Gale had been quick in taking her vision but the feeling of it was familiar now, both from him and from another. Mazikeen recognized what that blink-that-wasn’t-a-blink meant. She grabs onto the annoyance that rises up at this intrusion like a lifeline and is prepared to delay her rehearsed greeting just to tell him off over it.
She’s so busy focusing on this annoyance when she finally spots him, hears him, and stops. They are much too close but she - of course - won’t back away. Though she does not really want to make him uncomfortable, the vision intrusion followed by this incredibly warm welcome is enough to convince her that if he doesn’t like the distance between them, he can damn well be the one to change it.
Mazikeen laughs, but it is not a happy sound. She’d been expecting a greeting like this and she’s prepared for the pain that it brings so she buries it deep. Buries it with the nerves and everything else that was soft in her mind just moments ago. Her harsh laughter hasn’t quite faded when she bites back with no shortage of sarcasm “Ah, it’s so great to see you too.”
No point in dodging his question. Mazikeen doesn’t miss how he still can’t look at her, which needles her enough to keep fire in her voice and gaze as she stares fixedly at him. “I’m here to check up on you. See if you’re feeling… mischevious.” Her eyes flick over him, what she can see in the dim light anyway, as though she can see a sign of the Curse or not. His frosty demeanour, so at odds with how he had been the first time they spoke here, might be a sign but… maybe he is just that annoyed with her for showing up in his life again.
The confusion is still there, the memories of the kinder words that had preceded the desire to go separate ways, but this too is pushed aside.
She continues - voice set and determined - orange gaze back on his face. “After all, I made a promise on these sands. Your lack of…” Mazikeen had prepared this speech before but she always stumbled here. Feelings? Interest? Whatever word she uses sounds ridiculous even in her head. “The fact that you don’t care about me only makes things easier - you’ll hurt the ones you’re close to, right? And thanks to our last meeting we both know that’s not me.” Her voice wavers just slightly on those last two words but whatever emotion is causing it Mazikeen refuses to give it so much as a single thought.
@[Gale]