[ If anything, his silent forms of reassurance help more than any words would. What's there to fear? Hasn't he accepted her at her best and worst? Her weirdest and nicest? It's almost...romantic.

She turns her face towards his to sneak a soft kiss to his lips. The look she gives him after pulling away? Very romantic. ]

I can work with that. It might be a little hard to pick, but...I'll figure something out. Ahaha.

[ One more soft kiss, then she lets him go to lean over and grab her notebooks. She's quiet as she considers each one, flipping through page after page, pausing a few times as if she thinks she's settled on one, only to decide otherwise. Eventually, after narrowing it down to two poems, she at last has found the one.

It's not too long, but it's easy to tell she'd worked a lot on it, many words crossed out and changed. A sign of how deep the feelings ran in the stanzas. ]

This one's called "Hung Up". It's, um...well, I guess it's pretty sad. I wrote it about how it felt when I was trapped. Kind of like I was a broken clock, if that makes sense? And that maybe it... [ She squirms a little. ] Maybe it wasn't worth fighting anymore.

[ She takes a long breath. At least she's escaped that. This had been a good way to remind her of what she left behind. Now, she can share her hopelessness with someone who can understand.

Her hand takes one of his again, and she reads it to him. A silence lingers once she's done as she works through all the memories weighing down on her, then she lifts her eyes from the pages and to meet his. ]

I hope it wasn't too hard to understand. [ She smiles a little. ] Mostly, though...I hope you liked it.