"All right, all right, go have fun. Thanks for helping."

"You're welcome!" Bounce bounce. "Obvioussly you figured it out, you're the sssmartesst!" He's so proud of his friend. "Want me to fly you home?" 

"Yes please!"

Then he can do that! 

She is very smug the next day; having gotten it down enough to avoid accidental mindreading even if she doesn't have her discernment perfect she spent all evening practicing on Ranara and thinks she has it perfect in both modes now.

Ma'ar notices this the next day when they're in class together. He arrives late, but can still reach out to her in Mindspeech. 

:- You seem really happy about something?: 

:I finagled Thoughtsensing-based lie detection! It went really fast probably because I knew the results I was looking for from the Mindhealing kind. I'll write a treatise on it as long as the book's on Urtho's desk for the time being:

:Wow! That's so impressive - good work!: 

There is, perhaps, the very faintest hint of distance or discomfort or something in that neighbourhood, in Ma'ar's mindvoice, but mostly his praise is very sincere. 

:Yeah, I beat Lionwind to it!: she says after a pause in which she decides not to pursue the discomfort.

:- You must've worked so hard: 

:I practiced with Skan till he was sick of it and then Ranara once I had it down enough that I wouldn't read her thoughts accidentally:

:Oh, good: Ma'ar says this sort of noncommittally. 

...she is going to focus on class now and maybe try to grab him after.

Ma'ar is also going to focus on class. 

He doesn't try to evade pursuit afterward; in fact, he sort of half-glances back at Azabel. 

"...Hey."

"Mmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes - maybe - I'm not sure..." He trails off, avoiding her eyes, and switches to Mindspeech. :I - wanted to say sorry. About snapping at you the other day. It was rude of me: Ma'ar isn't at all sure this is the right thing to say but he's had days to think about it and hasn't come up with anything better. 

:It's okay. I was really defensive and stuff:

:Mmm. Well, I - was defensive too, I guess, and I shouldn't've gotten upset, it just made it worse: 

:I wound up talking to Lionwind about it, I hope that's okay:

:Oh. Uh, that's fine, I - am curious what you said though: 

She can flip back to her notes on the conversation.

Ma'ar listens to her recounting of the conversation notes. He seems calm and thoughtful about it, with no current sign of defensiveness. 

"I didn't expect it to make you defensive," he admits. "So - I wasn't understanding you right and making good predictions. Which is bad and I - think I could do things better if I understood other people more. What do you think?" 

"I think you're right."