The Tangle it is what it is til it ain't anymore

They tumble away from the ledge, and she does not allow her legs to collapse. Though she trembles with a belated rush of adrenaline, she remains standing, shaking off the dark cloud that nearly dragged her toward the very fate she meant to escape. If she wouldn't let him destroy her for the good of her family, she would not give up at a cliff's edge.

Shige's snap startles her. Saoirse looks at him with surprise, and her conviction wavers. Suddenly all she can see is her best friend, dragged from his comfortable home and everything familiar to him, and she knows with a deep certainty he resents her for it. Why shouldn't he? After all, he's now risking his own life to save her skin when for several heartbeats, the space of a single breath, she hadn't wanted to be saved.

She deserves his anger. Saoirse looks away, ears flattened, and braces herself against it, bowing her head contritely but expecting that he would continue to take his temper out on her. In a way, it is familiar; she has always been a failure.