[ She's quiet, not interrupting, doing her best to just listen and try to understand without her own feelings getting in the way.

It's not easy. This isn't Taako confessing that he's missed her like she's missed him. It's certainly not him saying that everything's okay between them - exactly the opposite, in fact. But she still has to fight to control the little sparks of hope that flare in her chest as he speaks. They're little things, scraps in comparison to the rich friendship they once had, but they lift her heart all the same.

It's not about hating her.

He can't close this yet.

When, not if.

It's not everything she wants, but it's far, far more than she'd ever expected or let herself hope for. It's - or at least it sounds like - a promise of someday, without even the conditional of a maybe to give him an out.

Lucretia nods, slow and somber, and while under normal circumstances she might have been content to leave it at that, to protect and tend that small flame of hope and keep quiet for fear of ruining it, the same drive that's forcing Taako into honesty is still affecting her too. She needs to tell him how she feels. Try to actually communicate with him, for the first time in years. ]

I understand.

[ She does. She'd never assumed he would forgive her, and she doesn't expect it now. But...She looks away, knowing better than to subject Taako to eye contact while she says this. ]

I love you. You're my family, and I miss you so much. I miss you every single day.

But I know what I did to you. And I don't - I won't push you to forgive that, or to move past anything a second sooner than you're ready to. I know I - maybe, maybe I don't deserve your friendship at all anymore, ever.

[ Today, he's her soulmate. Today, Love pushes her to keep talking, confess to things she'd never have said out loud otherwise. ]

But I still want it back. So badly.