The heart beneath her palm goes doubletime, a sign Neph doesn't know how to read. She depends so much on context clues for communication, but the darkness strips his expression and body language away, swaddling it all in heavy silence. That leaves only touch and hearing to rely on, and maybe Neph doesn't know exactly why she was such a terrible student, but she knows her ears aren't always that reliable.
Hannibal says That's very selfish of you and she stills. His voice is--strange. His accent's thicker than usual, or maybe that's just the dark amplifying everything. He sounds half-squashed, as though she were leaning heavily on his ribcage, and he called her selfish.
"I...I know--" she starts to say, but then he's pulling his hand away. Neph almost cringes back, but before she can withdraw into an Allomancer armadillo and slink back to her own room, there's a motion she's not sure how to read and a warmth near her jaw.
Oh.
The only time she's ever heard him sound quite that knocked-flat-on-his-ass was when Will allowed him to examine his injuries. The other parallels - vulnerability, a careful hand raised to the face - skate down her synapses. Neph draws a careful breath as his fingers ghost over her cheekbone and his palm presses to skin. She physically can't help turning her face into the touch, the bridge of her nose pressing into the outside of his thumb. The pulse in his wrist seems to shake the air by her mouth.
"I don't mean I'd keep you if you wanted to go," she confesses. This is fucked up, all of it, there is no way to hold onto something tight enough to guarantee the keeping of it, and trying will only bruise. And yet. "It only counts 'cuz you want t'be here."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-04-06 04:51 am (UTC)Hannibal says That's very selfish of you and she stills. His voice is--strange. His accent's thicker than usual, or maybe that's just the dark amplifying everything. He sounds half-squashed, as though she were leaning heavily on his ribcage, and he called her selfish.
"I...I know--" she starts to say, but then he's pulling his hand away. Neph almost cringes back, but before she can withdraw into an Allomancer armadillo and slink back to her own room, there's a motion she's not sure how to read and a warmth near her jaw.
Oh.
The only time she's ever heard him sound quite that knocked-flat-on-his-ass was when Will allowed him to examine his injuries. The other parallels - vulnerability, a careful hand raised to the face - skate down her synapses. Neph draws a careful breath as his fingers ghost over her cheekbone and his palm presses to skin. She physically can't help turning her face into the touch, the bridge of her nose pressing into the outside of his thumb. The pulse in his wrist seems to shake the air by her mouth.
"I don't mean I'd keep you if you wanted to go," she confesses. This is fucked up, all of it, there is no way to hold onto something tight enough to guarantee the keeping of it, and trying will only bruise. And yet. "It only counts 'cuz you want t'be here."