-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marji shuffled from foot to foot, hand raised with her palm half open as her tail flicked behind her. She should knock. Now that everything is over, Emet-Selch is gone and everyone has recovered from the First, she should say hello to G'raha Tia. She's visited everyone else for Menphina's sake, and she scooted past him when she came back from the source. Barely said anything before she was dashing through the Crystarium to reach the Aetheryte. She wriggled her mouth as if to swallow the embarrassment of the encounter. All he said was her name and her cheeks reddened and her tail fur fluffed out like some love struck kitten.
No, no not love. She shook her head. It was just a crush. It didn't mean anything, especially with it being the first since Haurchefant passed...
She would find herself thinking about G'raha though. How they met at Syrcus, how the Crystal Exarch's mouth seemed so familiar. He didn't sound the same, but the more mature G'raha seemed so put together, until she said his name. The small gasp, exhaling a warmth and need. A blush crossing his face, his eyes lighting up. Someone to notice him, and she would say it again and again, just to see him react to it. To see him happy.
That day when they finally put an end to the sad story of Emet-Selch is constantly replayed in her minds eye when she had a moment to herself. The way G'raha Tia shuffled his own feet, rubbing the inside of his wrists as he apologized to her. She would move the Scion's aside, hells in that moment she would have moved the whole world if it meant she could touch him. Her arms would wrap around his neck as she buried her face beneath his white and red hair. Time had no meaning, the people around her washed away as his smell clung to her. When he moved to hold her she finally tilted her head to whisper in his ear:
“It's good to see you awake, G'raha Tia.”
She heard the hitch in his throat, and felt something wet slide onto her torn shoulder as he murmured back to her. To only her.
“It's good to be awake, Marji Wahluuk.”
She chuckled to herself in the present, looking at her hand, so unsure of what to do. She wants to talk to him, to listen endlessly on things that make him feel good, as good as he felt to be noticed and accepted on the tower. She curled her fist and moved forward and hesitated.
Of course, even if she asked, and he said yes to a date or anything of the sort, things could turn for the worse. He's attached to the tower, to the first, and even if he could be freed to be with her, what if he-
images of her past loves flashed in her mind, as well as their painful endings. Dead, and her broken. She didn't know if she could handle it a third time. So, she knocks, and greets him, happy to talk and be with him, but afraid to move forward and press her wanting against him. Perhaps, at a distance they would be okay. Perhaps he could be a while longer. Perhaps she could hold off her need to kiss him.