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Through the portal to Deus Ex, past the beach, down the path to towns, and one step over the threshold of their home found them at the more accurate end of their mission, and Mimsy had not stopped kicking and crying out in frustration all the while. She clung fiercely to his coat through the throes of her tantrum, though yanking on it did very little, much like all the rest of her ill-conceived efforts to stop everything until it all felt right again. Until Robert would celebrate with her.

When he finally set her down, she clenched her fists and held her arms rigidly at her sides. For a fleeting moment, she considered saying nothing, favoring the idea of removing the bracelet that identified her location and storming off to regroup (or sulk, namely). She evaluated the merits of holing up somewhere to formulaically solve the question of precisely what she had gotten so wrong, aside from the single miscalculation that she had already pinpointed. She thought about these things, humored them, but ultimately knew that none of them were what needed to be done.

This was not a problem to approach alone.

"I want you to be proud," she muttered, oozing with truly melodramatic levels of gloom. Her eyes found his, and didn't move once they had. "You were supposed to be happy."

The sound of the scissors striking the floor elicited a flinch--didn't he know how important they were to her?--and Mimsy's stare almost faltered as she grappled with the urge to look at them, to pick them up and keep them close to her again, somewhere they would be safe again.

She pettishly snorted and tightened her fists in protest of being placed in such an uncomfortable position.

As her lips parted to make several strongly-worded remarks about this, she was prevented by a particularly impassioned kiss. Her eyelids felt heavy with the intoxication of such a sudden influx, and she kissed back, eagerly sharing in the energetic force of his emotions. Then he stopped too soon, and her eyes shot open again, wide and blatantly affronted.

"I do not understand, Robert." It was an honest statement, not meant to divert or misdirect, and it was evident in her expression when it finally began to soften. "When I first pierced your shield with these very scissors, you kissed me for the first time. When I used them defensively during your initial attempt to unbraid my hair, you gave me more than a kiss. And now--."

She tilted her head and raised her brows, presuming that he could remember what had occurred only a few seconds prior.

"My confusion, in short, results entirely from conflicting information. You provide a verbal indication that you are displeased with me, but you physically indicate..." With a touch that began light and steadily increased in pressure, she placed her palms on his chest and moved them upward, until her thumbs could feel the direct pulse of his heart.

This time, she couldn't help herself - she tore her gaze away to look at the place her thumbs brushed fondly over, and seemed much calmer when she looked back up again.

"What do you want, Robert?" Past all of the confusion was something receptive, and a curiosity that never went away. "What do you want of me? What do you want that mark to mean?"

Telling her that the difference was not obvious was an unnecessary waste of breath, as Mimsy had definitely figured that out by now. She appeared a bit exasperated in response, but withheld her remarks in hopes that the explanation he went on to provide might illuminate some missing pieces of this puzzle.

It didn't. Not in regards to the scissors, at least - he'd shifted problems entirely, and she now found herself sifting through the complexities of one that she had filed away for the moment.

"All right." She turned her head towards the scissors and faintly sighed, fingers twitching with an ache to return them to where they belonged. "I trust you. I apologize. The necessity of protecting Shu under ALICE's task incited an urgency that was, perhaps, not entirely rational. It was not my intention to prioritize this task above us - I admit that I misinterpreted your actions, and believed that you were doing the same. I believed that you were challenging me without reason."

The first few times that his hands passed over her hair caused her to flinch, but the reflex soon subsided as he continued to speak. This wasn't a punishment. He knew what it meant for her to not understand, and he was still trying.

"Be selfish." Her fingers curled around his hands, and she looked at him with a crooked grin and the look of one who was sharing a particularly cruel joke. In truth, it was difficult for her to continue presenting the cool, reasonable appearance, and her hands trembled as the thrill of all subsequent possibilities overflowed its containment. "Defend what is yours. Assert your claim. Feel everything that I make you want to feel."

The smile looked almost pleasant as he kissed her hands, and she looked almost normal. Almost sane.

"But it is not crazy, Robert. Don't be so silly." The smile grew cheerful, artificially warm, but practice had not yet made perfect. "It is the most sensible of feelings. Why would you not feel this way? This is precisely how a relationship should be. This is ideal. If everyone knows what is yours, and what is mine, we will have no cause for concern. See? Very rational, isn't it? We teach them all what they are not allowed to touch, and if they choose to challenge it, then they can discover the consequences of their actions. A simple case of cause and effect. Action, reaction."

She leaned in to kiss him, and still continued to smile.

"That does not sound crazy, does it?" One brow arched with the inquiry. "In fact, I would venture to state that your present actions and decisions are among the most sane that you have made in your entire life."

As Mimsy watched his anger recede, the smile fell into something more genuine, readily showing her relief whether she wanted to or not. The kiss drew only a giggle out of her, but the actions that followed earned a gasp and an outburst of laughter, increasingly more wild and erratic as she gave up her attempts to restrain herself. If she could continue to redefine sanity to everyone...why bother?

Her hands folded neatly to rest behind his head, and she leaned back enough to give him a playfully stern look.

"Robert. The laws of motion were among the first lessons in physics that I gave to you," she chided. "Surely you have memorized them by now. It is not very--difficult."

They had been together long enough for her to know the importance of phrasing quite well.

She shifted until her chin could rest on his shoulder, stealing another glance towards the scissors on the floor before she contentedly closed her eyes; and as she pressed her lips against his neck, they curled into a satisfied smile.