Talk:Ideas/@comment-4423292-20150514132740

="What is love to you?"= Alexandria rolls her eyes, and pushes me away with both hands.

Elara rolls her eyes too, glancing over her shoulder to watch Alexandria leave. I'm pretty sure she only stays and responds to appear better than Alexandria. "I love Mamma, and Pabbi, and Emmy and Evie and Marley. I'd never love someone I'd sleep with, you know this Rab."

Oz squirms uncomfortably in his chair, glancing around awkwardly. Deciding to follow the two older girls, he says, "Yeah Rab, just leave us the hell alone."

Abraam looks at me, his eyes wide, looking for some kind of confirmation. "Love is why Dede is nice when Mama is there."

Once I remind Val that it's her turn, and that the question is What is love to you?, she says, "Oh. Love is what people say when they don't want to say sorry."

I set out in search of Alexandria. I find her in one of the crevices of my brain, and drag her back to the group in a terrible mood.

I give her a moment to cool off. "Guys, please, I already know you all, you don't need to prove your personalities to me. I need you to really look into your heart and give me a legit answer. And I'm not letting you go until you do. Take a look at this."

Alexandria looks away.

"Alexandria, princess, really, what does love mean to you?"

She finally meets my eyes again, her angry shell softened. She shrugs.

I give her a squeeze. "Thank you for being honest."

Elara sighs, and looks up at the ceiling. After a moment's thought, she said. "I guess... love is why cutting off Evie was so awful. In the end I was able to do it and stick to it. But it hurt me at least as much as it hurt her, maybe more. And even thought I was able to stick to it, I thought about stopping, all the time. I'd tell myself no, but then a little while later the thought would be back again, even though I'd already made up my mind." She transferred her gaze to her hands. "It's always be the worst thing I ever did."

Oz looks down. After an awkward quiet, he says, "I don't know."

"Do you love Ffion?"

"I-don't-know was good enough for Alexandria!"

"Because for her it was true. For you, I think you can figure this out, even if you don't quite know right now. Just try, please. Do you love Ffion?"

He nods. "Yeah, I think so."

"Then start there. What does loving Ffion mean to you?"

He's quiet. "I don't know."

"Oz, correct me if I'm wrong, but for you, I think love is when you care about someone even when you don't like them. Like you get pissed off at Ffion, and in some ways, being at Hogwarts is easier than being home with her, but if anything ever happened to her, you'd be shattered. Like with your mum, she's really struggling with drugs right now, and you don't give a damn. But if it was Lowri, you would. Does that sound about right?"

Oz nodded.

Abraam gave me a pleading look. "It's ok Braamy," I said quickly. "I get what you said the first time."

"Val?" I prompted.

"What?"

"Can you give me a legit answer to the question?"

She shrugged. "Love is sleekit."