[Back when he still knew relatively little about Red, but it was somehow easier to tell she cared, before all that's happened -- the executions and the endless blood, Stan and the coral stoning and seeing the dead each time he closes his eyes, Red always there with them and burned into each scene in his memory. But all the same, he's going to do what he can to keep this promise.
It might be one of the few things he can do at the moment, in a place like this.
Lenka's expression relaxes a little in response to the probably poleaxed expression on Shirou's face -- it's pretty impressive, actually, but it puts him at ease a little now. Hopefully it'll help with Red herself, too; Shirou can be difficult, but he's not malicious, just trying too hard to protect what he can.]
She's just following orders, I know. [like the God Eaters back home, the ones who deal with the infected; like he might be expected to, one day; like she didn't do, with Lance, and somehow that comes through more vividly now that they're here on the other side of Saturday] I don't know what else to do to help. But I want to change what happens here. So she doesn't have to do this again, next year. So nobody has to.
[It's said very quietly, but he does say it -- something he's rarely put into words until now, but it's still important to him. It's always been there, beneath everything else.]
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[Back when he still knew relatively little about Red, but it was somehow easier to tell she cared, before all that's happened -- the executions and the endless blood, Stan and the coral stoning and seeing the dead each time he closes his eyes, Red always there with them and burned into each scene in his memory. But all the same, he's going to do what he can to keep this promise.
It might be one of the few things he can do at the moment, in a place like this.
Lenka's expression relaxes a little in response to the probably poleaxed expression on Shirou's face -- it's pretty impressive, actually, but it puts him at ease a little now. Hopefully it'll help with Red herself, too; Shirou can be difficult, but he's not malicious, just trying too hard to protect what he can.]
She's just following orders, I know. [like the God Eaters back home, the ones who deal with the infected; like he might be expected to, one day; like she didn't do, with Lance, and somehow that comes through more vividly now that they're here on the other side of Saturday] I don't know what else to do to help. But I want to change what happens here. So she doesn't have to do this again, next year. So nobody has to.
[It's said very quietly, but he does say it -- something he's rarely put into words until now, but it's still important to him. It's always been there, beneath everything else.]