“Hunting for a woman? Pretty barbaric, if you ask me.”

The quip is almost immediate, and even from where he stands, the twitch of her lips into a lopsided smirk is visible— she never truly smiles, but Nier and Emil have each managed to get her close enough on more than one occasion. The description he gives is so accurate it’s laughable, and she settles for an amused snort in response.

“She sounds like a real piece of work.”

She leaves her perch then, standing long enough to push off of the rubble and and leap towards the ground, landing beside him in a low crouch. Close up, she notices that he looks… good. Happy. Life is as it should be for him— it makes sense. He doesn’t look as hollowed-out and hellbent as he had while Yonah was gone.

… good. She’s happy for them.

“Well, looks like you found me,” she goes on to remark, propping one hand against her hip and giving a vague gesture with the other. “If I’d known you were looking, I wouldn’t have made it so easy for you. Gotta keep you on your toes in your old age.”

His mind could go any day now, right?