[ He accepts the tooth, holding it up between two fingers against dim light. There's a question that's been growing, kept quiet for how fraught the last half hour's been, how tenuous their peace is now. But the tooth amplifies it. Burrows it into his thoughts like - well, like something stuck between his teeth.
It still isn't the time. He offers the tooth back. ]
It's a shame. These would probably fetch a good exchange rate.
All yours. [ she holds up her hands to refuse it. ] Keep it as a souvenir. Or toss it. Whatever.
[ she rises from the basin of the tub, tinted just barely pink by her own blood. she reaches out to take the towel from him, then. wraps it around herself before she steps out, leaving wet footprints on the wood floors. ]
[ Oh. The tooth goes dropped his palm, fingers wrapping it inside as he relinquishes the towel to her, watches as she drips water all over the just-wiped floor.
The huff is indulgent in spite of himself. As she walks, he kicks the rag bundle over her wet footsteps, letting it seep them up behind her.
(With her out of the water again, he follows her movements as subtly as he can. No risks this time. Not expecting any further disaster, but not about to be caught unprepared for one either.) ]
[ she wrinkles her nose at him in a way that feels familiar. cleaning up after her feels paternalistic in a way that can't help but be reminiscent of their marriage. the marriage they'd never had.
all the same, she steps onto the rags. a little arch of her eyebrows that makes the gesture a spiteful concession rather than cooperation. ]
[ Breezy nod to her concession, smirk poorly disguised. Still, with her no longer spreading wet over the floors, he does her the service of skirting around the room plucking up her discarded clothing items, returning as human clothes horse with them draped over his arm for the taking when she's ready. ]
[ she takes the clothes from him with her own thinly veiled smirk. it's easier to mock than it would be to offer even snide gratitude for his genuine gesture. ]
[ A flicker of nothing-to-something and he's standing there in what appears to be a toweled bathrobe, tapping plush slippered feet against wood floors. ]
With that attitude? Not for you.
[ Not for him either, but the illusion holds up well enough. ]
[ she towels herself off, however, and starts putting her clothes back on. the process shakes loose some more of those shining fish-like scales, which earns a little bit of a wince of discomfort along the way. ]
[ He lets the little spell drop away as easily as he'd pulled it together, instead crouching to where a little smattering of scales have landed against the wood. Now may still not be the right time, but he can only keep curiosity at bay for so long. ]
The sawtooth. [ A glance back up at her, a couple of scales glimmering between his fingers. The dip of his gaze toward where he knows the tattoo rests betrays him a little, though he pulls it back quickly enough. ] You already had a connection with it?
[ the good humor drains out of her. nami gives him a cold look of impatience — the kind that blames him for ruining the ease that they'd settled into. she finishes pulling on her shirt, obscuring the tattoo. ]
No.
[ there's no way for it to be a convincing lie. the point of the word isn't to be believable, but in its audacity to shut down any hope of pursuing that line of conversation. at least for this moment. ]
[ Wrong time, loud and clear. He drops it immediately with nothing more than a tight pinch at the corner of his mouth, dissatisfaction both with a path closed off and with his own ruining of their hard won ease.
The scales go dropped along with the point, hand raised in peace gesture. ]
[ she nods, and that's that. she slips out of the door, rumpling her hair with one hand once she's on the other side of it. a long, i'm in trouble sigh.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ He accepts the tooth, holding it up between two fingers against dim light. There's a question that's been growing, kept quiet for how fraught the last half hour's been, how tenuous their peace is now. But the tooth amplifies it. Burrows it into his thoughts like - well, like something stuck between his teeth.
It still isn't the time. He offers the tooth back. ]
It's a shame. These would probably fetch a good exchange rate.
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[ she rises from the basin of the tub, tinted just barely pink by her own blood. she reaches out to take the towel from him, then. wraps it around herself before she steps out, leaving wet footprints on the wood floors. ]
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The huff is indulgent in spite of himself. As she walks, he kicks the rag bundle over her wet footsteps, letting it seep them up behind her.
(With her out of the water again, he follows her movements as subtly as he can. No risks this time. Not expecting any further disaster, but not about to be caught unprepared for one either.) ]
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all the same, she steps onto the rags. a little arch of her eyebrows that makes the gesture a spiteful concession rather than cooperation. ]
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[ Breezy nod to her concession, smirk poorly disguised. Still, with her no longer spreading wet over the floors, he does her the service of skirting around the room plucking up her discarded clothing items, returning as human clothes horse with them draped over his arm for the taking when she's ready. ]
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[ she takes the clothes from him with her own thinly veiled smirk. it's easier to mock than it would be to offer even snide gratitude for his genuine gesture. ]
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With that attitude? Not for you.
[ Not for him either, but the illusion holds up well enough. ]
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[ she towels herself off, however, and starts putting her clothes back on. the process shakes loose some more of those shining fish-like scales, which earns a little bit of a wince of discomfort along the way. ]
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The sawtooth. [ A glance back up at her, a couple of scales glimmering between his fingers. The dip of his gaze toward where he knows the tattoo rests betrays him a little, though he pulls it back quickly enough. ] You already had a connection with it?
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No.
[ there's no way for it to be a convincing lie. the point of the word isn't to be believable, but in its audacity to shut down any hope of pursuing that line of conversation. at least for this moment. ]
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The scales go dropped along with the point, hand raised in peace gesture. ]
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[ she's ready to Leave Now ]
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Yeah, I've got it. Go ahead.
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[ she nods, and that's that. she slips out of the door, rumpling her hair with one hand once she's on the other side of it. a long, i'm in trouble sigh.
she heads to terry's. ]