[PP-Fx] Something Missing

[Aereth 1]

Unlike the last time when Aereth hugged her, she didn't freeze and push him away at the first opportunity. Her arms also moved up and her fingers gripped the brunette's shirt. At her comment to shut up, Aereth let out a light. "Heh..." and obeyed.

They were only standing. Teion was crying and Aereth was constantly moving his arm up and down in an attempt to try and calm her down and after some long minutes Teion's grip loosened. Gently Aereth also released her from his hug and gave her some space and noticed the faint blush on the face of the purple haired blacksmith.

"It's alright. There is no need to be sorry for anything. You were there for me when I needed somebody. And not it's time to pay back my debt. There's nothing to be ashamed of, Purple." Aereth answered.

He needed to distract her somehow. Like mentioned earlier, Aereth was terrible when it came to cheering up people. "Wanna know what I've been doing? And if yes do you wanna hear the good part only, or do you wanna hear the full story." Aereth asked with an awkward smirk.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion rubbed the last of her face dry. Despite his words, she found it difficult not to feel a slight sense of shame and embarrassment. She didn't want him to feel endebted to her. She didn't want this to be some kind of repayment, after which they would call it 'even'. Besides, how could he have felt that she had actually done something for him? The way she saw it, the woman served as little more than a loud attachment for three days, spending most of their time together exchanging sarcastic comments, ordering him around, or yelling at him.

He spoke up again, this time offering to tell her about what he had been doing over the past week. She was confused, but decided it was best not to focus on why the man was willing to talk about his personal business--his 'ghosts of the past' as he had put it--and simply be grateful for the change in topic. Teion took in a sharp breath through her nose before moving herself past the furniture pieces that had been moved back into place. She ran her hand along the edge of the drafting table beside the forge before she sat down on the edge of the wooden bench, facing the interior of the room along with Aereth as her back pressed against the table's edge. Her right leg pulled up and crossed over the other while her arms folded beneath her chest. Though her expression was somehow a bit more weary than it had been, the corner of Teion's mouth hooked into a smirk back at the brunette. "Fine, I'll bite. Storytime, come on." She urged, whether he chose to take a seat or not before starting to speak, she kept her eyes trained on him expectantly.

[Aereth 1]

Mentally the brunette sighed in relief as Teion told him to go on with a slight smirk on her face. Fighting PvP matches to the death, spying on Player killers and trying to take down whole red guilds, no problem. Crying woman: biggest f*cking problem of his life. He just didn't know how to deal with them. Of course, he should try to help them and cheer them up again, but something about crying women made him uncomfortable beyond everything else. 

"Well, I don't know how much you know about me, but besides being the best active freaking tailor in whole Aincrad, I mostly do mercenary work and in my free time I'm hunting down Red Players. So as you can imagine, one day the biggest red guild payed me a visit." Aereth sighed and leaned with his back against the wall, also crossing his arms over his chest. "Threatened to kill everybody I was close to if I didn't play by their rules. Rule 1: No hunting of LC members. Rule 2: Killing a list of ex Laughing Coffin members, to tie up loose ends within three months." Aereth paused for a brief moment. Thanks to Teion's weakness he was able to tell his story without faltering. He couldn't. 

"Disobeyed them and ran away. Long story short, they were trying to threaten me with stationing players around my shop. So after that party one of my info brokers hit me up with a message telling me that there was an orange player waiting for me at my shop. So I had to go home and 'nicely' told him to get lost. They didn't like it, obviously and I had to run away again."

"And well... Here I am. They don't know my exact movements and they have no idea who you are, so I assumed it would be safe for some time to stay with you..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion was most definitely forcing herself to be 'okay'. The release of her tears was almost necessary after how long the things that had been troubling her had remained pent up. She listened to his story in silence, her eyes eventually moving away from his frame and traveling along the shop's walls, past the front entrance, and settling on the glass of a small window placed high on the front wall. Only an inky blackness greeted her on the other side, the sun having set maybe an hour or so ago to leave the desert city under a cloudless night sky.

"Tsk, so you'll have me harbor a fugitive, huh?" She teased, but once again her tone was more dull and strained than the typical banter she had exchanged with the man back on the night of the Halloween party. She continued to linger on his story, somehow both surprised and not to hear about the unsavory crowd he'd mixed himself up in. She wasn't so much living under a rock that the name 'Laughing Coffin' didn't sound familiar to her. In fact, the infamous Player Killers rang a bell as she seemed to recall the late Beatbox having mentioned them on one occasion or another. "Really though, you make some interesting friends." She quietly remarked.

"Yeah, stay here if you want." She pulled a hand from under her arm to wave it lightly in the air beside her. "I haven't been taking customers for quite a while now, so if any of your 'friends' decide to visit it won't be a secret." She wasn't going to discount the possibility of someone like that showing up to her smithy, even with Aereth's reassurance that the red players didn't have the slightest idea who she was. 'That doesn't matter.' She thought plainly while her arm fell back down and her fingers curled around her elbow. 'People find worse reasons to kill every day.'

"Just don't complain to me if you get bored." Her mind had ultimately shifted to the long days she had spent alone in the smithy, and wondering what she would do now. Was this going to be a more compacted session of the days Shield spent visiting her after her discovery of Beatbox's death? Rather than seeing the stoic frontliner for a few hours a day, she would be co-inhabiting her own shop with the snarky brunette? She mentally groaned. How taxing it would be to act like everything was normal. Would she have to fill her time with busy work so as not to deal with the criticism of her apathy? Would he eventually notice how long she would go without forcing herself to eat? Each tiny nuance piled on top of another until Teion was left worn out from the thoughts.

[Aereth 1]

"Yeah, for a couple of days. After that I'll leave again. And I was worried." Aereth answered as Teion turned away from him. Her words still sounded empty and pained even though she tried hard to get back to her usual tone and her sharp tongue.

He then forced out a small chuckle as she told him how he was making some interesting friends all around Aincrad. "Really seems that way, hmm? But really, thank you."

His gaze then wandered around the shop once again, recalling the mess it was when he first entered, before letting it rest on the back of the purple haired blacksmith. "Don't worry about me getting bored. I've been staying in a god damn dungeon for more than four days in a row. So I think I'm pretty resistant again boredom." 

Slowly he pulled out a small silver bottle from a hidden pouch of his cloak. Inside of the bottle was a golden/brown liquid that Aereth only enjoyed after a really rough day. Whiskey. Of course it did nothing more than tasting similar to the alcoholic beverage from the real world, but he found at least some solace in the bitter taste and the burning sensation of drinking it. He opened it slowly and took a healthy sip of it, before finally pushing himself away from the wall he previously leaned on, and walked over to Teion.

He followed her gaze out of the window with his own before offering her the silver bottle. "You've had it... Rough, right?" The brunette asked in a more serious and sad voice than before.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion's attention was drawn to the container of liquid when Aereth presented it to her, her bottom lip twitching into a frown in reaction. With the unsavory encounter that haunted her now and then, she would have normally refused the drink. The smell of booze normally sent a shiver down her spine, recalling the same smell that clung to a strange man's breath and clothes while his oppressive frame had stood over her. As if to pair nicely with the disturbing memory, Aereth's voice managed to draw her from her thoughts again. Her hand seemed to move on its own, accepting the drink and taking a small swig of the amber liquid. It had been so long since such a bitterness had touched her throat, the woman held the back of her hand over her lips for a second or two while her eyes closed to force herself through the burning sensation. She handed the item back to him, a slightly soured expression still resting on her features, for a combination of reasons at this point.

She let out a sigh, the distinct feel of the alcohol lingering in her throat as the air escaped her. "Not much more than anyone else, I imagine." She tried to shrug it off for a few moments, avoiding the strange topic of her past. She wasn't quite sure what he had meant--if Aereth was referring to her week of solitude, or her life in Aincrad and beyond, but in that moment she wasn't considering the focus behind his question. "It's hard to find someone that this place hasn't traumatized, to some degree." Again, she dodged the question. Her chin tilted upwards and the middle of her back pressed into the edge of the table as she stared up at the wooden rafters that supported the roof's weight. She was silent for a few long moments, debating something with herself. She reflected, thinking back to the hardworking blacksmith with an ambitious glint in her eyes that she used to be, and felt a dry, inward chuckle catch in her throat.

[Aereth 1]

"You know whats funny? Back in the real world I almost never drank anything alcoholic, hated the dizziness and clouded mind that came after drinking alcohol. But here in Aincrad I often wished I could just open my mouth, drink some sh*t and then forget." Aereth said in a bitter voice as Teion gave back the little silver bottle. Carefully Aereth closed the bottle and stored it back into the inside pocket of the coat he just took it from.

"While this is true, I can see that you are suffering more than many others." Aereth's hand started to move towards Teion's shoulder before he suddenly stopped mid air. "The hell am I doing?" he mentally asked himself, looking at his arm before dropping it again. Even though he had met many girls on his journey through Aincrad, he never gravitated so much towards one. It seemed like he just couldn't banish her from his thoughts... "I remember you saying that you couldn't save him... Nobody could have. He was stubborn and brave." 

"A dangerous combination..." he added mentally, thinking about the blonde front liner.

"But you have to forgive yourself. He wouldn't want to see you suffering like this. It was not your fault..." he was trying his best to comfort the purple haired girl. She needed to move on. Otherwise she would destroy herself... Otherwise she might end up like him...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

"I know that." She felt her jaw clench as the acknowledgement left her bitterly, although it was hard to discern which of Aereth's words Teion had agreed with. She would be lying if she said she didn't resent the swordsman, at least a little bit. He had invested himself in her--brushed up against the edges of her walls and kept himself there. He visited that place often, for some reason Teion could never seem to find. And just when the concrete he leaned up against began to wear and erode, he left. Vanished, leaving many others devastated in his wake.

Her fingertips curled, pressing into the skin of her arms as the embers ignited in her heart. "He just had to go, didn't he..." The words left her in a mumble while her chin dropped back down for her eyes to cast an aggravated stare straight ahead at the wall across from her on the other side of the shop. She uncrossed her legs and her left knee raised as she picked her leg up. The sole of her flat, dirt-brown shoe planted itself beside the corner of a table that rested nearby, her leg still bent at the knee. "And leave all of his unfinished business" With emphasis on the word, her leg extended, shoving the piece of furniture with a loud scraping sound. She hadn't managed to knock the table over, but the display was now out of her reach, and she pulled her leg back to the floor in front of her.

"...behind." She finished her sentence, letting out a frustrated sigh. A few long moments of silence hung in the air, and Teion muttered out a small, "Sorry." She knew full well that she wasn't the only one affected by Beatbox's death. Shield, and the rest of his guild sounded as though they were hit hard by the news. Aereth had even likely been distraught when he found out. And no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't forget that the blonde had told her about the sister he had yet to find. She felt her jaw tighten again as the thought resurfaced itself for what must have been the hundredth time.

[Aereth 1]

Aereth flinched a little bit as she pushed the piece of furniture away. "Now, now. We don't want to mess up everything again now that everything is back in place, do we?" Aereth said with a weak smile on his face.

"I really have no idea what he as been up to. Unfortunately, otherwise I could have tried to help him.... But it must have been something really important and dangerous. Maybe he wanted to protect you, or somebody else. Otherwise he wouldn't have left you." Aereth said in an attempt to justify Beatbox' reasoning as to why he went into a battle he couldn't win. This would be the only reasoning HE would have left his love. To protect her.... "Do you know wh.... Never mind that." Aereth cut himself off. Did he rally just ask her who Beat's killer was? God damn it, how unsensible was he.

After that silence settled in between them. Aereth found himself unable to come up with anything that would cheer the woman up anymore. He was just looking at her with a sad expression. 

"You know what? I'm gonna make us something to eat. I'm not the best cook in Aincrad, but I think I can manage to produce something edible." Aereth said as he finally stopped looking at the purple haired woman, and placing an awkward smile on his face.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

"Tch." The corner of Teion's mouth pushed up into half a smirk, as if she was the least bit amused at his gentle scolding. "But I'm just so good at breaking things." If her mental state wasn't still so troubled by the aftermath of her earlier breakdown, the words she shot back at him would have carried a more sarcastic, playful tone. Her blank stare flickered over to Aereth while he tried to justify the deceased frontliner's actions, she only held her gaze for a few moments before turning her attention back in front of her. Teion was tired of trying to determine the reason Beatbox did what he had. She didn't want to dwell on the question any longer than she already had over the past month, despite how difficult a thought it seemed to be to push out of her mind. There simply wasn't an answer in existence that would satisfy her.

It seemed as though he wanted to ask her something, and Teion almost raised a brow in curiosity after he had cut himself off. Without enough motivation to press him, she let the topic fall, instead dwelling in her thoughts until the brunette filled the silence again. This time, she couldn't help the surprised expression that took over her features, and her cobalt eyes slid over to his nearby frame again. Another thing she couldn't seem to suppress was the frown that had worked its way across her lips. If there was one thing she never felt a want for as of late, it was food. Surely, if the pangs of hunger Cardinal replicated weren't so much milder than real-world starvation likely felt, she may not hold the same apathy. And surely, she'd be dead several times over in the real world if she went the lengths of time between meals as she did in Aincrad. As if in reaction to the topic, however, Teion felt the all-too-familiar sensation as her avatar alerted her that it had been who-knows-how-long since she last fed it. She resisted an initial instinct to wince from the feeling, drawing in a breath through her nose and letting is out as a small sigh as she averted her gaze yet again. She could only entertain the thought of declining for half a second before she imagined how quickly the brunette would ignore it and proceed with his plan anyway. "Fine, knock yourself out." She replied instead.

[Aereth 1]

"Yeah, I saw that. And felt it." Aereth added with a smirk on his own as he thought back on the bitchslap he received as Teion invited him to that Halloween party. "But I still had a damn fine evening back then. Only tried to get myself killed one or two more times afterwards." Aereth said with a smile and prepared to dodge anything that was would get thrown at him. He really enjoyed the time on the party, even though he was the more quiet one of the group. They all seemed to be so close, but at the same time so far away from each other. "Jokes aside. I really enjoyed that night. Was great to see you in that costume."

"Will do, just wait and see." the brunette said and opened his inventory, and after a few long moments of searching he finally found what he was looking for. He chuckled, and suddenly two perfectly wrapped sandwiches materialized themselves in his hands. "Thankfully I'm a really fast cook so we can start right away. Those are some of the best sandwiches in Aincrad, so I hope you enjoy." Even back in the real world he couldn't cook for his life, only living from fast food, rice and noodles if his girl didn't make him anything, and he hadn't changed that attitude in Aincrad.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

It came as another surprise to hear Aereth tell her he had a good time at the Halloween party. If he wasn't stretching the truth in an attempt to make her feel better, maybe he was partial to such events after all--at least when he didn't have to worry about the color of the cursor floating over his head and how people reacted to it. His next comment, however, caused the woman's shoulders to tense, and her chest puffed with a small breath of air as she instinctively reached for the nearest small object--a pair of iron tongs resting on a hook off the side of her forge. She tossed the tool towards the brunette, but he seemed to be one step ahead of her and easily sidestepped the item. As the metal clanged against the combination of concrete and sandstone that formed the smithy's front wall, it fell to the ground with a dull thud. Teion glared at the taunting man, brows knit in annoyance at his jokes before hearing some kind of compliment slip past his smirking face.

she sighed again, leaning back into the table as she gave up the half-hearted assault. She crossed her arms once more, hanging her head back farther so her violet hair spilled and curled against the surface of the drafting table behind her. Her eyes lowered to watch Aereth with mild curiosity as he pulled open his menus, and after he summoned the food items in his hands and offered one to her, Teion's torso pulled forward again and her blank expression broke when the corners of her lips curled into an amused smirk. "Pfft!" She gave a chuckle, eventually reaching out to take the sandwich that he held out to her. She crossed her right leg over the other again, lifting her elbow to rest against the table behind her while her other hand moved to pull back the wrapper.

[Aereth 1]

After the dangerous assault of the purple haired blacksmith died down again, Aereth also started to unwrap his sandwich and took a big bite and an awkward silence settled between them. Aereth once again didn't know how to engage the woman into a conversation. She really was a hard nut. In between his bites he sometimes just looked at the woman trying his best to read her, without much success. The emotional wall he had managed to take down when Teion cried in his arms was already rebuilt, which left the brunette guessing what was going on in the head of Purple. 

So they just finished their dinner in silence and as the silence was almost unbearable anymore, Aereth spoke up again. "Aaah... Can I use your bathroom for a moment?"

"What the actual f*ck?" he asked himself and smacked him into the face mentally. Did he really just ask to use her bathroom?

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Despite how much her avatar told her that she needed the food, Teion forced herself to take small bites of the sandwich while the pair ate in silence. Sometimes she would tilt her head back to stare at the ceiling. At some point she extending her legs out in front of her, locking her knees and crossing her ankles as she took a more relaxed--or perhaps a more lazy--stance.

She didn't bother starting a conversation with the brunette, and for the first time in a long while, her mind was blank as she ate. It was almost enjoyable, not having to deal with the swirling thoughts that seemed to haunt her at all hours of the day. Just as she wondered how much longer the reprieve would be able to last, Aereth pulled her from her empty trance. Her eyes were pulled over to him, meeting his brown orbs with a blank expression on her face before she couldn't stop herself from cocking an eyebrow. She wasn't good at reading people, and worse still at empathizing with them, but even she could tell that Aereth seemed the most uncomfortable she'd ever seen him as he stood in the middle of her shop. The corner of Teion's mouth hooked into another half-smirk, and she picked up her left hand in a fist, sticking her thumb out towards the single door near the corner of the room on the other side of her.

"You won't find a bathroom, but like I said you can use that room. It's just a bed and some shelves, but if you're tired of me trying to beat you up you can hang out in there." She seemed more amused at his discomfort than anything else. As the brunette passed her to retreat to her storage-turned-bedroom, Teion's arms folded over her chest once again while her eyes followed him until he was out of view. For a reason she couldn't explain, the violet-haired woman felt an impish grin pull at the corners of her mouth. 'Strap in, Max.' The thought sounded in a corner of her mind with a playful tone. 'It's gonna be an interesting couple of days.'

[Aereth 1]

Aereth sweat dropped. Yeah, he was being really weird and acting strange. Aereth sighed. "Yeah. I think I'm going to call it a day. It really seems that I need some sleep in an actual bed for once..." Aereth said and slowly walked towards the room. "Thanks again for letting me stay here for some time." He added before he opened the door and left for the night. 

As soon as he closed the door behind him, his left hand curled into a fist and started to glow. The <<All Might>> sword art charged up and he was just about to release it against the wall, before he stopped himself and let the attack die down. How f*cking stupid, awkward and strange was he acting around that woman? It drove him crazy. His armor and normal clothes went into his inventory and got replaced by a black tank top and some loose trousers, before letting his body drop in the bed and closing his eyes.

"What a beautiful day...."

[Teion 0]

Before the pair were able to truly rest, Teion would have received a message from a ghost of her own past. Unwilling to let the troublesome topic fester in her mind, the blacksmith had decided to go visit Endilix immediately. And just as unwilling to let Teion out of his sight in her current state, Aereth stubbornly followed. She ended up indirectly sharing more of her past than she had intended with her temporary roommate, and despite the lingering apprehension in her heart that swirled around her memory of the other twin, she was at least relieved that she managed to stay on good terms with her old friend and co-worker. She had asked herself on the trip back to her smithy if she would actually see him again anytime soon. There were a lot of things she was still having trouble moving past, always seeming to find some loose end of herself that would catch on a jagged edge of her past and threaten to unravel her again.

That night Teion still managed to struggle to sleep, staying awake until the early hours of the morning. She occupied her busy mind in a way that she typically did when she didn't want to let it run rampant: she had pulled out unfinished sketches of various weapon, armor, and shield designs. Drawing until her body would finally refuse to keep functioning, sleep would eventually claim her. With her temple pressed against her left wrist and her other hand resting over one of many pages spread over her drafting table, the woman finally managed to lose herself into a dreamless sleep.

[Aereth 1]

That evening Aereth was able to learn much about the purple haired blacksmith, even though he once again stayed more in the background of the conversation. He was a good listener, and every cruel detail he managed to pick up pained him. Yeah, sure he also had and still has it hard, but there are some times where he would just want to hug her like on the first day when she completely cried everything from her soul. But he refrained from doing so. Back then it was necessary in order to help her. Every time he felt like this in recent times, he felt as if it would do more for him than for her if he would hug or even touch her for that matter. 

With a sigh the brunette got up to his borrowed bed. "Seems like no sleep for me again...." he mumbled. Just then he saw light from underneath his door. "At least I'm not the only one..." 

Aereth slowly opened the door, and started to talk. "Also not able to sl..." When he saw the passed out figure of Teion over her notes Aereth stopped mid sentence. Recently Teion started to work on her sketches non stop. No wonder she would just pass out at some point from exhaustion. 

His gaze stayed on the beautiful mop of purple hair that was covering almost every sketch under her, and inside of him a war started. "Should I or should I not? She must be uncomfortable as f*ck in this position. No, just go back into your room and act as if you didn't see her. Just do it. She wouldn't notice anyways." Just before he snapped, he took a deep breath and banished all thoughts from his mind. "F*ck it..." the brunette thought and opened the door to the room where Teion usually slept.

He then silently walked over to the sleeping Teion and slowly picked her up, careful not to make any sudden moves or loud noises. And after he made sure that he had a secure grip on her he started to move towards the open door...

[Teion 0]

Before Aincrad, Teion normally would have called herself a heavy sleeper. Before Aincrad, she didn't have the fear, the anxiety, and the despair looming over her head to keep her up at night. And so when sleep had finally swept her away, at least a few hours free of nightmares was more than she could ask for. But at some point, it was more than that. Suddenly there was a warmth around her that felt so alien, yet so comforting. A sense of safety that she was no longer familiar with, but felt somehow nostalgic. She wanted these feelings to last forever, and yet she couldn't discern from where they came.

Teion's brows lightly twitched, as her curiosity became too overwhelming for sleep to hold its grasp on her. There were new sensations registering in her mind: an arm hooked under her legs, and another behind her shoulders. A hand firmly, but carefully curled around her arm. Her temple was no longer pressed up against her own wrist, but instead her head leaned against the sturdy source of the warmth that she felt. And through the still silence of the smithy, Teion could hear the rhythm of a faint, quickened beating nestled in the man's chest.

Cobalt eyes fluttered open, and her vision blurred slightly as the world around her came into view. She could feel herself moving, but her legs were not carrying her. And suddenly, when her gaze registered the masculine frame that held her in his arms, everything made sense. As the cloudiness finally dispersed from her mind, Teion felt her muscles tighten and her body tensed up in his hold.

[Aereth 1]

Aereth had almost reached the door to Teions room when he felt something. The sleeping woman in his hands started to move. "Oh f*ck, f*ck, f*ck...." he cursed mentally and for a moment even considered dropping her and using his charge skill to get inside of his room before she would notice something. Thankfully he dismissed the thought rather quickly again. He was just being a good person, trying to get the woman who saved his life, allowed him to hide at her place into her bed. 

"And here I thought I was able to get rid of my permanent urge to kill myself...." he thought as he stopped in his tracks and looked directly into the cobalt colored eyes of the girl he was carrying. "Good morning, I guess?" Aereth said with an awkward smile on his face.

"I-I just saw you sleeping at the table, and thought this would be really uncomfortable s-so I-I wanted to get you into your bed." the brunette mumbled in an attempt to explain himself. 

Then there was some silence and Aereth gently let her down, but stopped her before she would have been able to formulate an answer. "Before you say anything, can I ask you for a favor?" He took a deep breath and sighed.

"Take care of my armor and sword. Give them to anybody you think could use it. I'm going to kill myself now." The brunette said and started to head for the exit...

[Teion 0]

When Aereth's eyes locked with hers and that same awkward smile crawled across his lips, Teion felt as though her heart skipped a beat. In a low voice she heard him stammer out an explanation as to why he had taken her in his arms, and after a few more tense seconds Teion felt her bottom half being lowered to the ground. Her feet touched the shop's floor and she hurriedly regained her balance as his touch vanished from her frame.

How much time had passed since she woke? It felt as though her mind had stopped working properly the second her gaze had met Aereth's. Now that she was standing, still staring back at the man with the thick aura of discomfort settled in around him, she had to say something, right? The blacksmith opened her mouth to speak, but even if her attempt would have somehow been successful, Aereth spoke up again with an unclear request. Teion forced her jaw shut, her bottom lip stiff as she simply waited for him to speak again. His next words--the 'favor' he would ask of her--only served to confuse her more than her barely-functioning mind could work with. And then she saw him turn away from her while he took a step towards the shop's exit.

Without thinking, Teion's hand reached out. It slipped past Aereth's open palm and her fingers curled around the back of his hand, taking hold of him to keep him from moving any farther. She had grabbed Aereth by the hand more times than she had bothered to count, so why was this any different? It was as if her brain was slowly, finally, catching up with her. After what felt like several minutes of freezing and faltering, the gears in her mind slowly began to click into place and turn once more. And so, when Aereth would turn back to face her and his deep brown eyes looked into her wide cobalt ones, she felt her grip around his hand tighten ever-so-slightly. Her cheeks were dusted with a light pink hue, and for a few long seconds she could only hear the sound of her heart pounding in her chest.

As if something had managed to break her trance, Teion pulled her hand away in a hurry, and her gaze broke from his as quickly as she could manage. Her cheeks felt hot as the blush that stretched across the bridge of her nose deepened in color, and as soon as the woman had realized it she willed her legs to carry her past him. "Don't be stupid." She managed to get the words past her throat in a low voice as she walked back over to the drafting table Aereth had lifted her from just minutes ago. She was distracting herself now. She reached over the edge of the table to idly gather pieces of paper, beginning to stack the drawings that had sprawled out over its surface.