( even when she'd sort of rather open a vein than her mouth about her feelings, it's easier than it once was to accept the sentiment, even to be grateful for it. easier to believe that it's exactly what it sounds like, not a trap, not an implication about how she's just too weak to handle it by herself, just—

it's not nothing. )

Merci. It's just,

( honestly, sort of dogshit timing to be taken off-guard by a rifter's return. )

I wasn't expecting the first person who answered me, today, and I think it's going to be awkward as all hell. But it'll be fine, I think.

( and no need to examine the way she'd still rather talk about that than the knife thing, at least immediately. )