_{[she shakes her head, but it's to... everything. it's not quite denial, and somehow that makes the pill that much harder to swallow. he's right and morga knows it, she just doesn't want to think about what that all means. but sometimes the more you try to avoid doing something, the more it happens. so, she does the only thing that comes to mind and that... may or may not involve turning to bury her head into the crook of his neck in return. the feathers she finds there seem softer than they did when she first touched them, but she's not going to complain about that. that'd be a silly thing to do.]}

...You know, I don't even think he realized I was there that night. It was probably for the best that he didn't for a number of reasons, but I would've liked to have seen his face.

_{[a short, dry bark of laughter into his neck and morga cinches her arms tighter. it's a moment of weakness, but one she'll allow herself just this once.]}

Can you imagine what he'd have looked like if he knew you managed to coax me from the forest for his godsdamned birthday party? If he'd seen...

_{[them. together. sure, she'd mostly stuck to the outside edges of the room or far away from the crowds, but she couldn't deny there was a sort of thrill to standing in a far off corner murmuring all sorts of nonsense and empty threats about disappearing into the gardens if one more frilly loud-mouth stabs their elbow into her kidneys... that night, she'd been all raised hackles, bark, but no teeth to show for it.]}