Maeve had promised herself that she wouldn't use one of her questions on his name. Too much to that, she didn't want a weapon against him. Even if she didn't wield it the traditional way, she could use it to track down his family if she wanted to. The part of the Summerlands he was born in, and he certainly wouldn't want that. She didn't want the information that way, even if she could do it easily. Had the knowledge, the connections. Even with her residual shame and bitterness over how he and Tulip had parted.
But admittedly. She was curious.
He didn't respond to a good chunk of what she said, and it was a bit of an old argument now. Even if it was a slightly different angle, and with less anger behind it than it might have had before. Before she knew it was an act. Are you saying you haven't tried to cultivate an image? That you don't want to be perceived the way I used to?
This time? Well, she'd give it to him that it was less obvious, less tangible. A mystery solved. Secrets. Finding out where you made a mistake, let something slip by your perception so you can fix it. Maeve was shiny at the moment, is really what it came down to. Which. Was shallow. But it wasn't new to her life, she knew how to work with that. Except. That implied she had an end goal in that case, and she really didn't have one with him this time.
Maeve turned down her road, or what passed for a road. It was gravel, and winding. She had no neighbors, thankfully. Yet still, it only took a few steps for her to step on damn glass. Some piece of a glass bottle someone had probably thrown it as they drove past, damn kids. Shit, I just stepped on glass. Gonna ruin these boots. Because she sat down right there on the side of the road facing the darkness to pull out the glass. But she left it there for a minute so she could scowl at her phone.
No I don't want a goddamn gold star. Titania's tits you're hard to be nice to sometimes. She rubbed a hand over her face and sighed, I was wrong about my perception of you, I admit it. I'm happy about it. Respect you more now. Even if I do think you have an angle. I keep coming around. Ugh. She pulled the small piece of glass out of her foot, wincing as she did so, throwing it off to the side and pressing her food to her calf for pressure. You're the one who said people who keep me around just because they want something are the wrong people, not me.
How did her night turn into this? It should have ended with the snog, her normal vague deflections, and misdirections. Instead, she had reached out to Julius. If she had wanted to get distract herself from self reflection it was clearly the wrong thing. You always want something. You always leave when you get it. Historically. That was something she had definitely said before, and she felt tired just saying it again.
The fact that he hadn't remembered Yukio when she had technically known him the longest, and far longer than Mieke and Sebastian seemed to show she wasn't. It didn't surprise or offend her, not really. Yukio wasn't designed to be memorable. But she couldn't tell him that. There was still blood seeping from her food, and she cursed again and pressed it harder to her other leg to stop it before she put her boot on again, Look. I wasn't trying to start a fight. I'm sorry. The date made threw me off - but you're a constant. It wasn't a good excuse for, what? Did she fuck up the peace between them all over again?