If he would tell her this was his mechanism of survival, she would have said the same thing of herself in Knell. Echidna shut herself down to survive, to make it through each day without feeling so much pain and guilt. There’s no doubt in her mind that she wants him but if he isn’t letting himself feel then how good can it be?

Echidna understands, at least.

Maybe he would be able to let his guard down someday, it just might take time. If she could be patient, show him day by day things could be good, then maybe he would ease himself into being happy again. Could she keep up with it long enough for that? Or would this all eventual break her into a million pieces? It’s a tossup. She gives him a slight smile when he says, at least in this, she knows him well. Her fingers pass delicately over the gem, down the spine of the feather, then she touches the mark on his collarbone where she’d bit him.

It’s the flicker of something strange in his eyes, like he feels but doesn’t want to recognize it for what it is. Echidna takes his hand, she kisses his fingers gently. “If you want me,” she says to him and sits back to pull her shirt off again, “you can have me.”

Because what else is there? If he wanted her body, then why should she care to give it? It was simple math. Echidna gives him the slightest of smiles.