"Not," she opens her mouth and taps her upper teeth, off to the side a bit, "this?"

"Did you have braces, when we were in school together?"

"No," she sighs.  "I think it would be pretty obvious if you did know it."

What a stressful thing for her to say.  Not even because of the fact that whatever it is seems important, either.  Just, Ari has found herself in enough positions where people thought things should be obvious that definitely weren't that she doesn't trust it.  Whether because of a shortcoming in her own, very fallible memory, or the fact that she can sometimes be very dense, or because they were actually bad at predicting stuff.

"Well.  If you say so."

"You don't sound very sure."

"I'm not!"

Hana considers this for a moment.  She sits up.

She - very slowly, giving plenty of time for her to move away,  reaches out and takes Ari's wrist.  She, clear and precise in her mindfulness, brings it towards her, and up, in front of her mouth; her breath is warm on its inside.

She does not break eye contact the entire time.

"I guess not."  She gives Ari's hand back.

no take it back that was so hot  Hopefully that thought didn't show on her face.

It kind of looks like some of it might have shown on her face, given the fact that Hana takes Ari's hand in both of hers.  Although, it's rather less . . .dommily, this time.  She starts massaging it, though.  That might make up for the lack of piercing eye contact.

It kind of does, which is weird.  She doesn't recall having had a hand massage before; are they always this . . . this?  She's not getting all melty like Hana was with the hair, but there is absolutely definitely something to this.  Is that normal?  Have hands always been like this?  She feels like she should have noticed, if they were.  It's very interesting how the hairpetting made Hana go basically unconscious and not really noticing things while Ari kind of feels like literally all of her attention is just located in her hand.  She doesn't feel melty at all; she is in fact concentrating quite hard on keeping completely still and - she wants to give off a relaxed vibe but she in fact doesn't know how to just rest her hands without holding them in some sort of place, so she's trying very hard to put them where they would probably flop if that was a things she was capable of.

(It kind of sucks that she can't just turn off her brain and enjoy things.  But like, wow, this sure is still an experience even with the background noise, huh.)

"Now the other one?"

Oh yeah wow, she has a whole 'nother hand, doesn't she.  She trades them off.

The lack of new sensation in the one which had previously been getting all the attention feels very strange.  She shakes it out and presses it to her side, between her ribs and her other elbow, which seems to help.

"You're okay?"

"Hm?  - Yeah, I am.  Uh, thanks for asking, though."

"Good.

"Good girl."

- She instantly looks very embarrassed and like she regretted saying that immensely.  Her hands still, but she doesn't move them away.

Ari is herself blushing pretty hard!  She stutters out a few syllables none of which are particularly coherent.

"I'm so sorry," she rather squeaks.  "I'll just um - "  Dropping Ari's hand, she scrambles back to the other end of the couch.

"It's, uh, fine - "

"It really isn't.  Even if - that's - it's not something you can just say, to someone you know as well as I know you."  She pulls her knees up to her chest.  "Or to - someone who's being paid to be here and not for that."

"I . . . didn't?  Mind?"

"It's not about that.  It - is wrong to act certain ways, with people you have any sort of power over, and saying that sort of thing to someone you haven't very clearly established that it's okay with in advance, especially when that person is your cleaning staff, is very definitely one of them!  Even if they ended up liking it!  - Or . . . not minding it."