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Teide just kind of... stared at Hyperborea as she appeared out of the dark, her mouth running. It seemed like the other girl had already decided this was a conversation in-progress, and it took her a moment to catch up and figure out what exactly she was babbling about.

"Uh," said Teide, looking down at the girl's bowed head. While she appreciated the sentiment, what Hyperborea was apologizing for wasn't the apology she'd wanted. It was easy to go home and think long and hard about bringing someone's dark and troubled past up and calling them a b***h and saying what she could only assume were horrible things about them in a language they didn't speak. If Hyperborea's apology sounded perfunctory, she could only assume it was because it had been practiced into submission.

"Okay," she said, biting her lip. That wasn't so much speaking with her, she thought, so much as speaking at her. "Thank you."

Personally, she thought Hyperborea had much more to apologize for. This was a start, but in Teide's opinion, it still showed a tremendous lack of self-awareness. "I'm not sure you're aware," she said guardedly, "but you're sort of an inconsiderate person in general. There are a lot of other things you've done that hurt me and I don't think you even realize what they were."

Teide pursed her lips. She didn't like that Hyperborea wasn't meeting her gaze - her Negaverse training, the part of her psyche that still lived and died by paramilitary order and organization, said that it was either a sign of cowardice or disrespect. "Could you please look at me when I'm talking to you?" she asked. The squire's lack of eye contact reminded her of... someone. A little cousin or something, maybe, from before. A child sent to time-out. If Hyperborea wanted to sit at the grown-ups table, she needed to stop acting like a little kid, thought Teide.

"The first time you met me as a squire," she said, once she was certain she had Hyperborea's attention. "You ran up and hugged me. I wasn't expecting it and - it wasn't okay. You're supposed to ask people. You're supposed to offer. Even little kids are supposed to be allowed to say no to a hug. You invaded my personal space and for all you knew I might not even have remembered you! You might as well have been running up to and grabbing a stranger."

She frowned, not sure if that was going to sink in. Teide continued, "And then when you did that, you knocked my crystal ball out of my hands because you hugged me so suddenly and you didn't even say sorry. You didn't offer to help look for it. I had to get down on my knees to look and you just stood there, talking. You didn't even stop to see what I was doing."

Maybe she was being harsh. Hyperborea was little, after all - still younger than she'd been when she was corrupted into Astrophyllite. Teide sighed. "I mean. I know you're trying," she said, trying to give some credit where credit was due. "With the French and stuff. But you still use it when you're trying to be vindictive. Like last time I saw you. I have no idea what you said, but you said it in French so it would hurt more."

She shrugged. "Or at least that's how it felt to me. Make sense?"

Teide sighed. Hyperborea's excuse seemed paltry given that she'd been right in front of her, and it hadn't been that dark. Hyperborea had been able to see her well enough to identify her, even in her changed form - but to not see her get down on her knees? In the middle of a conversation? She supposed she needed to let bygones be bygones, but... it was difficult. "Thank you."

She still stood by her defense of youma. Nothing she'd told Hyperborea about their nature was a lie, and there had to be a better way of dealing them than sending them back to the Rift over and over... but Teide was hardly a scientist of these things. It was true that they did terrible things, but you could do terrible things and still be tragic and deserving of pity.

Perhaps she could never expect Hyperborea to understand. It was hard to empathize with someone else's suffering when all you saw was the destruction that came from it.

"Maybe you should focus on talking less," she added gently, "And listening more."

She should have been firmer, thought Teide. Maybe was gentle, but it gave Hyperborea an out she shouldn't have been granted. It made her advice sound less important than it was. She needed to grow a backbone and stand by her words!

But she would not be doing that tonight.

She stared at Hyperborea's hand, considering. "Well," she said, "You came to apologize to me, and that took... humility." Hyperborea was young, she told herself for the umpteenth time. She was still learning. But why should she be allowed a learning curve that I never had? Teide wasn't supposed to be bitter anymore. She was supposed to be accepting... but it was so hard to do that when you were jealous!

Not that she'd admit that. There was no take-backsies on her past.

She shook Hyperborea's hand. "I accept your apology," she said, not mentioning the blank slate. There was no forgetting the slight, just moving on from it.

Teide nodded, clenching her teeth uncomfortably. "Okay," she said, brushing her hands against the front of her skirt. She felt... vaguely patronized to, although she knew she should stop taking everything Hyperborea said as a mark against her. New beginnings were easier said than done. "Good night."

She turned and hurried off - how could such a short conversation be so exhausting?!