[ Rex grunts with pain, but he had been expecting the blow. He'd managed to steel himself enough not to let that weaken his grasp on her, vicious though she may be. He just grits his teeth and bears it, mind desperately rifling through his options, on how to possibly neutralize her underneath these circumstances - little gods, he wishes Poe were here. Between the two of them, they may be able to just about manage.
Here? Now? He's at a loss, and she knows it. That's why she keeps on trying to goad him. ]
If you're not going to act like yourself, then you shouldn't sound like yourself, [ he grits out, more to himself than to her. There's no reasoning with her. But it makes it harder. Harder to rationalize to say that this isn't her, because this is her, a dark, long-repressed part of her that he loves just the same. It's her, but if things had turned out different. Her, as someone who remembers being with him and loving him, but as someone who wants to hurt him anyway.
It's why he can't bring himself to want to hurt her back. But he has to, which is why in some strange facsimile of happier and harder days, he gives her a good Keldabe Kiss, smashing his forehead into hers.
They'll both be fine. Neither have ever been accused of being anything other than hard-headed. But maybe it will disorient her long enough for him to do something to take her down. ]
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Here? Now? He's at a loss, and she knows it. That's why she keeps on trying to goad him. ]
If you're not going to act like yourself, then you shouldn't sound like yourself, [ he grits out, more to himself than to her. There's no reasoning with her. But it makes it harder. Harder to rationalize to say that this isn't her, because this is her, a dark, long-repressed part of her that he loves just the same. It's her, but if things had turned out different. Her, as someone who remembers being with him and loving him, but as someone who wants to hurt him anyway.
It's why he can't bring himself to want to hurt her back. But he has to, which is why in some strange facsimile of happier and harder days, he gives her a good Keldabe Kiss, smashing his forehead into hers.
They'll both be fine. Neither have ever been accused of being anything other than hard-headed. But maybe it will disorient her long enough for him to do something to take her down. ]