It is difficult to say whether Mazikeen likes it when he retracts his thank you, but the little barb there is familiar and she appreciates that. She rolls her eyes because that is the reaction she’d make if they weren’t standing on strange new ground as the feeling of discomfort grows, like maybe she should have just accepted his thanks. She doesn’t know what to do with any level of kindness from him, and she is glad that he does not say anything about those two little words - even you.
Something softens in that dark amusement in her eyes when he laughs, and for a moment it’s almost as if they’re friends. It doesn’t last long, of course, when he speaks - when she picks up on the tone with which he admits to being good at killing. It is not the bragging, haughty tone she would like for it to be.
And if they were friends, she’d let herself move forward. She’d act on the concern that rises up at the sadness in his voice and try to offer some comfort. She’d ask him about it, tell him that he could tell her anything. She’d joke that her opinion of him was already low, what did it matter if he told her about whatever horrible things are going through his mind right now.
But they aren’t friends, are they? The instincts are still there but Mazikeen doesn’t act on them. Doesn't give him the chance to recoil from her.
So even though understanding and concern flash across her expression, when she speaks it’s just more distraction for them both - just taking the words he said at face value without any of the emotion behind them. “I have a promise to keep first but after that...” Her grin falters for a moment, thinking of Gale and her promise. And she is choked by that uncertainty about whether he will return, whether he’ll retract his love the way Firion just retracted his thanks and she'll be tipped back into where she had been all through the eclipse. The thoughts linger but she does her best to ignore them, telling herself if that’s what is waiting for her back home there’s nothing she can do about it right now. As if it was just that easy.
Still, a thought comes to her in the spirit of distraction and her head tilts a little to the side as that grin returns, something as dark as the shadows that had been swirling around his hooves. “How would you do it, do you think?” Would he snap her neck like he just did with his own or would he claw her apart piece by piece the way she had tried to do to him?
@[firion]