Her eyes narrowed in assessment at the approaching man, his overly easy smile, and Melissa finished off her lacing with a rough tug before settling her foot back on the ground. Solid, shifting her stance to something mimicking casual enough but ready to strike back in any encounter gone wrong. It'd been difficult relaxing since the caves, but she'd always been teetering to close to the edge of a fight since the day she had run away from home. But now was not the time to be defensive, Archex was somebody she had approached first. Invited his presence with a deal me in.
She just had to figure out what exactly she was getting herself into. Because Melissa knew a bad idea when she saw one, and had an entire life patterned off of making them. A whole string of dangerous men she aligned herself with, she knew his type well enough when she saw it. Some that had betrayed her, some that she had to betray first. Either way, she was prepared to throw herself right into it and secure herself a role in whatever was coming next.
Tucking damp strands of faded pink behind an ear, she finally cracked the hint of a smile. "Want to take this over coffee?" It was too fucking early to do this without.