Gale
this is going to break me clean in two --
this is going to bring me close to you
His reminder had upset her, and while Gale certainly hadn’t desired the anger that blazes across her face, at least it’s not the very worst case scenario. He’s shaking his head before she’s even done speaking, because she does not understand. It doesn’t matter whether or not she is afraid. Bravery cannot defeat his curse. Nothing can.
He can’t let her keep her promise.
Gale has been doing some thinking since their last time together, and he’s come to the only conclusion there can be. It doesn’t matter what he feels for Mazikeen, because anything that involves them growing closer will mean more hurt when he inevitably begins to devolve. Best to stop things where they are, and perhaps even take a few steps back.
“This isn’t about you, Maze” he says instead, shaking his head as he speaks. “I’m going to hurt everyone close to me eventually. That doesn’t have to be you. I don’t want it to be you.” He doesn’t want to hurt her, he means.
She doesn’t seem to have the same hesitation, because she throws his earlier words back in his face in what he’s savvy enough to recognize as an attempt to get beneath his skin. It’s remarkably successful, and blinks, visibly disoriented for just a moment before he closes his eyes to regather his thoughts. “Mazikeen.” He says, very softly. He’d meant to say it sharply, a correction, but“You can’t…” he trails off, at an odd loss for words as his mind spins ten thousand directions, “You can’t say things like that.” That had been the very opposite of helpful in his efforts to not think about Mazikeen as anything but a distant acquaintance, and he eyes even the olive branch with wariness.
Giving her tips, she’d said, not show her how. He nods, slowly at first and then with more enthusiasm. This will be a good distraction. There’s nothing quite like hooves for stomping on an opponent on the ground, he tells her, and a hoof to the chin can yield damage far worse than even a saber-clawed paw. He chatters on, and indeed in his tangent forgets exactly what he’d meant to forget. But when he runs out of things to talk about, he finally looks back at Mazikeen with a smile. He’s already saying what he’d been about to, the words too far out of his mouth to take back: “You’d best not be planning to use this against me in our battle.”. Meeting her eyes had been a mistake, and he realizes it as soon as it happens.
He's got to stop looking at her, because it is becoming harder to look away each time he does.
@[Mazikeen]
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