She looked at him, and the thought that had been on her mind for a while and that she wasn't sure she was ready to let go of settled between them.
"Yes, I have," she said.
"What's happening?"
He thought she might change it because she was quiet for so long. After that, she looked at her hands, and the tentacles were very slightly visible on her lower back.
This was her body's way of showing how she felt without saying it.
"I told myself that what I felt for you was motherly." She said, "Protective..."
"Living for hundreds of years makes you look at a young person and feel the kind of care that is about them, not about you." She stopped. "That was nice."
"It was easy to hold on to and easy for me to understand."
"But," he said.
"But." She let out a breath. "It isn't maternal."
