"Yeah, that could have come out better," I said. I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks, but I gave a little grunt of triumph as the knots came free and the bra fell from Valkyrie's wrists. "It's just that, it's not all that usual and, and... I thought you looked nice."

Now, normally I wouldn't have said something like that. That's what you call 'digging yourself deeper'. But when you are as disoriented as I was, having had my head bashed repeatedly into a support beam, you sometimes don't know which way is up.

I did have some sense that I'd said the wrong thing, though. And possibly my body tried to cover for me by sending me a twinge of pain in the vicinity of my ears. I winced and touched my right one tenderly. "Ow."