When Petra scooped out more of the paste onto two of her fingers she looked him square in the eye. It wasn't that the offer was all together unpleasant, but it wasn't going to get her any closer to her work. If she thought for a moment it might have she would have considered it, if and only if, that person wasn't Adward. Adward who hated being called Adward even though it was his name, not that adopted name he'd been given. Adward who would scowl at whatever it was she was working on when he hung about her apartment seeking her out for company. The same Adward who enjoyed peppers too much that her lips would burn after he'd kissed her. She looked away from his eyes, focused on the spot he'd indicated and started to smear more paste there.
She didn't want to talk about those things. She didn't want to tell him that she could think of things that would make him go again. Or that she'd planned her speeches days in advance when she gave them. She didn't want to tell him that she still hated her father and still managed to fall in his shadow. Where she might have told him all those things and more years ago. When it was fun to gauge his reactions or playfully poke fun at his height. She was still taller than him, less so without her boots, but still taller than him.
"No, though I suppose it would pay better than some of the other jobs I've taken. Maybe a more pleasant view, too." Petra smiled. She knew he hated the military. He hated killing people, he hated the idea that people signed up to do that, and were willing to die to prove something. Petra wasn't keen on dying for honor, or for the sake of a country. She was, however, willing to bend the laws of nature in order to get the fame she so rightly deserved, as well as help the country she loved.
"I leaned in too quickly over an experiment and gave myself a black eye on one of my magnifying lenses. I didn't leave my study for a week and demanded Archimedes leave food by the door and I'd wait an hour just to make sure he was gone. Questions didn't need to be asked, I looked like I'd been mugged." Petra laughed just a little. "I shouldn't be so eager, or I should watch where I'm going. One of the two." Her fingers trailed down his chin, to his neck and lingered there for a moment, before she pulled them back. Her fingertips felt like ice now.
"You could rub the rest onto your sorer muscles, it'll help loosen them up as much as ease bruises, I'm sure." She held out the bowl.
She was having a hard time looking him in the eye.