Moonspear i need coffee in an IV

piper didn't need to be verbal for her assessment of him to be understood. arcturus could see it lurking in her kiln-fired gaze -- that pitying flash of contempt, the smugness of content superiority -- she looked at him the way a hawk might look at a mouse from a thousand feet away, engulfed in another, higher world.

his face darkened, for like most budding boys and young men, arcturus felt insecure in the face of a female that was decidedly not a doormat. he had never felt this way before; hydra inspired terror in him, lyra inspired worship -- and both of them, he firmly knew were his superiors.. so why did suddenly feeling inadequate in the face of this strange she-wolf have his legs all  a-jitter and his mind racing?

he didn't like this new feeling; he felt compelled to prove her wrong and to fight anything for her respect; he felt like pushing a mountain uphill so that she might validate him, and felt a wild hair stir along his back in rakish confusion.. and for all of these swirling emotions, he simply said nothing -- for he was stung into wounded adoration by her cruel tongue, as if he were a supplicant turned away by the very god he worshiped.