Sage hummed and nodded in response to the girls response, a frown tugging at his lips as she told her story. He could tell she wasn't telling him everything, but that was alright...he knew well enough what it was like to worry about someone judging you based off of past actions. "I'm sorry," he hummed. "Losing someone like that is never easy." If the guy she'd loved was dead, or at least the guy she'd thought she'd loved, he could see why the girl shied away from another relationship. And, she wasn't likely to meet someone outside of the slums who would want to marry someone from the slums. That just wasn't how life worked, no matter how much they wished that sometimes. "I'm sure if you find the right person it'll all work out," he hummed a few moments later, sort of thinking about his own love life of sorts. Well, more along the fact that he hadn't really had one...he'd had Anya for a few months but that didn't really count as a love life....and how he wasn't likely to ever have one. "I guess I'll just have to wish you good luck, if that even means anything from a guy who seems to only have bad luck," he chuckled dryly.

The girl smiled softly at the boy at his little apology and shook her head. It wasn't his fault, not at all. It still saddened her, but she'd gotten used to the whole death thing by now... and while she did miss the man, she'd kind of expected something to go wrong. She was kind of one of those unfortunate people that just couldn't keep anything good for very long. "You don't need to be sorry for something that isn't your fault," she hummed lightly, gently bumping his side again as she gave a bit of a smile, or tried to give him one. She knew he had a point, but she was honestly a little bit scared that she'd never find someone else... she didn't just want to get with the first semi-decent guy down here, she wanted to genuinely be in love, and feel loved by someone else... and she wasn't getting any younger. She wouldn't make it much past thirty, so she was terrified that she wouldn't get the chance to meet someone, settle down and start her own little family. If she did, then she'd be dead before her children could even remember her face, and that thought made her heart ache. She then glanced back to Sage and shook her head slightly when he wished her luck and just kind of chuckled meekly. "Don't be like that - everything you say is going to mean something to me, even if it is 'from a guy who seems to only have bad luck,'" the girl mused before crossing her arms across her stomach as she walked. "What about you? I can't wrap my head around why you're still all alone, despite how stubborn you are," she told him with a gentle laugh.

Sage glanced over at the girl and shrugged in response to her first comment. "Well, I can still be sorry for you," he hummed. He chuckled slightly and nodded in response to her second comment, humming slightly. "I know, I'm just not used to someone caring," he admitted. He cocked his head slightly at the girl's question and then looked back out in front of them with a type of reminiscing sigh. "Similar to you, I suppose," he started. "There was only one person who I'd ever caught feelings for, and I can't exactly marry her," he chuckled. "Besides, we grew apart and...it was obviously just a mistake, us thinking it was love. We had some good times, but they weren't...real in a way." He shrugged slightly after that and was silent for a moment. "Besides, I worked at that tavern, so I never had time to do anything but work, and the work I did wasn't exactly things that would be good for a relationship." He wrinkled his nose slightly and huffed out a breath. "It wouldn't be fair, and if I ever married there was no way I could ever support them. We'd all starve or something and I'd never even see the girl" he shook his head slightly them and chuckled dryly. "After Anya, I'm not even sure I would be able to date someone even if I liked them. Maybe it's my stubbornness you mentioned....but I'm not going to allow myself to love someone. They all just seem to die off." That was except for Anya of course, but that situation was almost worse than the girl dying.

The girl furrowed her brows at the boy, clearly sorry that he felt that way... that he wasn't used to people caring about him. There were so many people looking out for him, like her and the doctor, and even the princess... well, she didn't know about Anya, but Sage was still living in the castle, so she obviously cared at least a little bit about the boy. But there wasn't anything she could say to make him believe that, and they both knew it. She then gave him a slightly confused look when he said the... thing he had going on with the other girl was a mistake. If that was the case, then he must have felt... well, awful about the whole thing. From what she'd heard from Anya's maids, the girl genuinely thought the world of him... and they'd spent a lot of time together, so it would have been a huge chunk of his life just with her. Still, Mari wasn't sure what to say to him, she just felt awful for the boy... he deserved to live happily, but if he was just always stopping himself from being with people he cared for, he'd just end up isolating himself. She then cocked her head at him, her curiosity getting the better of her. "I still don't understand why you thought it was a mistake," she told him quietly though he didn't have to make an answer to that. "I mean - if you said you couldn't marry her, obviously, she's a princess, but if you could have, and you didn't need to worry about money, then would you?" He didn't need to answer that, but she certainly was curious.

Sage cocked his head slightly in response to the girls question, taking a deep breath. Would he have married the girl? They were only seventeen when they'd met, and it had only been a brief time where they'd acted like lovers...but maybe if they had a chance things would have been different. If she was available, and they didn't always have to hide everything...would he have been more willing? Luther certainly wouldn't have sent him away, and would they have continued to love eachother if he hadn't left? He kind of just stared at the ground for a moment while he thought. "I don't know," he murmured. "I mean, being with her seemed to help everything and I definitely don't regret the times we just let us...be ourselves." He shrugged lamely after that, sighing slightly. "But I never felt like she deserved someone like me ... She always said she loved me anyway, but something always made me feel like it wasn't fair to her to be with me," he admitted. "But I can't marry the girl, and she's made it clear she no longer cares for me. I mean, she likes me, sure, but only enough to enjoy some time with me occasionally. That's it." He chuckled dryly, shaking his head. "I'm done with love. It's only ever hurt me," he muttered. "Unless something drastic happens, I'm not likely to change my mind either," he snorted, rather bitterly. "But I'll stop bothering you with my son story," he murmured, putting on a bright face. "It doesn't really matter," he hummed, desperately trying to keep a positive face on. The morning had started well, and he hated to ruin the girl's mood.

The girl nodded and pursed her lips slightly as the boy spoke... and the longer she listened the worse she felt for him. He just seemed to keep on putting barriers up for himself, and she didn't know how to talk to him about it... well, she supposed she didn't need to say anything. It might just help to talk about it with someone who would just listen. She eventually sighed and half-linked her arm through his, her head resting lightly against his arm as they walked. "I have to say, that sounds awfully lonely," she told him gently. Well, she supposed she was doing the same thing... not really opening herself up to anyone that she could potentially have feelings for, but she wasn't brave enough to admit that the way he was.

Sage looked over at the girl when she linked her arm in his and sort of half pressed himself against her. It wasn't much, but it did help more than he let on. "I have the horses, and I still have Anya and Att, and you and the doctor," he pointed out. "But I'd rather be lonely than end up hurting another person as well as myself," he admitted. "It's just better that way. I'm used to hurting, I'll always hurt...a little bit of extra pressure isn't much of an issue if it reassures me I won't feel like that again, and no one else will ever feel that way." He shrugged slightly, keeping quiet as they passed the guards. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I just don't want to let anyone else down," he murmured quietly as he slipped into his little room. There were papers on his bed, ones he didn't put there, so he reached over to squint at the paper as he tried to read it. It took him a pretty long moment to read it, but once he figured out what it said, his eyes widened slightly and scrambled into the doctor's office, slamming the paper onto his desk with a kind of wheeze from sprinting across the room. "You do this," he huffed, the doctor nodding slightly. He was admittedly a bit concerned at how the boy would react to seeing the adoption certificate on his bed...but he couldn't find a way to ask him about it. "You didn't give me a pen," Sage eventually huffed. "How the hell am I supposed to sign without a pen," he grumbled, scrawling his signature across the right line and then handing the doctor his pen back. The doctor, normally able to control his emotions, stood up to wrap the boy in a big bear hug, and Sage, after a moment of surprise, grinned into the man's chest and hugged him back. He was happy too...he really was, he just wondered how this would turn out. It wouldn't all end in flames, would it?

The girl frowned a little bit gave a kind of understanding nod... it wasn't that he didn't want someone to love, or to love him, but it just sounded like he was... well, scared of that happening. He was scaree of letting somebody down, and she felt awful about that. She'd said it once, and she'd say it again... he deserved so much more than that. She hated that this man had gone through so much, and because of that he was scared of hurting someone else, and himself even more for that matter. She felt awful for him... but he was putting things in place to stop himself from hurting so much, stop the possibility of hurting someone else, and she had to respect him for that. She gently patted his arm once everything went quiet, and they walked up to the ward in pretty much silence. She watched him run off with some papers, clearly a little bit confused as to what he was doing. She then went down the quarters to dump his things before going back to doing her usual jobs on the ward.

Sage wandered back to his room once he and the doctor had calmed down a bit, and set the paper down on the pile of drawings that sat on the dresser table. His mind was still whirling a bit, but he had a dumb grin spread wide across his face. The doctor had actually decided to adopt him. He had a father...one who'd actually be what Sage needed him to be. And...that meant he stayed here, out and away from the slums. No more working in the tavern, no more...no more of any of that. He could stay here, and maybe take over the barns. He could take Luther's place in the army, he supposed, but as far as he knew the army was strong...and he'd much rather be with the horses. But either way, he had a feeling the doctor would convince the queen to pretty much everything he wanted, he was stubborn and the queen couldn't say no to a legal document. He decided to write Anya again...he knew he'd sent the first letter only about three days ago, but now he was excited, and the girl deserved to know what had happened. It was messy, but he figured she could get the gist of it well enough. Once that was done and sent out, he decided to wander about until he found Mari, bouncing up to her and grunting a hello before peering over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

Mari chuckled softly when the boy poked his head and greeted her... he seemed really very excited about something, and it was nice to see, especially since their rather sad last conversation. She stopped what she was doing and turned to him with a greeting of her own before cocking her head. "What's got you so happy?" She asked with a bit of a chuckle... she'd seen him run off with the paper, but she'd kind of just let him do his thing... he always did, and when he was running about like that she wouldn't be able to get his attention. He was clearly exited about something, though, and she was still happy to see it.