It lands. Even if he didn't mean it to, and it shows a second later, and Allison for can't tell if it's supposed to be better or worse that it goes from not her to her just being part of anyone, everyone else. Either way, it lands, and she tries not to press her lips.

But it smooths away into something utterly otherwise at the words that come after it, softening her expression, with a shake of her head.

You're not impervious.
You don't have to be.

You're human. Like the rest of us.
You get to make mistakes,
and not like things.



Even if that involves yourself.


He was always Dad's Best Little Soldier. Even when he was taller than all of them. Even when it was only him. First, brightest, and best so far back she doesn't think she remembers a single part of her child where that wasn't a fact. Even before their friendship became what it was. Still that, staunchly that, even when it wasn't anymore.

But that wasn't the person she'd missed. The person she loved best. Not that she hadn't loved that, too, before she even knew it was love. But it wasn't the mask of Number One or Spaceboy that she'd stayed in love with for the second half of her life, when he wasn't even there to be those. When it was everything under them, that made up who he really was, that she compared every other person to.