I nearly fell over in shock. "Did you just admit I might be right about something?"
His mouth twitched in an almost smile. "Don't get used to it."
I laughed, genuinely delighted by this tiny crack in his perfect Bureau facade. On impulse, I gestured to the Emotion Mirrors. "Your turn."
"Excuse me?"
"Touch one of the flowers," I challenged. "Let's see what colors you get."
Fenric stiffened, his momentary openness vanishing. "That would be highly inappropriate and entirely unnecessary."
"Why? Afraid of what it might show?" I raised an eyebrow. "Come on, I showed you mine. It's only fair."
"Bureau agents are not required to participate in emotional reflection exercises with their charges," his tone was stiff and stuffy again.
"This isn't about Bureau requirements," I crossed my arms. "This is about two people sharing an experience. Or are you too scared?"
His eye twitched at the accusation. "I am not scared. I simply prefer to maintain appropriate professional boundaries."
"One touch," I narrowed my eyes. "Five seconds of your perfectly scheduled day. Consider it part of my emotional regulation therapy, it would make me happy to see you participate."
Fenric looked like he was undergoing some intense internal struggle. Finally, with a sigh that suggested he was agreeing to torture rather than touching a flower, he set his tablet down on a nearby bench and approached the bed of Emotion Mirrors.
"Five seconds," he glared at me. "And this will not be included in the official report."
"Deal," I agreed, hiding my smile.
With obvious reluctance, Fenric reached out and briefly touched one of the crystal flowers with a single finger. The effect was immediate and, frankly, stunning. The flower filled with a rigid geometric pattern of deep blue and silver, exactly what I would have expected from him, but then, to my astonishment, threads of fiery red and warm pink appeared, weaving through the orderly pattern like rebellious streaks.
Fenric snatched his hand back as if burned, but not before I saw the colors clearly.
"Well, well, well," I couldn't keep the triumph from my voice. "Looks like there's more to you than regulations and protocols after all."
His ears had turned bright pink again. "The flowers are obviously miscalibrated."
"The flowers don't lie," I countered. "What does red mean in this context?"
"It's irrelevant," he picked up his tablet, clutching it like a shield.
"The red represents passion," came a melodic voice from behind us. "Deeply buried, perhaps, but very much alive."
We both turned to find an elderly dryad tending to a nearby plant bed. Her skin was the color of birch bark, with delicate green leaves growing along her arms instead of hair. She smiled knowingly at Fenric, whose blush had now spread to his cheeks.
"The flowers are perfectly calibrated," her voice was like rustling leaves. "They simply show what is, not what we wish others to see."
Fenric looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. "We should proceed to the next area," he was already turning to leave.
I thanked the dryad and hurried after him, unable to keep the grin off my face. "So, passion, huh? What are you passionate about, Fenric? Color-coding? Alphabetizing? The perfect crease in dress pants?"
"This line of inquiry is inappropriate," he began to walk faster.
"Oh come on," I caught up to him, ignoring the twinge of pain in my knee. "You saw my emotional state. It's only fair I get to ask about yours."
He stopped abruptly, turning to face me with an expression I couldn't quite read. "What do you want me to say, Winter? That beneath the protocols and regulations, I'm actually a chaotic mess of feelings and desires? That I maintain rigid control because the alternative terrifies me?"
I blinked, taken aback by his sudden intensity. "I... I was just teasing."
"Of course you were," he sighed, running a hand through his silver-blond hair, the first time I'd ever seen him disrupt its perfect arrangement. "You humans always think emotion is something to celebrate, to indulge in. You have no idea what it's like when that emotion can literally tear reality apart."
