet—

She didn't.

She simply told me, in that same flat and neutral tone she delivered a scathing insult with, to "not fuck it up".

Words of encouragement. In her own rough way, that was her saying she wanted me to succeed—

[color=ffcf40]"Wait, SHE likes you?"[/color]

[color=00aeef]"You never told [i]us[/i] about Gratia, Onii-chan!"[/color]

Oh good god. Read the room, read the conversation, read literally anything to be read, that wasn't what she meant at all!

[color=ffcf40]"I wouldn't have called that at all from the vibes I got from her!"[/color]

[color=00aeef]"Neither would I, and I'm shocked you didn't tell us! Heck, I'm platinum mad! April was right about you after all! Are you so embarassed of us that you wouldn't want to share important information like that?!"[/color]

Are you seriously getting worked up to that degree over something you just made up? Who the hell are you, weren't you supposed to be miles more composed?! Go jump out of a window!

As Dawn growled and stomped her way over to me, April buzzing alongside her with a face full of intrigue, I sighed, grumbled something unpleasant about the two of them under my breath, an held up a finger to Galla as I rose.

[i]One moment, please.[/i]

Without warning, I whirled upon the two as they drew close, rose both my hands high—

[b]"NO."[/b]

And chopped both on their heads.

[i][color=ffcf40]"Dyaah!"[/color]

[color=00aeef]"Uwah!"[/color][/i]

The effect, on the two who were unquestionably stronger than me, was immediate all the same. Sometimes age really could turn the tide.

I folded my arms as they clutched their heads, stared imperiously upon them like an incensed judicator, and spoke with the authority of a man lecturing a small child.

[b]"Use your heads a little."[/b]

[color=ffcf40]"We can't if you hit them, jerk!"[/color]

[b][i]"Use. Them."[/i][/b]

I was seriously wondering if my evaluations of these two weren't off the mark. For a pair of prodigal prospective philanthropists, they sure as hell were willing to just be impulsive numbskulls...

And, hey, didn't April just find it hard to believe Bianca and Estelle knowing me for any reason beyond the system forcing them to? My memory may be bad, but even I don't forget things that fast!

[b]"All she was saying was that Gratia's willing to tolerate me, alright? We don't need misconceptions so big and bad you'd find them in [i]Jurassic Park[/i]."[/b]

She could do much better than me, and she and I both knew it for sure. Not a snowball's chance in hell of that one.