Still, she supposed being happy with one's name was better than the alternative. They left the chatter of the classroom behind, and there was nothing to hear once again beyond Yazad's footsteps and her quiet shuffle. Aurelie thought briefly what she knew of her Great-Aunt Marguerite; nothing, really, beyond her name. Aurelie shrugged and smiled. "I'm not sure, really. She might have been—I think Father just liked the name."
Ana might know. She could ask, when next she saw her sister. That was certainly an easier discussion topic than anything else. She couldn't say she dreaded seeing her sister again, but some part of her wasn't looking forward to it. The betrayal settled heavily in the bottom of her ribcage, a constant weight she was growing to live with.
Aurelie could have found a similarly benign subject to carry on with as they kept on. She was starting to feel like she had the thread of it now, with the initial strangeness worn off. She felt a little silly, worrying so much about it in the first place. Could have, and then Yazad spoke again to ask her a question that threw her off so thoroughly Aurelie stopped for a heartbeat, right there in the middle of the hall.
"Oh, ah—pardon me." She resumed walking again, not quite sure what to make of the question. There was no trace of mockery in that beautiful face when Aurelie looked over; he had asked it as if it were nothing. As if it were a natural question to ask her, or any of them.
Was she happy? She found she didn't know how to answer that. She could have said yes without lying; certainly, she was happy in moments. But that wouldn't be true either. Once, she might have said she was content, and that would have been just as true. There was her work, after all, and she loved her work for the most part. She had something like a friend or two now, even; if she wasn't close to her roommates, she had no real enemies either. Yes, she could have said she was content with all of that, not too long ago. Aurelie looked at Yazad, puzzled.
"It doesn't matter if I am or not," she said at last, with another smile and a shrug. The smile didn't touch any other part of her face. It didn't matter; there was only what there was in front of her, just like her name. If she were unhappy, did it matter? Could she change anything about herself, her life, her situation? Could any of their kind—her kind? "But, there are ups and downs—the same as anyone."