Connections

[Oriena]

She didn’t deign to answer because she thought the question was fucking stupid. Nox was constantly trying to bail out. He would leave if she told him to, despite the white pane of the window suggesting the weather had only worsened, but it was exactly that which pissed her off. No response was like consent. It felt like a trap to make himself feel better. Ori didn’t care what he did – she just didn’t want it to be what she wanted. Or said she wanted anyway. Those weren’t always the same thing. So instead she shifted from her knees to her arse, back against the wall, and watched him with a hard edged stare which probably verged on sulky. It hid the mental exhaustion inside with something more customary. A dog deciding whether to bite.

He leaned to touch her face, and she didn’t stop him. That wouldn’t be a surprise to either of them by now, and he wouldn’t have tried if he feared rejection. Ori rested her head back, let the energy flee her limbs. Her eyes closed.

Nox now knew more about her life than anyone else in it. Even Mik only saw a shadowed, accidental glimpse. Nadezhda had been fairly normal that day, besides the yammering about burning men, and she’d whisked him out the door soon enough. That was the same night Rafael had had his throat ripped out. Last she’d seen of Mik, he’d been cosying up in Jaxen’s company. Not exactly endearing. But neither had she forgotten what he’d done the night Ryker had almost killed her.

She gave Nox the finger in response, though the edges of her lips relented in a smirk. When she opened her eyes it was another mask she wore, this one heated. “I like slutty boys,” she said, voice sultry soft just to drive the point home. There was nothing to say about Mik, even if she’d been inclined to discuss it. Which she wasn’t. But it was still deflection away from good Russian boys. That was somewhere her thoughts didn’t want to go. Or not consciously.  Because it hovered there sometimes, like the fine mist and heat of the Almaz showers.

She glanced at the door, but offered nothing about her mother. Neither did she make any notion to go after her. Like as not Dezdha wouldn’t welcome it, if she even recognised who Oriena was.