"You don't understand?" Ezra echoed, one eyebrow raised. His expression implied that he did not quite believe her, and didn't think she believed herself, either. "I imagine you could guess." Her question just now implied that it had been a conscious choice on his part, pursuing her, but it wasn't. He hadn't chosen to fall in love with her, any more than she had chosen to fall for him. Generally speaking he thought most people would agree that no one chose who they loved... but in their specific case it seemed to go even beyond that. How could he not have pursued her, loving her as he did? And how could he not have loved her, knowing her as he did?

But maybe that was the root of the question. Maybe she was really asking how he could have let himself even know her in the first place, how he could have given himself the opportunity to fall in love with her, if he'd known that it was all destined the fall apart. It was a flawed premise, of course, but she didn't know that.

Ezra put his curled fist against his mouth and clicked his tongue, trying to decide how to answer her question. The difficulty was that there was no answer, because the question was so far removed from the real point, but it didn't feel right to dodge it, or to lie to her. "I think you could survive anything," he eventually responded. Then he followed with a question of his own: "Why do you think I told you at all?"

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