Misato smiled for the first time since I'd found her in the hallway. Small and tired, but genuine.
"You know what the funny thing is?" She picked at the hem of her skirt, fingers moving in small, restless circles. "Blair's right to be scared of you. You're not the same person who showed up three weeks ago." Her lime green eyes found mine again, and there was something raw in them. Respect, maybe. Or exhaustion. "That guy was desperate and weak and trying not to die. This guy..." The gesture she made encompassed all of me, from my significantly less fat face to the shoulders that actually filled out my uniform now. "This guy is someone I can believe in."
My brain didn't authorize the movement. One second I was standing there processing the fact that Misato Ayame had just given me something dangerously close to a compliment, and the next my hands were pulling her up out of the chair. The hug happened before my higher reasoning could veto it.
