:Not exac– it's just, I had a lot of nightmares so I'm really tired, and I'm jumpy, I didn't want to - accidentally hurt someone in class...: 

:Oh, okay. I'll give you my notes later: And she attends to the lesson.

Ma'ar is there as usual at their next lesson, arriving early, looking a bit stiff and controlled but otherwise normal. He nods to her. 

:Feeling better?:

:Yes, thank you. Er, do you have the notes from last class?: 

She passes them over.

He flips through them for a moment, and then glances at her again, as though about to add something else, but the teacher chooses that moment to arrive. 

Ma'ar continues to look vaguely preoccupied through the opening class lecture. 

Well, if he's going to need notes for today too he'll have them.

:Aza: Ma'ar says, halfway through the class, when they're just finishing up a pair-work exercise (in separate pairs) and returning to their desks. :Can we, uh - talk? After class?: 

:Of course:

The rest of the class passes by uneventfully. 

Ma'ar waits for her afterward, just outside the classroom doors. 

She joins him. :What's up?:

:I, uh...: Ma'ar looks SO tense and nervous. :I - guess I wanted to talk to you about, er. About feelings: 

:About... feelings?:

He's glancing around, self-conscious, at the hallway around them. :Can we, er, go somewhere else: 

:...sure. Your room?: Is this the Revenge Of The Subtext. Is she about to have to figure out how to remind him that she hugged him once and it was a whole thing.

:Uh, sure, that's probably the most convenient: And he walks in that direction, glancing back at Azabel. 

She follows at her slow safe pace, blinking at him when he looks at her.

Ma’ar holds his expression level whenever she blinks at him. 

And eventually they make it back to his room and he shuts the door.

:I, er - do you remember when we talked about crushes:

She nods. It IS Revenge Of The Subtext, ahhhh, she does not know what to do with this.

:I, ummm...: A brief pause. :I - think I might have feelings about you -? But, uh, if you definitely don't have feelings about me, then - you should tell me now, all right? And I'll - decide to stop having the feelings, and we won't have to worry about it ever again...?:

Well that's a heck of a thing to say. :Um... I think you are making some... assumptions about how my feelings work:

Ma'ar mostly just looks startled. :...What sort of assumptions?: 

:Um, that they just sort of exist all by themselves instead of having to do with what's going on and what other people - say and do and think and feel:

:....I'm suddenly a lot more confused about how - emotions - work, but, uh...: Ma'ar takes a deep breath. :What sort of information do you need upfront from me so you can decide what your emotions are and tell me– uh, I mean, you don't have to tell me, but, you know -: 

Ma'ar trails off, intently avoiding Azabel's eyes.