It wasn't like her, to act like this and be so blunt with someone she knew, but she was on the defensive at the moment. Cambria was sure that Mati hadn't come here to apologize or tell her that things weren't as they appeared to her. The girl's self consciousness had come crashing down on her the moment Mati had stepped away from her all those days ago and she had sold herself on the idea that it was impossible for the other fey to like her in the same way. Or anyone, really, for that matter. There wasn't anything spectacular about her. She was small and shy and timid and the only thing she seemed to be good at was healing. It wasn't a skill to be scoffed at, but she didn't think it was important enough to warrant another's desire for her.
Silence followed after she spoke and the awkwardness that lay so thickly between the two Dreamers seeped into her and made her skin feel like it was crawling. Cambi had been in her fair share of awkward situations, considering her shyness, but nothing that had ever bordered on this level before. It felt like no matter her efforts to lock her heart away and keep it protected it was still open and exposed in the Church female's presence. She couldn't hide her true feelings from Mati, it wasn't possible. Surprise coursed through her when the other said she did need her for something. That wasn't the answer she had expected. A little bit of courage seeped into her, but she wasn't able to actually look up at Mati's face until more words began to pour from her. When her gaze finally did lift all the way though, she saw shame and guilt where she had thought to see disdain. What was this?
The many times she had imagined this dreaded meeting, it had never gone like this. This wasn't the expression she had pictured, nor were these the words she had thought to hear. Her heart dared to hope again, perhaps she had been wrong. Cambria's eyes shone with her willingness to believe, to try and make things okay. "I thought," she started, her voice seeming choked off. "I thought you didn't want me...that you thought I was strange..." Even if Anu had told her there was nothing wrong with her attractions, that didn't mean that some people wouldn't take issue with it. She had worried that Mati had been one of those people.