It was never about being emotionless. Never about being as stoic as one could be. A sense of self protection if you wanted. Strong emotions made her curse act up, worsen it if she was unlucky enough. It wasn't dependent on which emotion it was, just any feeling too strong heightened her curse, bringing her closer to her ultimate doom of falling into the complete trap she was born into.

Arlecchino had explained it to you, you spent a lot of time at the orphanage, she knew you deserved to know. To know she wasn't simply emotionless towards everything and everyone, just not wanting to hurt herself by letting herself be human too much at once.

Her irriation still didn't just go by you. The days were always rough as soon as temperatures dropped, the children got each other sick, it got too cold to go outside past a certain time. Everything that meant a change of schedule, of the one thing keeping the house of the hearth running, routine.

You had offered to come over and help, something that had already tugged at her pride, at her pride in being able to do everything on her own, she was on edge the entire day already. Probably hadn't slept much the nights before, children coughing and falling feverish every hour of the day, unable to complete their training, adding to the constant stress she pushed down. There was no time nor place for this.

It was simply enough as to you putting some decor the kids had ripped down from the shelf in the slightly wrong spot for her to lose it, even if it wasn't your fault, but she couldn't think rationally. Sharply taking the candle from your hand and putting it away, she seemed more tired than usual, her eyes darker as they usually were, putting the object made of simple wax almost down too hard.

"Stop that! Just! Stop.."