[janus starts to smile. and once it starts, it's very difficult for them to stop. it grows wider and wider on their freckly face until their ears shift slightly on either side of their head. they're very pleased. so pleased they don't actually know how to talk about it for a moment. happiness has always felt like it belonged to someone else. people who had the right to lives outside of their mission and purpose, or perhaps those whose missions and purpose was happiness. it's a foreign way of thinking.

but they're happy for her, and after a long moment where they feel the feeling expanding warmly inside their own chest, it settles into focus.]

Engaged, [they tell her.] If you've made a promise to him. I'm very pleased for you, Era Ra. It's all that I could have hoped. A man worthy of such a long-standing friendship from you is quite a man.