stormandwind | INBOX: lastvoyages

Rosethorn's eyelids flutter as she glances down, but by the time she looks up at Tris again, her composure's returned. "There was no reason any of you had to know." She thinks Briar suspects, but even with him she hasn't had reason to go into detail. "It hurts, and it will always hurt, but I put it behind me long before all of you came into our lives."

But she does feel Tris deserved an explanation, now that it's come up.

"I know you won't, Tris. But I've much in common with my father, and I've worked hard not to become him. Some of these things I really do feel I must take a stand on, for my own sake."

"Thank you for telling me." She knows that no amount of distance makes that easy to do.

And Tris considers the rest of it for a moment. "You have a temper and a stubborn streak a mile wide, but you have valued people all the time I've known you. Even when you were busy telling us that you didn't like children. No one is just a means to an end for you. For your sake, fine. I'm not worried about mine."

"Would you like me not to talk about Francesco, or just never ask you to give an opinion?"

Never having been especially good at taking compliments, Rosethorn waves Tris off. She's glad for the understanding, but would rather make no more of a deal out of this than she must.

"I've nothing against the lad, Tris. And if you'd both come to me and asked my honest opinion without that blessing nonsense, I'd have told him that. I'd wonder why it mattered so much, but I'd have answered."

Tris smiles wryly. "He saw my point when I brought up exactly that. I scolded him a little, but you'd already done most of it for me."

Exasperating though Francesco can be when he gets an idea into his head, "It wasn't hard to get through to him. He pays attention. Enough to know I wouldn't be alright with the Enclosure broken and come looking for me when that happened, for instance. And to stop talking and sit with me while I read after the Admiral took my magic."

She wasn't thinking of him in romantic terms when any of that happened. He was just a friend, a good one. That day did, however, very much color her response when she found out how he felt.

Hearing all that does bring a smile to Rosethorn's face. "And that's all that matters, and all I need to know. That he cares for you, and has been good to you. I can't say I see the attraction, but I don't have to."

She can be happy for Tris regardless.

Her lips twitch in amusement at the comment about not seeing the attraction, because it's true that Francesco is probably excessive for a lot of people's tastes.

She hesitates, then adds softly, "He also said he likes the way I look. Rather, that he'd like me regardless of how he felt about my looks, but they're a nice bonus."

Tris knows a lot of her strengths. She's intelligent and observant. She cares. Her magic is powerful and wonderful. Compliments on what she sees as her weak points hit her much harder.

"Well, look at that." Rosethorn crosses her arms. "He's growing on me more, already. I suppose it means more coming from him than it does from your foster-mother?"

Her words are teasing, but her tone says I'm happy for you. It's almost a relief, knowing Tris is getting support in the ways she most needs it. Because there really are some things a mother simply can't be for her children.

Tris grins, the teasing almost a relief after her moment of vulnerability. "It means something different coming from someone attracted to me than it does from my foster mother."

"Well." Rosethorn sniffs. "If you're going to put it that way." She is not, of course, the slightest bit offended, but she's glad to turn the conversation to lighter things.

INBOX: lastvoyages

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