Late and short and quiet.

"The problem," she said, "with being classified as unpredictable, is that it becomes the default reason for anything you do."

"It doesn't matter to your friends whether your current actions are anything that might reasonably be considered indicative of your past behaviors, but because they've got that story in their head, that one -- you know, where you're unpredictable -- they'll consider it so."

"But people love to tell stories about people. It's the way they are. Sooner or later, everyone stops being a person to the people around them and just becomes a story. That's where the problems come in."

He blinked at her. Everything she said made sense, after a fashion, but he wanted to argue it away, tell her that he would never, could never, not to her.

It was too late, however. She was already a fable to him, with a moral ending in, sometimes the things you most wish for are not to be touched.

It wasn't his story, but it was close enough.