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Sprig spent quite a bit of time grieving after Anne left. He’d expected to. He’d known he would. Hop Pop and Polly did too, he wasn’t alone of course. He’d felt, at the start, that it was unfair for him to grieve because Anne wasn’t gone, he’d gotten to see proof of that, to hold her and say goodbye.
Hop Pop had reassured him pretty quickly that grieving for relationships was just as important, and the fact that they would never see Anne again was something worth mourning.
And he did mourn, because it hurt. He’d never be able to talk to Anne again, he’d never know if she was okay. He’d just have to hope she was, and he’d only ever have the memories he’d already made with her. He thought it hurt when he missed his parents, who he’d never actually known. He hadn’t realized how much more it would hurt when you did know who you were missing.
It helped that he had other people to be sad with. If it had been just him, he wasn’t sure what he would have done. But he had Polly and Hop Pop, and the rest of Wartwood, all of whom missed Anne just as much as he did.
But the thing about missing someone is that it could make you feel alone, even if you knew you weren’t.
Because of this, for a while in the beginning he’d also considered the nature of a multiverse. He didn’t know how the different worlds worked, if there were copies of people in different universes, but he’d often found himself considering the idea of a world where he’d never met Anne. Where she’d never come to Amphibia, or where she had but she’d ended up somewhere else and they’d never been friends. He wondered if he would have been happier there, since he wouldn’t be hurting now.
No, he’d decided pretty quickly. No, he’d rather be here.
He’d rather be here, he’d rather miss her than have not known her at all.
So he’d be a little sad from now on. If that meant he’d known and loved Anne, then it was worth it.