[ This time, there's no stopping the blush that creeps up her cheeks at lightning-pace, her eyes dropping from his face because for a second she can hardly bear to look at him, with the weight of everything on her like this, with the conflicting thoughts and feelings both running rampant— and it doesn't help that she can see the color making its way up his cheeks too, as the heat stops fading and wavers at a level just above what otherwise seemed to be his normal.

Once again, it's his words that break her out of her reverie, but this time when she looks up, it's with a surprised laugh instead of the strange disappointment that settled on her before. ]

I doubt you're the only one. Alberich doesn't fear his life enough to mince his words on the topic; I have no doubt he would use the same word to describe me, if he understood— [ A pause, and a fond smile takes her lips. ] Perhaps he wouldn't, but if Amber were here, I'd be in trouble. She's too loud for her own good, that girl.

[ Almost as bad as Kaeya, actually, although she doesn't say that.

This is good, though. Because it's distracting her from wanting to ask.

Kind of. ]