"- I reached for 'we're an adventuring party', earlier, because usually that means you're friends and sometimes it means you're sleeping together but regardless of either of those things you have a lot of commitment to each other, you're relying on each other, you have to really trust each other, it feels more accurate that friends. It doesn't feel entirely accurate but that's because Osirion doesn't have the thing I want. I'm not sure Cheliax does either, though I can take you to plays if you want."

"That makes sense. I guess maybe 'friends' feels bigger to me than to most people. I'm not sure I've had any since I was a kid. It just doesn't have any particular connotations around, like... snuggling. I am pretty sure friends are allowed to go to plays together, though. At least in Cheliax."

"Well. I'll be your friend. With some snuggles and some plays. And if you ever decide that you want to be my wife then I think I want to be your husband."

"We met less than two months ago. And more than likely still have completely different understandings of what that means."

"It means you gotta hope for things and I gotta make them come true."

...snuggle. "You're sweet."

"And handsome. And dangerous. And rich. And royalty, but we don't talk about that."

"Yes, you have some very impressive qualifications as a male romantic lead. Of course those are the ones that people don't think through, and in real life I think that not thinking relationships through doesn't lead to very impressive results."

"People don't think through their male romantic leads?"

"No, sorry, people stop thinking when they meet someone in real life who reminds them of impressive characters from plays or songs or books. And it usually doesn't pay off, to stop thinking. It's - all well and good, I guess, to like someone, but it doesn't tell you very much about whether you'll be able to build a life with them."

"I think Osirion is designed very much so most people can build a life with most people. And this has a lot of downsides but it means you mostly don't have to be terrified that even if you like someone you just won't have what you need to put a life together from there."

"I acknowledge this as a strength of the system. And I'm not Osirian."

"I am. 'm not very good at it but I've never wondered if I was good enough to build a life, everyone's good enough for that."

"You not - ugh."

She sits up and stops holding him.

"With someone, yes, absolutely, I acknowledge that, you are good enough to build a life with lots and lots of people. But I'm not lots and lots of people, okay, I'm me, and I don't - I am not going to marry someone because they meet some minimum bar for responsibility and are also objectively pretty and good and say sweet things about what marriage means to them, okay, I'm - 

"I think if you're not really happy with someone and really excited to spend the rest of your life with them, and really sure that they're the thing you need, and really sure that they're going to take care of you, and - really sure that you're not going to keep accidentally hurting each other in a hundred different ways all the time, because it's not funny, eventually, being taped to someone who doesn't know how not to hurt you, then - if you're not really sure then you shouldn't make promises. And you should not be really sure about most people you meet, even if they're nice, even if they're good, even if they're responsible, because - you just shouldn't. Because being a person who can be trusted with someone else's heart is hard, and because hearts aren't all the same, and because you should be really really really sure that you're handing yours over to someone who knows how to take good care of your heart in particular. And you can't know that from one month of traveling or one week of arguments or one day of snuggling and discussing really broad-strokes hypothetical marriage arrangements, okay?"

- gods, she's such an idiot. She doesn't know which part of this was idiotic but it was definitely one of the parts.

He looks kind of taken aback and sad but not about any part especially. 

"...sorry?"

" - no, I'm sorry, I have no idea why I'm upset. It's not at you. I don't think."

"- okay? Should I stay here or should I - do something else."

"...I mean there isn't actually another full-sized room besides the bedroom. Even if I wanted you to go. Which I am not at all sure of, I just - sorry."

"So I could go to the bedroom, if you wanted some space."

"I guess this is technically an option."

"I think I'm going to stay here, and you can go off to the bedroom, if you need space, or you can stay, and you can have a hug if you want."

She nods.

...she stays on the couch and hugs her knees and doesn't say anything for a while.

Well probably at some point she'll explain the thing, if she has words for it, and if she doesn't then he can just avoid bringing up marriage, probably. 

Sigh.

"Earlier, when you were talking about - how people in Osirion have a bunch of common knowledge around which things you shouldn't do if you want to avoid making mistakes about who you have sex with? Cheliax - doesn't have nearly as much of that, about sex, but - maybe has a whole lot more of it about marriage. Things that are obvious mistakes. And - I'd feel really stupid, I guess, if I ignored all of them, even when my heart and my head were both telling me not to, and then - made bad decisions and got hurt. And it would be really painful. 'S one of the most painful things you can do, I think, marry someone you shouldn't have married."

"That makes sense."