Aloy attempts to flirt a second time. Nil still doesn’t catch on.
Nil: What’s that gesture mean?
Aloy: Umm… it’s a heart.
Nil: A heart? [feral grin] Are you making a target for me?
Aloy: [lowers her hands sadly]… Why do I bother.
Tag: hzdedit
Headcannon: Aloy takes Nil out to battle a Stormbird in an attempt to show him how thrilling machine hunting can be. She doesn’t manage to convince him, but this is the moment Nil starts to realize he has feelings for her.
The Stormbird swooped low again, and Suntress rolled to her knees, ropecaster in hand, and tethered the bird a second time. The Stormbird collapsed again, and Suntress launched herself into the air and slammed the spear home in the bird’s side. The huge metal bird gave one last ear-splitting shriek, and a shower of sparks danced over its body as it died.
Suntress stood slowly, spinning her spear with a neat flourish before she slid it into its holder on her back. She turned to face him, and her eyes were blazing with a fierce joy, a grin on her lips. “You going to try and tell me that’s not a thrill?” she panted, then tossed her braids confidently over her shoulder. Then she wheezed a laugh and bent over, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.
Nil rose from behind the boulder and walked slowly towards her, speechless for once. He felt… something. A sensation he’d never felt before. It felt like a pressure in his chest and throat, a jolting feeling in his belly. Maybe the electric shock was making him sick.
Suntress looked up at him as he approached. Her forehead glowing with sweat, her cheeks and lips pink with heat. Nil felt another of those strange jolts in his belly as he looked into her hazel eyes.
He wasn’t sure what she saw in his face, but suddenly she was laughing, laughing so hard she couldn’t catch her breath, and she sat abruptly in the metal guts of the dead Stormbird and leaned back, clutching her abdomen with mirth. Nil had never seen her laugh before.
It was glorious.
The Sharper Edge of Love: Romance, Sex, and Fanfic 