[ He takes the sharp words, each one level and specific, like she's setting out bullets, without flinching and without looking away. Surely he owes her that much.
And yet it's still so hard to look at her, to see a familiar face and to hear her voice without any recognition behind either, and there's something vicious and sore edging his thoughts. She hadn't sought him out. Perhaps it had been a kindness, leaving him to his grief. Perhaps it had been something else.
Either way, he can't turn away from her now. He doesn't know if it's manners, so deeply ingrained in him that he can only allow the briefest thought of leaving to flicker through his mind, or something else, but maybe they've been heading to this moment all along. ]
Would you prefer I not speak to you?
[ He doesn't know. He hasn't asked. He's skirted a wide circle around her and... what, expected she'd simply never make the attempt? Would he prefer if she hadn't? Would he still be feeling this tightness then? ]
no subject
And yet it's still so hard to look at her, to see a familiar face and to hear her voice without any recognition behind either, and there's something vicious and sore edging his thoughts. She hadn't sought him out. Perhaps it had been a kindness, leaving him to his grief. Perhaps it had been something else.
Either way, he can't turn away from her now. He doesn't know if it's manners, so deeply ingrained in him that he can only allow the briefest thought of leaving to flicker through his mind, or something else, but maybe they've been heading to this moment all along. ]
Would you prefer I not speak to you?
[ He doesn't know. He hasn't asked. He's skirted a wide circle around her and... what, expected she'd simply never make the attempt? Would he prefer if she hadn't? Would he still be feeling this tightness then? ]