[ what if it's meant to be your story? alina thinks, only to bury it deep, unwilling to let the light dim in clara's starry-eyed smile. it's a thought that nags like knives, nevertheless — how much suffering her own tale must contain, before she's allowed to be happy. ]

I suppose so, [ she relents, as quiet as clara, something wistful in her tone. something little melancholic in her faraway smile. ] Happy endings are meant to be earned, aren't they? You couldn't fully appreciate your happy ending if you didn't suffer for it first.

[ there's no night without day, after all. it stands to reason there would be no knowing happiness, without tasting misery first. (then again, she's had her fair share of misery already.) ]

Not that it ever makes it fair.