This had never happened to Taro before, being caught after deciding to leave a 'friend' behind. His brother, ever the helpful guy that he was, had walked right up with Faina. Taro had suggested speaking privately considering he had been in the midst of helping organize a new shrine but it was only after a failed attempt at escaping that he was forced face to face with the leopardess he had most recently ditched.. and alone.
"Faina, it's nice to see you again," he said awkwardly, looking her up and down. She didn't look upset. This was a good thing, unless she was just waiting for a reason to lash out at him. Since this had never happened to him, he wasn't exactly sure what to expect but his ego almost hoped she would admit she was so devastated by losing him that she simply had to find him again .....
That seemed a bit ridiculous, even to him, though.
"Taro, you're an idiot."
Faina was more than happy to start strong and to the point, and though her words could be considered angry, her tone was matter-of-fact and she wore a pleasant smile. She had been expecting him to try and run off without actually talking to her and she was expecting him to try and talk his way out of trouble now.. but she also didn't really consider it trouble, not the way he did. This was inconvenient but she was her of her own will.
"Did something come up that you had to leave me so suddenly in the roguelands?" she asked.
Taro's ears flattened when she called him an idiot and he took a moment to try to figure out why she sounded so pleasant and looked so happy when she said that. This was a strange kind of angry, if that's what it was.. perhaps more frightening than outright yelling. She had always been like this, maybe her anger was more subtle than he could see just yet..
"Of course!" he said very quickly when given the opportunity to lie, "I mean, the trouble Yuu gets up to sometimes would surprise you- we had to go. It was such a shame we had to leave you behind.. but.. you found me."
He lost his conviction somewhere in the midst of his excuse, knowing it was a terrible lie and that she knew it. She had met Yuuta, that was a mistake he wouldn't make again.
Faina watched him patiently as he offered an extremely poorly thought-out lie as an excuse for why they had to jump up and leave so suddenly.. not only did Yuuta give a much calmer and less troublesome impression, he'd already said to ask Taro what the deal was. And that was far more believable.
"Yes, I found you," she said, "The two of you weren't very hard to track down, all things considered."
He stared dumbly as his mind went to work trying to find ways to get out of this.. it shouldn't be so hard to do, though he was far more the type to just ditch a girl without a word than have to struggle his way through actually saying he wasn't interested anymore. But it shifted very suddenly when he realized there had to be a reason Faina would come all this way after being left behind like that. Certainly he wouldn't have followed someone who insulted him like that.
"Why would you follow us?" he asked, and the words barely got out before one possibility struck him and suddenly, everything made sense: She didn't have to be angry, she had something to hold over him, something she could use to manipulate him. Or.. she could try, though Taro was already sure it made no difference to him.
"Are you pregnant?"
Of everything Faina had mentally prepared herself for in following after Taro, his last question- or accusation, it may well have been- was a complete surprise. Most surprising was the way he said it. He wasn't worried, he sounded.. exasperated.
"No, Taro," she said in a tired tone, "I am not pregnant."
She looked in his eyes as he stared at her, thinking about how sad it was that that was the best reason he could come up with that someone would follow him when he tried to leave. He had an ego, why wasn't he saying- or joking- about how she obviously couldn't live without him?
"Then why did you follow us?"
His tone was not improving much as the conversation went on. He couldn't help but look her over when she denied the pregnancy, even if it didn't matter much to him. Without that, there was no other reason he could imagine chasing after someone like him. She wasn't big enough to do much damage if she wanted to take a swipe at him, and since they were in a pride that would have been the stupid thing to do.
It just didn't make sense.
Decidedly ignoring his exasperation and confusion and now ready to get this over with rather than letting him make things more unusual, Faina shook her head and put a smile back on her face.
"I followed you because what you did was inconsiderate and disrespectful," she explained, still with a smile on her face, "If you want to leave me, you've got to tell me to my face."
Faina liked Taro and would give him another chance, there was more to him than he cared to admit or show openly.. but he had to want it. She was not going to force him to be her mate but if his tune was going to change after the time they spent together, he was going to tell her so.
If he was any good at face-to-face breakups, Taro would do far more of them and far fewer of this whole.. running away thing. Though, obviously, he had committed to less running away when he joined a pride. That might have been why he'd been doing very little flirting since showing up here. Now that he had someone here who demanded a verbal breakup, he wasn't sure how to proceed.
"I- uh-" he stammered, "But I'm in a pride now-"
Lame excuse, how did that fit into anything?
"I mean, you could stay if you wanted, I guess.."
No, that wasn't how you send someone away.
"Are you inviting me to stay here?"
Faina was surprised it was the first thing to come out of his mouth, though not surprised that it was said at all. She figured he had to be bad at this or he would have said something to make sure she didn't follow him before leaving, not after.
Now the burden was on her to decline and verbally end their relationship, should she decide that she was unwilling to join a pride. It was another attempt to avoid what she was after.
This was going to one of two ways.. either she would say she wanted to remain a rogue and she would leave, or she would accept his invitation and he would have lost his chance to get rid of her.
"If you wanted, I suppose."
He was never going to get rid of her.
It wasn't exactly an invitation to stay there with him and continue their relationship but it wasn't the breakup she had demanded for it to really end, either. They still had a chance, if she continued to be so patient and forgiving with him.
"I think I will stay, then," she said after a pause, smiling up at him. There wasn't anything else left to say to him now, though, so she turned herself around and walked off to find the appropriate person to talk to about joining.
For now, he had indeed failed to get rid of her.
Fin!