"Yeah, those." Gretel replied. "Except for that polaroid… I didn't know you'd kept that."
"Right as always, Gretel." Lloyd said with a sad yet impressed smirk on his face.
"Why do you have them here?"
"While not everyone in these pictures is someone I've loved…" He paused for a few seconds before continuing with a sad break in his voice. "Everyone I've ever truly loved in any way is in these pictures." Gretel looked up at him somberly.
"What about the townsfolk, Kyoya?"
"I'm not really sure, but they certainly don't stand out like the people in these pictures. I'm a man of few friends, and don't miss people easily. And where did you hear that name?" Gretel didn't look surprised. She held up the back of the picture of a young Lloyd and the woman that looked like his sister or mother.
"The picture says 'To: Kyoya From: Your favorite sister'." Lloyd smiled.
"Oh, makes sense." He slightly chuckled.
"So tell me about who you love." Gretel asked him shamelessly.
"As you know, the woman in that picture is my sister. She was the only family member of mine I truly cared for. She was the one that got my father to let me come here without having to marry someone immediately, and after she moved into a nearby town in this country, she helped me break ties with my father and the family company. She sometimes comes to the bazaars to see me and I sometimes go to her town to see her."
"What town is she in?"
"The one Dirk ran off to. She's the doctor there. My family runs a 'wellness business' as she calls it."
"You need to introduce me to her one day!" Lloyd nodded slightly. "What about the wedding picture?"
"I met the groom, Tamaki, in junior high when my father told me to befriend him for business purposes. He became my first friend and my best male friend to this day. And is one of the top people who've had the biggest impact on me-the people I love the most. My sister being one of them, but only after I moved here." There was a thoughtful silence before he continued. "We started a club together in high school, a host club where we threw parties, cosplayed, and played the parts the girls with too much time wanted to waste their between-class time talking with." He smirked a little as Gretel held back her laughter and disbelief. "The bride, Haruhi, is one of the other people I've loved the most. She broke a very expensive vase when she wandered into the club and had to pose as a boy and be a part of the club to pay off her debt. She was very boyish-looking and didn't bother to dress very girly, so it took us all a while to discover she was a girl and very few others ever found out." He laughed at loud at the memory and Gretel smiled gently at the rare sight. "I fell in love with her, almost all of us and many more did, but I knew that she and Tamaki were meant to be and even if they weren't, I couldn't possibly try and pursue her while Tamaki was head over heals in love with her. Unless someone else started getting the upper hand of her affections, because Tamaki would be happier with me winning her over than for both of us to lose her. But that never happened, and when Tamaki told me they were engaged and asked me to be his best man, I began making plans to travel the world for a year and then move here, to this humble little town. I couldn't bare to stay near her and hide my feelings any longer."
Gretel stood patiently waiting for him to continue, knowing he would. Besides, she had no clue what to say. "The man and woman next to Tamaki are his parents. It was very hard to get his mother there and even harder to get his grandmother to not ruin the wedding because of it, but we managed. He cried tears of joy when he saw her for the first time since he was in junior high. It was the night before the wedding and he had no clue what was happening. The old woman next to him is his grandmother. The man next to Haruhi is her father. The tall, tan man next to her and the short blond one next to her are Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka. They were members of our club. They just barely made it to being some of the people I've loved in life, and I'd certainly call them my friends. At least, they were. The twins next to her are the Hitachiin Kaoru and Hikaru, they were also part of the Hosts Club. They made it a little bit higher than Mori and Hunny on my list." Gretel chuckled. "What is it this time?" Lloyd asked, genuinely confused about why she was laughing this time.
"Do you have some sort of list with each person you've ever loved in order?" She laughed in between cackles of laughter.
"I guess a little, why is that so funny?"
"Because that's exactly what a tsundere like you would do!" She said between even more cackling. Lloyd's smile had faded into a look of pure confusion.
"Tsundere? I guess you can call me that…" Gretel calmed down and smiled a big grin.
"So does that mean that Mayor Felix, Sherry and I made it into your loved-ones list, or just one or two of us? Where do we stand?" Lloyd gave a little, almost unrecognizable smirk.
"All three of you. Mayor Felix would be in between the twins and my top five, you and Sherry would be in the top five."
"You don't have Sherry above everyone else?" Gretel asked, a little concerned.
"I don't really know, to be honest." He answered with a sad look on his face. "Emotions and feelings take me forever to process, and I honestly don't know if I've ever felt the feelings others get when they're in love. I've 'fallen in love' with every woman other than my sister I've ever truly cared about. Whether or not my version of love is the same as anyone else's I don't really know. Perhaps it's just true friendship and commitment I've felt."
He frowned sadly and turned his back to Gretel as he spoke. "Maybe Sherry is just a good friend who I decided to 'love' and commit to when I felt as though she finally understood me. I don't even know if I feel about her anymore strongly than you or Haruhi even to this day. The only difference I know is that I want to marry her and be faithful to her and her alone. I want to protect her and tell her stories until we're good and old. I want to raise my children with her and make her happy, even at the cost of anyone else. But this isn't as much of an emotion as I feel it should be, but rather a mental decision. What does Tamaki feel when he looked at Haruhi? What did Haruhi's father feel when he looked at Haruhi's mother? What does Ivan feel when looks at Freya? Angelo with Daisy? Dirk with Lilia, my sister's always raving about them! Stuart and Ethel, Wilbur and Claire, Isaac and Nellie, Raul and Marian, WHAT IS IT THEY FEEL THAT I DON'T!" He turned around as his voice raised, tears in his eyes as he grabbed gretel's arms. "What am I not giving Sherry that so many other men give their girlfriends, fiances and wives?" He lowered his head in defeat. "And why do I miss my old friends so much now when for so many years I didn't care, despite caring so much for them? And why do I care about this town so much, but not know if I love the people in it?" Gretel put her hand on his shoulder before answering.
"Everyone feels things differently. Some people are super optimistic and love everyone, others are very negative and find it very hard to trust a soul. Some people are very sensitive to words and or touch, while others find it very hard to feel anything at all. But no matter who you are and where you fall on that spectrum, love-whether it be a friend love, a family love, and a significant other love-is a choice. And as long as you choose to love her as your wife forever and to put her before anyone else, that's good enough. And I can promise you she thinks so too." Lloyd raised his head up sadly-a rare sight that Gretel had never seen this much before today-and nodded.
"Thank you." He said quietly.
"No problem." Gretel said, smiling ear to ear. "Now what shall I report back to Sherry?"
"Tell her anything you want. Everything that was said is you desire. I don't care if you recorded this entire conversation and show her. Just make sure she knows that I love her."
"I will." After that, Lloyd hugged her. Something he had never done before, not with anyone. His tears dripped onto her back and soaked her shirt as he hugged her like an adopted toddler that never had a hug before and finally reached out to his mother after a terrifying stroke of lightning.
"Thank you."