[His words twist and twist, squeezing at her heart until it breaks. To think that she is the center of his greatest fear, the one thing that has been eating him alive from the inside out since all those months ago when they played Romeo and Juliet—she doesn't know what to think of it. It hurts her, it makes her soul shatter into thousands of helpless little pieces. These are things she's known about since, had always had that nagging fear in the furthest reaches of her mind that she'd ignore to make room for the happier memories, but hearing him say them out loud, hearing him give them his voice...

It makes her wish all the more that she could reach into his soul and pull them free, even if it meant taking those burdens on in his stead.]

It's not going to happen again.

[... She presses her lips together a moment, and with a deep breath, she continues.]

I know it's a lot to promise, especially when there's so much that happens that's out of our control, but you can't ever hurt me...

...

Not like that anyway, because I can't stand seeing you like this. I don't like what this is doing to you.

[Even if it can't be helped. These are all very real fears of his, but nothing in this world can hurt her more than seeing him so hurt and so afraid the way he is now.]