"Lovely Petal, I've been trained since I was a child to hide my innermost feelings in little boxes. To lock them away and seal them up behind walls. My training in that field was even more extensive than yours because it had to be. Of course, you didn't notice anything."

His head bows slightly, fingers tightening around the stone, "I knew back even when we were teens that there was something more than just being friends between us, but duty was always there in the way. I couldn't let those feelings distract me. Not when Noct was so dependent on me, but Altissia shook my control. All those walls shattered. All the boxes spilled open. I was such a mess; I still am now, but as I've been fighting to right everything once more, I've realized something I never had a chance to back home. I learned it's okay to want more than just my duty. I'm not trading one for the other. I don't know if I can explain how freeing it was to learn that and then to feel love for the first time. Without that first time, I would never have been able to realize the true name of those feelings I felt for you."