He straightens up from the counter, raising his hands free so he can move them, and hesitates again. They have multiple silent signals between them, not just a formal language but an evolving system for communication for just the two of them to add onto the universal cues, so it's not like it's new. But this is something else, something from the vault that is Alec's heart.

The signal he shows Lark is not one that has ever turned up before; like everything about the transgenics under scrutiny, it's subtle, not much, a hooking, twisting motion with a finger as it disappears into the palm.

Alec watches himself do it, a little halting at first like he has to remember how, although he doesn't; it's smoother when he repeats it, and smoother still a third time before he looks up at Lark again, lips quirked.

"You and I use some wolf signals. I thought - if you wanted. This is something we used to do."