[ it's a good thing she's already in the process of sitting when he drops that because otherwise she might have been too slack-jawed and defensive to do it. coming up with an answer takes a long moment because she's … pretty hurt that he'd reach for that.

but then she reflects it inward, internalizes it, and decides it hurts her only because she's put keith in a position where he thinks the worst of her. after all, she's been behaving the worst lately. how's he supposed to know better? this is her fault. ]

Of course not.

[ she sets her own conflicted feelings about luke being here aside. about the fact that keith dropped that news on her like that, knowing what luke represents to her, aside. these aren't the point.

this is happening because she's held herself at a distance from him. and she values him enough to try to own that and bridge it instead of making it worse, so she's going to … skip over the hurt. ]

Nothing would make me happier than Luke going back and choosing to be better than he was. I would never set him up to expect darkness and regret. That's never helped anybody.

[ it's certainly not helping her lmao. ]

But no matter what, they aren't his mistakes yet. It wouldn't be fair. And even if they were his mistakes, I'm not interested in ... in punishing him for them. I just wish he would be willing to try to make it right.