She rolled her eyes and he snorted, mingled irritation and amusement erupting in a shower of sparks from the nostrils. Like his ire they danced upon the drifting winds for a while, winking and glowing like misplaced stars before, slowly, fading out of existence. The ashes that gathered on the ground were light, empty of content, soon devoured by the warm black rock beneath his feet, gone as though it had never even been there; just like him, should Rajiri's request go unanswered.

It wasn't that he wasn't grateful to her for doing this. Because he was, in his own grudging, embarrassed kind of way. She went out of her way to help someone who had started off the acquaintance by yelling at her, and for that he would always admire and respect her. Ranjiri was noble and kind in a way he would never be able to mimic, more selfless than his nature could even allow him to be. Next to her radiant bonfire of calm, peaceful strength his own flashing pride and fierce independence appeared hollow and empty, as fleeting and useful as fireworks in the night. A firebrand to her sun... and yet she had chosen him to save, to bully, to care for.

Beneath all his glowering and indignant huffing sat a lost, confused child that stared in awestruck wonder at this miracle of a girl, tangled emotions of embarrassment, hope, fear and guilt for dragging her into his own private hell leaving him so confused that anger became the easy way out. Suddenly he could understand Ampere's need to shout at people, because it seemed so much easier than trying to convey exactly what he was feeling. As long as he kept arguing with everything Rajiri said, as long as he kicked and bucked against every suggestion she made, he wouldn't have to admit how much she and her stubborn kindness had come to mean to him.

So when she rolled her eyes he snorted, but as soon as crackling and zapping alerted them to the appearance of the Time Lord and her attention turned towards the god, his gaze softened and lingered on her gilt frame for a fraction of a moment longer than was strictly necessary.

When Cathun's attention turned to the sparking deity however, all trace of softness bled from him and turned his steely hued body rigid, stiff. Suspicion carved lines around the eyes as black rimmed ears tipped backwards, and as he felt the immense, heavy presence that always seemed to announce the presence of a higher being, Lace's son leaned away from it. The sole, remaining magatama in his necklace hummed and vibrated as it sensed the energies of the god, the weak seal straining to withstand the pressure from both within and without. The glow around the comma shaped bead had weakened more and more these past days, announcing the forthcoming end of its lifespan; now it started to flicker, glowing once brighter, once not at all as though undecided on whether it would break now or later.

Ranjiri responded to the Time God's questions, easily as though she conversed with gods every day, but Cathun stood quiet and resentful, unwilling to say anything at all unless he really had to. This was her idea, her mission, her fucking debt to pay and he wanted nothing to do with it, or with the god, or with this whole fucking place...

But. He did want to live. So he would go along with it, at least for now. Humor the girl who tried so fucking hard to make him open up and come out of his shell... and wait, ready to run or die at a moments notice, sacrifice the one treasure he loved and loathed rather than let anything happen to her.

Even if he'd end up having to defy a god.