Douse This Fire

He could tell that he had caught her off guard with his sudden appearance, which was understandable, but what he hadn't really been expecting was the strange look in her eyes when she saw him. It made his smile falter and made his thoughts spin faster as he tried to figure out what he had done wrong. It was such a stark difference from how she had been with him before in the infirmary that it felt like a slap in the face. He waited as she put away the herbs she had been collecting before she gave him the same apprehensive look, telling him that she had been busy with "things," whatever that meant. "Oh... okay," he replied simply, giving her another small smile. He wouldn't press her on it if she really didn't want to talk about it - or maybe better yet, not talk to him. He couldn't fathom what had caused this sudden change. She hadn't even been this stand offish with him when they first met and yet...

She asked him why he was here and he gave a shrug, replying, "I was just worried about you. I... I didn't know if I had done something to bother you or something and I wanted to make sure you were settling in okay, but I haven't seen you around so..." He shrugged again, feeling guilty and out of place even though he didn't really know why. Clearly he was making her uncomfortable even if he didn't really know why and he certainly didn't want to do that. "I'll um... I'll go. Sorry for disrupting your herb gathering."

Ezra turned to leave, his slight smile falling away and making room for a small frown and a look of confusion once he was facing away from her. Until that moment he had kind of been under the impression that they were at the very least friends, but he didn't really feel like that was even true right now. Her being in heat never even crossed his mind even though his father had just mentioned all these things to him not that long ago. All he could think about how different she seemed now compared to how he remembered her being when he first woke up in the infirmary.

Ezra Adravendi