K - I - S - S - I - N - G

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

Anger waned; she watched Stryker turn from cocky to almost apologetic. Feelings flashed through her mind, too fast for full processing – pleased that she got under his skin, sated that he hadn’t meant to mock her, annoyance at herself for such a blunt statement, and so forth. But Ninazu supposed she should have expected this nonsense. Nothing useful ever came from chasing emotions, especially not anger. Why she played the damn fool and needed to learn that lesson again… well, she didn’t know.

Now came her turn to avoid meeting the ardent’s gaze, looking up for a moment. “No, you’re right,” she said, growing increasingly frustrated with herself. Pieces of the inner turmoil bubbled out of her head and onto her face, with twitchy grimaces before neutral coldness took over. Ninazu usually went through her life squashing her feelings; with so many of them popping up now, she found it difficult to continue the strategy. Lashing her flame-tipped tail, she supposed Stryker’s presence only added to the frustration. He walked through life with his emotions on his sleeve; she envied that he could, and she hated that he had the inexplicable way of drawing down her defenses.

“Everything feels like a potential threat right now. But you’ve never, fuck. Just… give me a minute,” she huffed, trying to avoid saying the damn words too emotional. She had to be weak enough to get captured, didn’t she? So she could march to Stryker and let him see what a scattershot, hysterical bitch she could be. Every word she spoke sounded like some younger version of her vomited it out – as though forgetting the need to meticulously choose words with the same precision as a physical strike.

Her eyes narrowed, the fire around her neck flaring suddenly before dying out. “I like your idea of hitting them, just the two of us, like old time’s sake.” She’d pick off one of them on her own – she needed some personal brand of justice. How pathetic, that after the ordeal she ran straight to Stryker instead of making vengeance on her own; she’d never let herself live it down if Stryker got even for her. But the lioness would still, gladly, take his help.

© MADI