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She had just threatened to a king, someone who had haunted her nightmares for years, with no fear, no hesitation, and no regrets, but somehow simply looking into the eyes of her companions was enough to make tears prickle the back of her own. Her friends tried to comfort her, but she would have none of that.
"Don't," Genya warned. She brushed David off of her as he put his arm around her. Ignoring Tamar's and Alina's protests, Genya explained. "I don't want your pity. You don't understand. None of you do."
David tried to reach for her again, "Genya-"
"Don't you dare," she interrupted. "You never looked at me twice before I was like this, before I was broken. Now I'm just something for you to fix. "
Maybe she was being a bit too harsh, but he needed to hear it. All those days when Genya came to see him in the Fabrikator workshops, David barely had looked up from whatever new project it was he was working on. He had never paid her much mind at all. Not when she brought him a pastry from the Grand palace, not when she flipped her hair and flirted, not when she tried yet again to strike up a conversation, not when she sat and watched him work for hours and hours. David was always burying himself in his work. He lived and breathed it. Genya got mere glances and curt responses.
"I know metal," David said, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Genya replied angrily.
"I... I don't understand half of what goes on around me. I don't get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal." his brow was furrowed and he seemed to be having trouble putting his thoughts into words. "Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing."
Then, in true David fashion, he planted the most awkward and fumbling and beautiful kiss right on Genya's lips. All the while her mind was reeling from what he'd just said. It was probably the most eloquent David had ever spoken, or ever will speak again. And for him to call her those things, to really notice and see her, and kiss her, it was almost more than Genya could handle all at once.
She realized that her body had gone stiff from the shock of it all. She quickly relaxed into David, wrapped her arms around him, and returned the kiss with force. After all this time, she was finally living the fantasy of having all of David's attention on her, and it only happened now that her porcelain façade had cracked. Despite her marred face, one missing eye, horrific scars crisscrossing her skin, he was right here holding her close. She had never been more content that she was here in this moment and she kissed him deeper.
Then she remembered that they must be putting on quite the show.
When Genya pulled away, she had the widest, brightest, most genuine grin splitting her face. David's face was colored a scarlet red and painted with a shy smile. Genya decided she could get used to seeing him like this.
"We should get you out of the workshop more often," she teased, and his blush grew even darker. He was adorable. Not even Nikolai's somber reminder of her crimes could bring her down from this high, and she made plans to make sure she got David all to herself later that night.