As she made her way down the hall with Rom, the young girl's hand firmly, but still gently, clasped in her own, Vert couldn't help but wonder something. It was an unsettling thought, but it was one that absolutely needed to be addressed nonetheless. While Rom seemed to be taking to Vert's aid somewhat, it just as well could be because of how Ram needed the aid herself more. In other words... Not because she herself was ready to accept it yet, but simply for her sister's sake. That was no good. From what she was gathering, these two sisters had been worrying about Blanc getting "taken away" for quite some time... Considering how long she and Blanc had been together, had they been holding this in for that long as well?
That was unacceptable to Vert. Such sweet girls shouldn't have had such worries on their shoulders for so long at all!
Well, there was no sense being quiet about it, was there? Someone had to take that first step. Perhaps it was up to her to step into the house of this family and make that move herself.
"Rom, how do you feel about Blanc and I?" Getting right to the point, Vert looked down to her side to see just how Rom would react to the question she was posing. Knowing her, she would probably find it difficult to even respond at all. Perhaps she should try making it easier for her to be honest? It was worth a shot. "Please don't hesitate to say everything that you feel — in fact, use all the mean words to describe me that you'd never let anyone else hear, if it makes you feel better. I don't mind one bit."
It was about as Vert expected. Rom nearly stumbled over her own two feet, and likely would have tripped and fallen to the ground if not for Vert having been there to keep her steady. Now she refused to meet Vert's gaze, but with Vert still walking towards the kitchen, hopefully where they would find Ram, and Rom clearly trying to figure out how to think and walk at the same time, walking was going to have to be set aside for a moment, it seemed.
The blonde smiled softly at the conflicted expression on the girl's face, a bit of familiar heaviness in her own heart settling in, a bit of longing to have someone like this worried she would be taken from them the way Blanc had these two sweet little girls flickering to and fro at the sight — but no, she mustn't think like that now. This wasn't the time for that. All that mattered right now were these two girls, and as someone who cared about them, not to mention as the person who had been put in charge of them, that was all she would think about.
More importantly, in the immediate, all that mattered during this moment was what Rom had to say. Assuming she would say anything, that is. Vert hesitated — would giving her a push now be too much?
"She's... not Sis anymore..." Vert blinked. She hadn't been expected this sort of comment from the girl, but here it was. She wasn't quite sure what she could do with it, but Rom was talking now, so it was certainly a good start. For her part, Rom herself wasn't even sure how to completely vocalize everything she had been feeling in the first place, but if Vert was willing to listen, then... maybe they really could... "Ever since you and her... She's different. I don't get it... And she's not spending time with us as much anymore..."
Vert lowered her gaze. She supposed there was no avoiding the last complaint of Rom's. She had been expecting as much at this point, quite honestly. It was undeniable. She had always known that Blanc was probably a difficult sister to have — likewise, she knew from spending time with Blanc that she struggled with her sisters sometimes. She loved them dearly, but she couldn't always express it well, and with her fuse as short as it was combined with their youth... Well, it was understandable that things had gotten to be so tangled.
"I suppose that is my fault, isn't it?" She offered an apologetic smile to Rom, who looked terribly guilty for having admitted this to her. That wasn't all the CPU Candidate had said, however, and Vert knew she needed to address everything if she wanted to get this situation right as rain again. "What do you mean by different, though...? Has she changed much since we started dating, Rom?"
Rom blinked up at her, as if she had been expecting a harsher reaction, then her expression turned to a more thoughtful one. Maybe Vert really could help them out...? If that was true... If that was true, then Ram didn't have to...!
"U-Um... Sometimes, some things... She doesn't act the same as she did before..." The brunette looked skyward, as if straining to recall a memory. Vert couldn't help but smile at the expression Rom was making — she was trying so hard! The CPU would absolutely have to meet the expectations that were clearly being placed upon her by this sweet girl. "Not bad, but... not the same."
"My... Not the same?" Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for Vert to go off of. She tapped her chin with the index finger of her free hand, gently tugging Rom towards the kitchen now that it seemed like she had recovered from Vert asking her to talk — they couldn't leave Ram waiting after all. Without even noticing that she was being pulled along, Rom followed in Vert's footsteps perfectly. "What do you mean by that? Different how?"
Despite the rapid firing of questions — at least rapid firing for a quiet young girl like Rom — she didn't stumble again. Instead, she seemed to focus even more on trying to find a way to describe this just perfectly. If Vert could fix this, if Vert could make them feel better, then Rom had to tell her everything, didn't she? She did. But what was an example of... Oh... Oh, that was one...! It had happened again recently, too...!
"When she reads us fairy tales... Sometimes... She gets distracted by them and stops reading, right at the good part... You know..." Seeing that Vert evidently wasn't following what Rom was saying, despite how it clearly was so obvious, Rom lowered her voice, as if she was about to reveal the ending to a story and it was a big secret. How cute! "When... When there's kissing...! Sis... She can't read us stories that have kissing in them anymore...!"
Rom was looking at Vert expectantly, clearly feeling like she had revealed a huge, horrible truth about her older sister, and it had taken a great deal of effort for her to get it out. For her, this was probably true, but... Vert, with her own perspective on the matter, had a pretty good idea of just why this change had taken place.
Now that Blanc herself was, well... "getting to the good part" (oh how innocent these girls were!) herself, it was probably embarrassing for her to read about things like that to her little sisters. Oh, and maybe she was doing a little fantasizing too? That definitely fit Blanc's character, and Vert could just kis- er, "get to the good part" with her right now for it if she were here.
"I see... That's very serious... My my, we certainly can't let this sort of thing continue, can we? Then what, Rom?" Seeing as the girl was looking up at her with such clear expectations, well, Vert couldn't very well respond any other way, could she? Certainly not. Apparently, this response pleased Rom, for the girl returned her gaze skyward for a moment... before she promptly looked straight down at the ground, even picking up the pace. Was that a bad sign. "Rom? What happens next?"
The girl was silent for a moment.
"Then, um..." Now why did Rom sound so guilty...? "Then... Sis gets a little angry and says it's your fault she can't do it anymore..."
Vert fought the urge to squeal — that or burst out laughing. Who knew Blanc had such a cute side to her? Oh, Vert so wished she could get to see this!
"I see, I see... That is different, isn't it?" However, she did her best to contain herself — and any errant gushes of blood wanting to burst from her nose at this revelation too — and instead chose to treat this matter as seriously as Rom was. Besides, to Rom, it probably was a serious chance, wasn't it? Vert couldn't look down on it if she wanted to help. "Can you think of anything else? I promise that I'll talk to her about it once she gets home. Since I'm going to be staying over, maybe I'll just read the parts of the stories that she can't for... whatever reason. Would you like that, Rom?"
"I... I, um..." Hesitantly, Rom looked up towards this blonde CPU who she had been so sure was the cause of so many problems — but she was now so sure clearly wasn't. She couldn't find the words to answer her, so instead... She smiled.
Vert beamed. All thoughts of the cold — which were already considerably less now that they had left the wing of the Basilicom that had had its heating turned off by Ram anyway — were completely blown away by the expression Rom gave her in response.
"Would you mind if I take that as a yes? It would mean so much to me if I can take that as a yes." Vert almost immediately regretted asking this question. Not because Rom turned her down, oh heavens no, but because the expression Rom offered her in response completely obliterated the one she had been giving Vert just a moment prior, and the only way it could possibly be topped off was...
"I don't mind... No, I want to... I mean... I would."
Vert was definitely going to need to find a pillow to squeal into later once this was all sorted out. Why did Blanc get such cute sisters all to herself?
Holding it in for the moment, Vert instead just beamed all the more brightly at the girl she was walking alongside, who in turn offered her a sweetly shy little smile in response.
"Then it's settled." Gently giving the girl's hand an affectionate squeeze, Vert increased her pace ever so slightly. This had been important, but with Ram somewhere alone and hurting, they couldn't waste much more time than they already had. "I'd like to talk to you a little more about some of the other things you said, Rom, like about how your grumpy sister isn't spending enough time with you sweeties anymore, but I think we should find Ram first. How does that sound? If she's in the kitchen, I think I have a good idea to get her to warm up to talking to me."
To this, Rom simply nodded in agreement, offering a "mmhmm" sort of noise in response. She was glad Vert wanted Ram to be involved in that conversation too. She was starting to see why Blanc liked spending so much time with Vert in the first place — not that it had ever really been that hard to begin with...
Vert sighed inwardly, relieved that at least one of the two was going to be giving her this chance. She wasn't sure what things were like when she wasn't around, but she did know Blanc did tend to pay attention to her when she was over here... Normally, Vert would find that cute — her girlfriend getting all flustered and distracted? that's adorable! — but if it was coming at the expense of the twins like this? She was going to need to talk to Blanc later as well, wasn't she? It helped that she'd already had a similar talk with Chika (... a few times, in fact), and Rom was already responding much better to it than Chika tended to.
Well, Blanc would probably be easy enough. She loved her sisters, perhaps more than the sisters in question themselves even knew, and she likely hadn't even realized this was an issue. Changes like this are naturally ones that effect the other people in one's life, not just the person themselves and the person they're in a relationship with...
She hoped Ram was okay.
"I just hate to think that you two were this upset while we were off being happy." She hadn't exactly meant to say it. She had certainly been thinking it, and part of her had wanted to say it, but she hadn't really thought it would add anything. What would it do to rub it in that while the two of them had been confused and unable to deal with their sister's happiness, their sister had been off frolicking in relationship rainbows in the meantime? "O-Oh, I'm sorry, Rom, I..."
Rom wasn't looking upset. In fact, she was staring up at Vert a strange expression, like Vert had just taught her a magic spell.
"You... You mean... She's happy...?" This... was unexpected. Vert would have thought it obvious, but... From the way Rom was staring at her, it seemed that to the Candidate before her, however Blanc conducted herself when Vert wasn't around — and even how she did while Vert was around — just didn't come off that way to the twins. "Really...? She was? But..."
Seeing this, Vert found a small smile worming its way onto her face.
She was starting to figure out where and why part of this misunderstanding had all started. It certainly didn't account for the change in time spent with the twins, but... With what the twins were seeing of their sister's other changes, with how they were seeing it... Perhaps they weren't able to see why Blanc and she spent time together as a couple the way they did now? That would explain why they thought Vert was "taking" Blanc away rather than Blanc actually wanting to go with her, wouldn't it?
"She is, Rom. Once we find Ram, I'll be sure to explain it to you — is it okay if we wait a little bit for that?" Rom nodded. While it was true that Vert wanted to make sure to be able to do this only once she had both twins, while she may have had enough examples of Blanc being happy with her when they were alone... She would probably need a little more to work with to be able to explain it to the twins. "I know we're almost there, and then we need to focus on Ram, but can you think of any other things that have been different about Blanc since she and I...?"
Vert let the question hang in the air. If Rom couldn't think of anything in a minute, Ram would take priority anyway, so she didn't want to spend too much time on it this time as she had before. She already had some material to work with, so if it came down to it, she was sure she could explain what was going on between her and Blanc if she had to with what she had.
Surprisingly, luckily for Vert it seemed like Rom had one more thing to tell her up her sleeve yet.
"Oh... Some things... She gets more mad at them more than she used to." Rom nodded thoughtfully. Vert raised a brow. Rom had mentioned this earlier, but strangely hadn't elaborated on it. Perhaps this was a good sign? If it meant Rom was opening up to her more, then Vert would happily accept whatever was about to come. "Like... When you're supposed to meet her, but you don't... Before, she never got bothered by it, but now she usually goes out on really long quests. Mina always talks about, um... Um... 'Ex... Excess... Excessive... property... damage' after that...?"
As soon as Rom finished speaking, Vert looked away, a sheepish, guilty grin on her face. She could immediately think of no less than four instances of what Rom was referring to off the top of her head without even thinking about when it was, what game it had been, or why she had done it. There were likely many more instances of her skimping out on a date or a phone call or even an online gaming session because she'd chosen to do something else.
Blanc... wasn't the only one who had to work on some things, was she, huh...?