[Her heart is beating faster, when they pull away. That's a physiological reaction, it's just to be expected. Her pupils are a little dilated; that's not something she had control over, either. The flush in her cheeks, the wet of her lips, the thick dark fringe of her eyelashes framing her irises — none of that is anything she could be expected to do anything about. It simply is what it is.

But that last bit of an exchange between them has made her curious, she discovers. Pleasant as it is to be kissed (and to experience the Synchrony that comes of it, because she can feel that simmering, too), there's something more intriguing that strikes her now. She wants to make Rohan Kishibe react. Wants to act, and see him respond.

She can see the way he's watching her, taking stock of her. It occurs to her, all of a sudden, that they're a little more alike than she'd thought.]

You put up such a hard front.

[She runs her fingers along the same path again, around his ear, down his chin. This time she goes further, and brushes them down the column of his neck, tracing circles around his pulse.]

Do you hold everyone at arm's length, just to see who's brave enough to reach out and touch you anyway?