[ Of course Dolph never thought he was happy. He's always been able to see through Maruki. It's not like his cheerful attitude is an act; it's all genuine, but there's nothing of substance beneath it left for himself. He doesn't doubt that Dolph's known that from the jump.

He watches Dolph with bleary eyes, allows himself to be held, to be touched.

He draws a breath. Every inch of his body hurts. ]

She was bright. Headstrong. Cheerful. Pretty aggressive, and kind of a hothead, at the end of the day... But she was so genuinely kind, and she didn't let anyone walk all over her. [ He grins, self-effacing. ] As you can imagine, we couldn't have been more different. I was so shy, so anxious... Ah, she always was the brave one between us.

[ Always the strong one, too. On his worst days, he was so certain he wouldn't be able to get through life without her to prop him up. And that was true, wasn't it? ]

It's cliche, but... We used to talk about what our child would one day be like. She wanted them to take after her. She couldn't stand to have two gentle doormats teaming up against her. The future was exciting for us. We'd dream about it all the time.