"[color=skyblue]I might mess up, I might not be perfect, but a long time ago I wanted to be just like you, and somewhere along the way I gave up. Now I know I can still try.[/color]"

Quinn blinked, and for a moment she didn't understand. Dahlia...wanted to...[i]be like her?[/i]

Her ears were ringing as she stared. Just like before, with Besca, there was a profound sense of disorientation and confusion. Besca may have been her hero, the person who lifted her out of her gray life and splattered it full of brilliant color. Dahlia couldn't quite fill that same role (though she definitely touched it a bit). 

No. Dahlia wasn't her hero. But Dahlia was the person she wanted to [i]be like[/i] more than anything. She was strong, she was brave, she was kind and gentle and she always looked out for the people she cared about. Quinn wanted to be all of those things. She wanted to live up to Dahlia's example so much. And she didn't know if she ever would, but she'd always [i]try.[/i]

And now here she was, dazedly hearing her forever role model talking about how much she wanted to be [i]just like Quinn,[/i] and not only that, how much she'd wanted to be just like Quinn for a long time.

A heat began to build within Quinn, a tiny sun in the middle of her chest that spread out through her body, sending tinglies racing up and down her spine. It was incredible. Another feeling that she [i]knew[/i]. That she'd felt fragments of over the years, scattered shards of sunlight, but nothing like this. it took her a long time to think of a word for it. How she'd felt deep down when she'd snuck out of her room for the first time, past the fear and the knowledge she was doing something wrong. The rush she felt when she'd solve a puzzle. The brilliant light that had shone within her when she'd cast that fishing rod.

Oh, that's what it was.

It was [i]pride.[/i]

She leaned over and wrapped Dahlia in another gentle hug, hoping that some of that wonderful sunshine would pass between them. It was only when she spoke that she realized how [i]warm[/i] her voice had suddenly become. It was strange. So much that had happened today was strange. But she had never felt more like Dahlia's sister than she did right then.

"[color=ffe63d][i]Thank you,[/i] Deelie. You're so much better than I deserve.[/color]"