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[sunmon]

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[morozova]

I found somewhere.

( a picture in her inbox.)

[sunmon]

[ unwarranted anger stews in her belly. that's no way to ask. he knows it. but of course, the matter is already settled. this is the price she's paying for getting rid of him. the cost doesn't really matter. there isn't one she wouldn't pay. but it rankles her, feeds that awful piece of her that wants to buck the bit for bucking's sake.

she doesn't. she hates and fears that part of herself, the one that claws for every kind of power she can get. so she fights it down now. ]

i'll go take a look later.
i'm surprised.

[morozova]

That I found somewhere so soon or because I'm asking you to see it with me?

[sunmon]

you didn't.
you didn't ask me to see it with you.

[morozova]

I'm asking you to it now.

[sunmon]

this isn't asking at all, actually.

[morozova]

Then let me amend: I've found somewhere that I'd like to show you.

[sunmon]

[ this fucker — ]

the surprise was that it's so plain and dingy.

[morozova]

They're regrettably short of palaces in the Down.

[sunmon]

and despite this, you're not requesting anywhere in the up.

[morozova]

I'm being mindful of your good will.

[sunmon]

of course you are
fine. be ready to go this evening. i'll come fetch you.

[morozova]

Shall I wait for you at Venia?

[sunmon]

if you'll still be there
i can meet you at your present apartment just as well.

[ and they are going into the down, after all. she isn't quite ready to see vanessa and the darkling in the same room again yet. ]

[morozova]

The present apartment, then.

( he doesn't tell her to be careful because he knows better. )

[sunmon]

it's closer, anyway.

[ though the mere fact of him relenting easily makes her blood boil, still. it makes him sound indifferent to any few moments she gives him of her time. she hates the notion that he is more important to her than she is to him simply by warrant of how much he's hurt her. it means he still, even now, has power over her that she doesn't want to give him. ]

[morozova]

Relatively.
The newer place is closer to the market here.

[sunmon]

is that all?

[ she can't quite believe that he's leaving this at the apartment request, with no mention of tumenalia. no urge to dangle it over her head. believing her luck would require believing he's serious about his commitment to distance. ]

[morozova]

I don't know.
Is there more?

[sunmon]

not on my end.

[ stubborn, teeth gritted. ]

[morozova]

Then, unless there's something particular you feel like we must discuss, it can wait until this evening.

( because whatever she's stewing on will have likely boiled over thoroughly by then. )

[sunmon]

[ the little ellipsis that alerts him she's typing lights up. and up. and up. for quite some time. she types and erases a number of frustrated tirades. ]

fine.

[morozova]

Fine.

[sunmon]

[ her frustration stews over hours. grappling with itself. it feels impossible to tell if she's inventing things to hate about him or if he's deliberately pissing her off by acting so cavalier. but she is tired of being so much more invested in him than he is in her. in some ways, it makes her feel like she is his pet still, whether she's kneeling at his feet or not.

the best revenge would really be not to care at all, but she doesn't know how to do that. despite this, she arrives at the door of his apartment trying very hard to present herself as such. hands tucked in her navy coat's pockets after she's knocked on the door, impatient but not angry. scowling at the squatters in the hall instead of at his door. ]

[morozova]

( at least he doesn't make her wait.

if pressed, he would insist that it's because he prefers to spend as little time at the apartment as possible. this is the truth, of course, but it's only really part of it. the actual truth is that this is the first time they've been together in person since tumenalia, and while he has no idea how to navigate that he also isn't about to let a little thing like awkwardness and uncertainty keep him from seeing her. )

Thank you for not keeping me waiting.