Neo would probably like Hazel, though Emerald was still trying to wrestle with the idea that she liked him herself. He'd treated her more kindly than most had, and she still assumed he wanted something from her; she just hadn't figured it out yet. But it wasn't as important as everything else that Neo was telling her. Another maiden in Atlas, and probably a failure... on top of everything that Neo felt towards Ruby. It made sense. What Neo wanted made sense, and she couldn't really argue any of it.

She nodded through to the last sentence. Not a lot of people here knew Neo as well as Emerald did, even if that bar was low and the list of things she really knew about Neo was closer to a pamphlet than a book. It helped, too, that Neo was touching the back of her hand, and if they were closer she might have turned her hand over to hold Neo's. Instead, she just kind of... let the contact happen, let her gaze soften.

"There's not a lot of people here who get what we've been through, is there?" she said, not sure where she was going with it. "Well. Now we can work on getting back home together, and maybe I can find a way to get to Atlas." She looked ahead, out in front of her, trying not to think about what that would entail. Her hand tensed again, and the words escaped anyway. "It would mean crossing Salem."