Her eyes were irritatingly distracting. Flashing between an irritated shade of bright tangerine and an exasperated orange as she paced through the east wing's conference room. Ever since Iko's repairs had been completed and the new, emotion-pigmented eyes installed, Kinney had known he was in trouble. He was finding it very difficult to focus on Iko's rant when he kept getting lost in the progression of colors in her eyes.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we're both here for Cinder—"

"Queen Selene." It was nitpicky, a deliberate egging on of an already agitated android. Kinney was finding that he was very good at that. Iko stopped, propping her hands on her hips as she turned to glare. The orange flared to a warning candy apple red.

"Cinder is our main priority. Our common priority. And if we're going to present a united front for the new Lunar cabinet and the rest of Luna in general, we can't have her chief counselor and her personal guard glaring at each other during every public appearance!" It was a valid concern. While the revolution was over, the reconstruction was just beginning. Selene had won the crown, but keeping it while under the scrutiny of a badly oppressed planet and fighting the bitter ire of a whole class of jilted nobles was going to be a much more political matter than getting it had been.

"You do realize you're glaring at me right now, right?"

"Arrgh!" The eyes were smoldering crimson now. Iko threw her hands up in exasperation and resumed pacing the length of the empty conference room, towering stiletto heels clacking a tense rhythm as she moved. "You are an utterly impossible man, you know that?"

"And you're an equally impossible machine."

She huffed a faint sigh, some of the anger draining away in favor of resignation. Her shoulders slumped and the bright, fiery crimson was suddenly tinged with a mottled purple at the edges. Like a painful bruise. A hurt that wouldn't be ignored, no matter how much she wanted to. "And that's all it really comes down to for you, isn't it?" Her voice had gone low, a little pained. "Because I'm a machine, it's okay to hate me."

Kinney shifted uneasily on his feet at that, suddenly feeling too warm in the heavy fabric of his uniform, choked by the high, formal collar. And maybe by the guilt. That...that was an unexpected result. Sure, she unnerved him. Confused him a little. Amused him a lot. But hate was a strong word for a strong feeling, and definitely not for the particular feeling he harbored for Iko.

Iko swallowed, pursed her lips, and Kinney thought that, if she could have, she would sniffled. He felt the sudden urge to say something, anything, to fix it, to take back the completely idiotic words that had just tumbled out of his mouth. She'd never responded to his barbs like that before. It certainly wasn't his intention. There was a moment of awkward silence as he pondered his options, broken only by the low hum of Queen Selene's voice in the next room over, where she was comming Emperor Kaito.

"I...um...I haven't seen your eyes turn that color before." That was innocuous enough, right? A quick subject change targeted at positive feature was usually enough to change the direction of an otherwise downward-spiraling conversation. He actually kind of hated that color now. This was the only time he'd seen it and the only time he'd seen the corresponding emotion from her; he wasn't fond of either.

"My eyes—? This is serious conversation, Kinney!" Okay. Apparently, that was a bad strategy with Iko. He sighed, shoving away from the intricately carved conference table he'd been leaning on and starting his own pacing circuit on the opposite side of it from Iko. She stared at him, eyes still the same hurt shade of dirty eggplant, but narrowed now in either annoyance or suspicion or both.

"I don't hate you." He finally said, quietly, nonchalantly, as if announcing that the weather was nice today. He wasn't sure— or at least couldn't admit—what he did feel. Certainly not to her.

"Well, you could have fooled me." Iko snapped and resumed her pacing, not in step with his, mind you, but still close enough to keep her gaze firmly on his face. Kinney didn't reply, instead focusing on the steady thump of his boots.

What could he say? He hadn't given her any reason to think otherwise between the sour looks and snide remarks. Of course, she usually gave as good as she got, but still. He'd started it. But...he'd never intended to make her cry. Or not cry, given that she couldn't, but it was close enough. Kinney paused, trying to formulate an appropriate response. Something apologetic, but not too...revealing. An olive branch, but definitely not a valentine.

"True." He failed.

Words were harder when they were sincere rather than snide. Iko just frowned again and stomped around to his side of the table, straight up to his face. Or more accurately, to the top of his head, since she was an inch taller than him in those particular heels. Her mouth opened, as if to spit fire, but Kinney interrupted.

"Your eyes are nice." That was better than 'true,' at least.

"What is it with you and the eyes?!" This time when she threw her hands up in pure exasperation, she nearly smacked him. Kinney ducked and Iko looked totally unrepentant as she leaned in close, stabbing a finger at the tip of his nose and growling. "Whatever it is that's wrong with you, get over it. For Cinder. For Luna, maybe, since that's so important to you. But do it sooner rather than later."

Silence reigned for a long moment as they stared, barely a finger's width of space between their noses. One of Iko's braids slid off her shoulder to thump into Kinney's chest, highlighting the rise and fall of his chest…and the absolute lack of respiration from Iko. He reached absently down and caught it by the tip, flicking it back into the blue cascade flowing over her shoulder and marveling at how something synthetic could be that soft.

"As you say, Madame Counselor." He murmured softly.

"Well…" She pulled away abruptly, surprised by the speed of his acquiescence. She straightened, brushed a few wrinkles from the full, swingy skirt of her dress, and gave a tight, authoritative nod. "Well, good. I'm…glad we had this talk. I think."

"What are you two doing in here?" They both jumped at the voice, whirling to see Queen Selene standing in the doorway with her portscreen tucked under her arm and a deeply confused look on her face. Kinney stiffened and Iko turned a gasp into a hasty cough.

"Nothing." The answer came in quick, perfect unison as both parties fled the premises, Iko to "check on the seamstresses" and Kinney to "patrol." Selene's brow furrowed, eyes narrowing with suspicion as she trailed after Iko. Nothing, indeed…