mmm, pancakes

[pandion]

Andi is up first again the next morning. She pads downstairs.

Comments

[instar]

"Is the mutual not-getting going to cause problems?"

[aeskhyne]

"Who knows? I know I'm better about it since we talked. I guess he might be too. He likes my pancakes, anyway."

[instar]

"Yes. He does."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble shrugs. "That's all I got."

[instar]

"Okay." Bella writes something. "Thanks."

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah."

He is quiet for a moment.

[instar]

"Hmm?"

[aeskhyne]

"Mmmm... thinking about how we left off last night."

[instar]

"What about it?"

[aeskhyne]

"...You seemed kind of frustrated."

[instar]

"Yes."

[aeskhyne]

"You wanna say anything else about that?"

[instar]

"Not necessarily. What do you want to know?"

[aeskhyne]

"I don't know. I'm just trying to—" He shakes his head and starts over. "When you let loose on me about what a total shit you thought I was being, it made me really not wanna tell you any different. So now I'm... seeing if I can not feel like that."

[instar]

"I apologize for going off on you like that. It was against my better judgment and I will not repeat the mistake."

[aeskhyne]

"...okay," says Trouble. "I'm not sure I'm hearing that the way you mean it. Uh, thanks, I guess. But how much it helps kind of depends on what the mistake was."

[instar]

"I made a mistake in - managing myself. However I was feeling and whatever I saw and however much of a heel I felt like for being prepared to give Ax unpalatable instructions it didn't make it reasonable to yell at you about it - I mean, how you're feeling about everything matters too. Whatever I saw."

[aeskhyne]

"...yeah, okay," says Trouble. "That's - better than what I was hearing."

[instar]

"What were you hearing?"

[aeskhyne]

"Well - it sounded like it meant that you don't think any differently than you did, you just regret telling me about it. Without there being anything about my feelings mattering in there."

[instar]

"I'm still not sure what else I was supposed to think, at the time," says Bella. "But then you went and apologized, so obviously it wasn't as bad as I had been imagining."

[aeskhyne]

"...you could say that, yeah," says Trouble, looking at the floor with a touch of strain in his voice.

[instar]

[aeskhyne]

He looks up at her again, maybe a little wary, maybe a little sad.

"Truth is, you had one thing right," he says. "I didn't notice there was anything going on with Ax when I mouthed off and bolted. But it's not that there's some big thing where I don't care. I was just too deep in my own shit to figure out there was anything to see. I got it quick enough when you told me."

[instar]

"I'm... not sure I understand."