[She meets his eyes when he calls her name, suspended by the line of his attention, then hiccups, and it catches her by surprise so much she almost giggles through the tears. When she listened to the story, she almost believed it, that she could be something extraordinary, something suited to the cadence of a fairy tale.]

Which one was that?

[Aspiration, or explanation. There's a very thin edge to the question, warning and teasing. He'd damn will better tell her that she's all those nice things now, not just in hopes and might bes.]