Other things Astrid is very good at: telling when there’s intent, balancing that delicate see-saw of a dynamic shifting, physical contact becoming more purposeful. That fun knife’s edge, teetering along hey so I’m interested and I’m pretty sure you’re interested so what are we gonna do about it? She was accustomed to crossing those boundaries back home, but has been more careful and judicious about it in Riftwatch; too-aware of the fact that they all live and work together and it could be messy.
But the fact remains that Talin sweeps her hair off her shoulder, and she feels the warmth of his hand blazing through her skin, running like a shiver down her spine. It’s been so many months since anyone’s touched her like this. It used to be so much more common in the mountains. She misses it.
So it is, all things told, a very effective way to make her forget the conversation they’d just been having and stop her from asking any follow-up questions: throw a ball and send a dog bounding after the new distraction. She shoots him a look over the line of his arm and the edge of her mug.
“You caught me on a good day, usually it’s full of twigs and leaves.” Light, breezy. There is a world here where she brushes off the advance — they live together, in a shared room, it could get messy — but, also.
They’re not in that shared room right now.
So she finishes the tea in one swig (waste not, want not) and sets it down on the ground, twisting it in the dirt to plant it safely. And her next question is straightforward, forthright: “I mentioned the heated tent, yeah?”
no subject
But the fact remains that Talin sweeps her hair off her shoulder, and she feels the warmth of his hand blazing through her skin, running like a shiver down her spine. It’s been so many months since anyone’s touched her like this. It used to be so much more common in the mountains. She misses it.
So it is, all things told, a very effective way to make her forget the conversation they’d just been having and stop her from asking any follow-up questions: throw a ball and send a dog bounding after the new distraction. She shoots him a look over the line of his arm and the edge of her mug.
“You caught me on a good day, usually it’s full of twigs and leaves.” Light, breezy. There is a world here where she brushes off the advance — they live together, in a shared room, it could get messy — but, also.
They’re not in that shared room right now.
So she finishes the tea in one swig (waste not, want not) and sets it down on the ground, twisting it in the dirt to plant it safely. And her next question is straightforward, forthright: “I mentioned the heated tent, yeah?”