Relief spreads through her, potent enough to extinguish the glowing markings on her back that had remained. They’ll be back in short order, more than likely given her current company, but for now Mazikeen is just glad to watch the golden pain in the ass get back to his feet. She should step back again, return to where she was before, but she had already shown how easily rattled she was and giving up ground still felt like weakness to her.
His cough inspires another flicker of concern but she does her best to cover this one up. He’s fine. He was fine the whole time. She repeats this to herself. It is strange hearing him use her nickname and her ears flick backwards in annoyance at that familiarity, as though they’re old friends. But they aren’t, right? She knows she had wanted to be his friend once - but he had never wanted to be hers.
She huffs out her own humourless laugh at the 'I live to serve' comment. “Oh yes because you’ve always been so amenable. Surprisingly, nothing gentler is coming to mind.” Which, despite her comment earlier about how she was not the one who lied, is a lie. She wants to ask him if he can shapeshift, wants to see if he can take some of the prehistoric shapes that she can. But she’s still rattled by how quickly her concern had risen up and she’s not sure she wants to make such a friendly request. Isn’t sure where the interest in sharing something with him is stemming from.
Mazikeen is very imaginative when it comes to shapeshifting but that’s where her creativity tends to end, so she is left feeling unsure of what to ask for next. So instead of a trick request - her orange eyes shift down his now-fine neck and she asks “Did that hurt?”
Because she wants to know if it had hurt when she had torn him apart too, or if that had been just another trick.
@[firion]