If he notes the catch in her breath or the heat in her cheeks at the thought of him, he doesn’t show it. He is not a noble man by any measure, but there are several lines in the sand that he has drawn for himself—the value of privacy being one of them. Regardless of the depth and scope of his newly found magic, he could never imagine himself overstepping them, tempting as it may be. He had no desire to crack open Mazikeen’s mind and take her thoughts for himself. It was far more alluring to guess at what lay beneath.
So he just smiles, ignoring the churning in his gut and the sadness that ate away at him. Preferring to study the lines of her face and allow himself to be distracted by her problems rooted in the here and now. Problems that may actually have solutions. That he may actually be able to help solve.
“I would love to visit it,” he says and is surprised by the earnest note in his voice. He has never been one who was particularly taken with travel, but he finds that he means what he says. He would gladly travel anywhere with her—be anywhere that she needed, be anything that she needed him to be.
Whether it was antagonist or stalwart friend.
He swallows, hard, that uncertainty about where they stand rising up in a wave within him. It wasn’t a topic that they ever truly breached. Raw emotions had been easier to look at in the moonlight and more vulnerable to stomach in the brightness of day. He had never really told her how he felt.
How he feels.
How she makes him feel.
After all of this time and all that lay between them it was just…difficult.
And it was difficult now.
But it was made less difficult by the knowledge that at the very least, they were building a friendship. That he could provide her support in this way, even if she never wanted anything more with him. His lip curves up in the corner, “I like being close, Maze.” Her nickname was a wonder to say.
“More than I should, probably.”
so as our grief falls flat and hollow upon a billion blooded seas
all our worst ideas are borrowed (you do and don't belong to me)
@Mazikeen