Break Away

She smiled softly as Erys introduced himself in the same sweet temperament he had with his other greetings and it was endearing in a way she wasn’t expecting. It caught her off guard, but in a good way. It made her relax a bit and made her feel like she didn’t make a complete mistake joining him here. However, as she inched closer and let herself reach out to make that first contact with her paw on his leg, his expression became hard for her to read and then his paw was resting over hers. She stopped as he asked if she was okay and she blinked with surprise and what almost felt like embarrassment. She hadn’t necessarily done anything to be embarrassed about, at least not yet, but he made her pause and confront the emotions she was trying to run from and it made her uncomfortable in her own skin.

She tried to say that she was fine as she attempted to brush it off and keep moving forward, hoping her instincts and more carnal desires could overpower the feelings of everything else. Looking into his concerned eyes though made her chest squeeze tightly and she looked down at his paw that was resting over hers, her mismatched ears folding back. Saying that she was fine and that nothing was wrong felt like a lie and even though she had only just met Erys it felt wrong to lie to someone that seemed so genuinely kind and worried for her.

She didn’t know what to say and just gave a little shake of her head in response, still unable to meet his gaze. “I… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be bothering you,” she managed after a moment and she started trying to get up and move away, feeling mortified that she had allowed a chip to show in her armor and that she couldn’t even manage to hit on someone without falling apart. She wanted to hide it all and pretend everything was fine like Balthier seemed to always be able to do, but it was wearing her thin and she didn’t know what to do. She just knew Erys didn’t deserve to be bothered with her problems.

"Azzurra"