Briefly, against his better judgment, Mathias reaches up with his free hand and catches Sookie's fingers near her mouth. He holds her hand for just a moment, not tightly, just a brush of his fingers against hers and then his hand drops again to hang by his side. "Please don't feel guilty," he says to her, because he knows she must, he can see it in the gestures she's making, in the expression she's wearing. He doesn't want her to feel guilty and he doesn't want her to cry.
"I understand," he says, though he still wonders if he should mention it at all. Bringing people into this who are no longer on the island seems unfair, as if he's using Veronica as a shield, but that isn't the case. (Or if it is, he's far from ready to acknowledge it.) "Perhaps better than you might think. I..." This is where things always become difficult, because he's better at listening than he is at speaking and it's times like this he wishes more people on the island spoke German. Communicating like this in English is harder still.
"I was not looking to meet anyone because I knew I wasn't ready to move on," he explains slowly. "But when we met, I thought... like you, I was excited for the first time in a very long time. I'm afraid... it would not have been fair in the long run. To either of us."
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Date: 2012-01-10 05:56 pm (UTC)"I understand," he says, though he still wonders if he should mention it at all. Bringing people into this who are no longer on the island seems unfair, as if he's using Veronica as a shield, but that isn't the case. (Or if it is, he's far from ready to acknowledge it.) "Perhaps better than you might think. I..." This is where things always become difficult, because he's better at listening than he is at speaking and it's times like this he wishes more people on the island spoke German. Communicating like this in English is harder still.
"I was not looking to meet anyone because I knew I wasn't ready to move on," he explains slowly. "But when we met, I thought... like you, I was excited for the first time in a very long time. I'm afraid... it would not have been fair in the long run. To either of us."