Heron Lake Plateau It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone,

He might've been invisioning things he shouldn't have been while staring at her. Stuff like, rolling around on a grassy knoll together, or staring up at the open expanse of a starry sky, or sharing a fresh kill, or (briefly) himself poised atop her like with Sorina —

but then she spoke. 

The words didn't register at first. He was smiling dumbly and letting the tip of his tail flick happily, and he took in the first name no problem. But as soon as she mentioned her surname it was like his expression melted from happy to no comprende, and then he was just kind of... Stepping back, reconsidering his decision to be so bold.

Like, sure, she was pretty, and she was interesting, and he might've still clung to the teenage ideals of screw first talk later (or so his thoughts indicated), but all of that paled before the fact that she was a god damn Blackthorn. There were so many of them, it was like they were being summoned from a deep dark pit — was this a joke? Did she already know who he was and - fuck - was she just trolling him?

You're - you're not really, are you? he asked awkwardly, smirking and trying to put on a, you got me! expression.