Anything we do, our choice. Though there was something enigmatic about this particular way the girl chose to describe it, the feeling of relief it gave him was immense.

And Ace couldn't disagree. "Right." Lost in her eyes, he failed to notice the moment when she managed to catch onto his little act of preserving warmth, seeming the tiniest bit ashamed about being found out. At the same time, at least he no longer needed to take any similar precautions, completely content with the sudden rise of the room's temperature that might have as well happened purely in his own mind.

Especially when she had a couple more words in store for him that only caused the treacherous shade of red on his face become all the more apparent. Despite being a reiteration of his own proposal, it had a different air to it when it was her voice that carried it, and in that brief moment he could easily connect with her reaction from before.

Try as he might have, he could not erase the smile off his face. "I originally planned to ask you through a Mognet letter, except that seemed rather counterintuitive with the expedition coming up." More importantly, he could envision Hanafuda's annotations attached to it without his knowledge. "Maybe that's why this might have sounded a bit out of place, I do realize that."

Thinking about the following morning brought him back to reality, and he hummed softly, unable to tell how much time had even passed. It had been... a long day and an ever longer evening, and while he could slowly feel his body demand a moment of respite, he couldn't speak on Tear's behalf, falling silent as a result.