[She turns fully around to face the other girl, the movement graceful and betraying not a hint of her real feelings. That's something yet to change, might not ever change - the way she can almost always hide each twist and pang of emotion before they can show in her eyes or the lines of her body. There's the briefest pause as Mami studies the apology scribbled so openly across Utena's face.
She smiles.]
Oh, it's quite all right. I'm sure with you helping her, she'll settle in just fine.
[It only hurts a little to smoothly deliver such a lie; Mami does not really believe that. And furthermore, she does not particularly want to keep talking about it. Dimly, Mami senses that the invisible tug which had led the two of them here has not faded entirely, only eased. But the lingering desire to stay close, to draw nearer still.....is it only the magic at work, or have her own feelings amplified it? Mami doesn't know, and rather than dwell on such things, she glances back across the frozen lake.]
...it sure is pretty, huh?
[A quiet, subtle attempt to steer this conversation elsewhere, away from the topics of Anthy and absences.]
no subject
She smiles.]
Oh, it's quite all right. I'm sure with you helping her, she'll settle in just fine.
[It only hurts a little to smoothly deliver such a lie; Mami does not really believe that. And furthermore, she does not particularly want to keep talking about it. Dimly, Mami senses that the invisible tug which had led the two of them here has not faded entirely, only eased. But the lingering desire to stay close, to draw nearer still.....is it only the magic at work, or have her own feelings amplified it? Mami doesn't know, and rather than dwell on such things, she glances back across the frozen lake.]
...it sure is pretty, huh?
[A quiet, subtle attempt to steer this conversation elsewhere, away from the topics of Anthy and absences.]