[ That's a new look on his face, and Tatara peers at it curiously. He doesn't make the connection to himself, that it's a similar look he wears when he's thinking about Mikoto, but it does tell him what he already suspected. A little smile crosses Tatara's face, because that makes him happy. ]

...You were a lot like me, once. [ Drifting. Carried through air until someone came along and quite literally changed the way he lived. Both of them fire, funnily enough.

Tatara might not have changed so thoroughly, though. ]

Someone who gives you a reason to live... I can see why she was so important to you. She sounds wonderful. I'm glad you had her.

[ In the same way Mikoto gave him a reason to live.

Still, though. He has ears. ]

What happened to her?

[ The past tense... ]