How come she's crying? It's not like Yue's a mind reader or anything. She's not even that good with faces! One time on market day she paid three times the usual price for a jar of red beans because she'd misread the seller's surprise for disappointment and accidentally haggled her way up instead of down. So it's not like... it's not, it's not like she can see Rosie's dream, right? It's not like, it's not, it's, it's... stop it stop it stop it Yue! You're being so, so..!

It's not like Rose said a word about anything one way or the other. She could be thinking about a perfectly baked loaf of bread (with nuts and seeds and spirals of cardamom baked inside!) as easily as she could be begging for her life. Maybe? But the Countess isn't scary any more than Jessic was, and [i]she[/i] was a dragon carrying her across the endless skies. There's just, just, just no reason!

But the fact of the matter's that she's crying just as surely as she's blushing. And she's blushing as surely as she's shaking. And she's shaking about as much as she's swallowing, as if somewhere in the air she's gulping there'll be some words for her to spit back out that'll do what she needs them to do. Which is what, exactly? She's never been so confused in all her life, unless you count the time that Sis asked her what the sound of one hand clapping was and then shook her head when she tried to make it. 

"I..."

She's not sure where she's trying to take that 'I'. Where's it supposed to go, and where she wants it to, and if either of those two things are different from each other. What she's sure of, though, is that Rose is big and strong and scary in a way that Yue never can be. And that she's the one who's making those eyes that remind of her Kat's, that she's not making threats or standing up or brandishing the... uh... what was it again? The Consillyuhsomething Blade Or Other? She's not using that to break anybody out, not demanding anything at all or doing any of the stuff she's pretty sure Hyra would be doing in this situation. She's just looking. Like that. So vulnerable. So quiet. 

It's beautiful to Yue, even if she can't figure out why. Maybe it's not beautiful to anybody else, but for her it's just... it's weird, y'know? It makes her wish she was every bit the knight she was dressed as. It makes her wish she was a master with her sword and that she could fly like a princess already and carve glittering circles through the air with the sword she'd inherited from the shrine. It makes her dream of a world full of maidens just like Rose offering kisses and adventures and doe-eyed looks just like this one to wanderers who look a lot like Yue. 

"I don't..."

She forces herself to stand up to the full degree her fox-wounds will allow her. She wipes her eyes on her sleeve even though her sleeve is overlapping plates of metal right now and [i]ow[/i]. She sniffles loudly as she accepts the touch under her chin with the closest she can manage to polite acceptance instead of total flusterbarassment. 

"I don't know." she says, with an oddly tinny pitch.

Yue folds in on herself like a paper fan in the hands of a courtesan. All the effort of pretending and feeling and thinking and realizing and wondering scorches its way out of her body and leaves her with nothing but frazzled nerves and a dream thumping inside of her chest with insistent power that she's got no idea how it got there. It can't be hers, can it? Gosh, it'd be nice to just... just have like a, uh, a hot bath and a cup of tea and get to sleep in a soft bed tonight. Wouldn't it? Don't ya think? It'd be nice if there was a way to ask for that, too.

The tears on her cheeks are so warm and soft that they're making her smile. She must look like a complete moron. Might as well sound like one too, y'know?

"I'm not good for much of anything. I'm still learning how to hold a sword. Oh, and uh, and swing it too. I don't know how to... oh, I'm an ok cook, I guess? Princess Qiu seemed like she liked my cookies, at least before she chased me in that helicopter and, um. N-no, I mean, that's not..."

She swallows one more time. Come on words, help her out here. 

"I just wanna, I just. I, uh, gosh. Ahaha. I wanna keep my friends safe. I wanna be strong so they can be soft instead when they wanna. I wanna save my girlf-- um!!! M-my g-g-gahhh very special person from a curse! I wanna, I wanna... I wanna belong up here! What... d'you want me to say, t-to make that happen? Where do you have to put me, to pay for all've that?"