Okay, so unsurprisingly, Shinnosuke's first impression of Milla was basically ~shounen goody-two-shoes~, though it didn't take long for him to amend that impression—to ~somewhat more mature than usual shounen goody-two-shoes~. Shinnosuke has an automatic disdain for people who talk about working with others, etc., even if Milla won some points by admitting that she didn't expect it to happen.
For the most part, he was waiting to see Milla's idealism break or for Milla to die, because that's generally what happens to people who try and act heroic. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to it, since Milla was a calm and competent presence at trials and they needed all the help they could get tbh, but he was cynical enough not to hope for anything else.
Eeeeexcept it never happened! There was no real moment where Shinnosuke realized that Milla wasn't going to break, just a gradual acceptance when every week he saw that Milla was as strong as ever. Again, he was glad if it meant Milla could keep working during trials, but a part of him was also admittedly envious—Milla was doing something he never could. He shut out all of his idealism so that he could cope and survive, and so while he didn't dwell on it, Milla was sometimes a slap in the face as a reminder of how weak he was at heart. If Milla could do it, then why was he unable to? And so on and so forth.
The Bounty reveal was when things started to change. Sorry not sorry for being difficult about it—Shinnosuke figured that she and Noct knew for sure from the Sheriff, meaning they had nothing to lose while he did if they were lying, so. Milla didn't come as a surprise, since he suspected that either she or Sara was the one woman among the Bounty group, and it was nice to be proven right.
... He hadn't expected her to get all friendly with him, though???? He'd expected business from the Bounty meetings, especially as someone only brought in because the Sheriff gave them his name, and instead he got friendship, which was Awkward. It didn't help that Milla didn't rise to his teasing, meaning that there was nothing he could do to push her away???
The timing, what with Yuna's death, didn't help. Milla had other friends, so he couldn't understand why she would seek him out, why she'd want to know how he was dealing with it, or why she'd want to try and understand him. His discomfort was made worse by the fact that she did seem to understand him—a creeping discomfort about her that'd been building for the last few weeks. Shinnosuke prefers being hard to read or outright misunderstood, so he doesn't know how to handle someone who actually knows how he thinks or feels.
AND THEN HE DIED AND WAS FREE but only for a couple of days. In a sense, she was one of the people he was counting on most, as he couldn't do anything anymore. By the end of that week's trial, among the people he had any kind of bond with and trusted (eww), she and Noct were just about the only ones whom he felt would pull through no matter what (as he was worried about Percy and Jason's emotional states). Not that any of it mattered in the end, but eh. He also really could've done without that letter!!! Especially since it was accurate, damn it.
He's still not entirely sure of what to think about her, especially since a lot of the traits that he respects/appreciates about her (her calmness and shamelessness, for starters) are also the ones that make him go AGGGH, NEED TO FLEE NOW when used against him. She also managed to surpass his initial expectations, so kudos to her.
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Okay, so unsurprisingly, Shinnosuke's first impression of Milla was basically ~shounen goody-two-shoes~, though it didn't take long for him to amend that impression—to ~somewhat more mature than usual shounen goody-two-shoes~. Shinnosuke has an automatic disdain for people who talk about working with others, etc., even if Milla won some points by admitting that she didn't expect it to happen.
For the most part, he was waiting to see Milla's idealism break or for Milla to die, because that's generally what happens to people who try and act heroic. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to it, since Milla was a calm and competent presence at trials and they needed all the help they could get tbh, but he was cynical enough not to hope for anything else.
Eeeeexcept it never happened! There was no real moment where Shinnosuke realized that Milla wasn't going to break, just a gradual acceptance when every week he saw that Milla was as strong as ever. Again, he was glad if it meant Milla could keep working during trials, but a part of him was also admittedly envious—Milla was doing something he never could. He shut out all of his idealism so that he could cope and survive, and so while he didn't dwell on it, Milla was sometimes a slap in the face as a reminder of how weak he was at heart. If Milla could do it, then why was he unable to? And so on and so forth.
The Bounty reveal was when things started to change. Sorry not sorry for being difficult about it—Shinnosuke figured that she and Noct knew for sure from the Sheriff, meaning they had nothing to lose while he did if they were lying, so. Milla didn't come as a surprise, since he suspected that either she or Sara was the one woman among the Bounty group, and it was nice to be proven right.
... He hadn't expected her to get all friendly with him, though???? He'd expected business from the Bounty meetings, especially as someone only brought in because the Sheriff gave them his name, and instead he got friendship, which was Awkward. It didn't help that Milla didn't rise to his teasing, meaning that there was nothing he could do to push her away???
The timing, what with Yuna's death, didn't help. Milla had other friends, so he couldn't understand why she would seek him out, why she'd want to know how he was dealing with it, or why she'd want to try and understand him. His discomfort was made worse by the fact that she did seem to understand him—a creeping discomfort about her that'd been building for the last few weeks. Shinnosuke prefers being hard to read or outright misunderstood, so he doesn't know how to handle someone who actually knows how he thinks or feels.
AND THEN HE DIED AND WAS FREE but only for a couple of days. In a sense, she was one of the people he was counting on most, as he couldn't do anything anymore. By the end of that week's trial, among the people he had any kind of bond with and trusted (eww), she and Noct were just about the only ones whom he felt would pull through no matter what (as he was worried about Percy and Jason's emotional states). Not that any of it mattered in the end, but eh. He also really could've done without that letter!!! Especially since it was accurate, damn it.
He's still not entirely sure of what to think about her, especially since a lot of the traits that he respects/appreciates about her (her calmness and shamelessness, for starters) are also the ones that make him go AGGGH, NEED TO FLEE NOW when used against him. She also managed to surpass his initial expectations, so kudos to her.
Also, she really was the mom.