[ Ange doesn't move away from the sudden hug. But she doesn't immediately reciprocate it either - just standing there, almost frozen, confused. Like she didn't see this coming.

Sure, she didn't Toph was a bad person at all, but.. she didn't take her to be this type either. The type to just brazenly hug someone, to say stuff like this so easily. For a moment Ange has no idea how to deal with it, especially when she never got this from anyone back in her own world. How does one reply to such an easy offer of-- of friendship, of care, of protection?

Her throat suddenly feels tight, and her eyes start to feel like they're burning, and at the first sting of tears in her eyes Ange mentally curses herself as she bends her head, slowly also moving her own arms around the other girl in return. ]

That's-- [ She sounds choked up, like it's hard to even talk. ]

.. this is stupid. [ This, in turn, sounds like she doesn't really mean it.

Like Toph has hit on something that's way too true - that Ange has never learned that it's okay to admit to something upsetting you, not even when it's something this big. When it has seeped so deep into your bones that it hurts you on the daily. ]

It's-- it's fine. I mean.. People disappear here all the time. And sooner or later I'll go home, and then I'll be alone again. [ It's almost like she's rambling to herself more than to Toph, despite holding onto the other girl. ] That's just-- That's just how it is.

[ She has to be fine with that. It's what she taught herself a long time ago, since it was the only way to survive. ]