mmm, pancakes

[pandion]

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

Comments

[instar]

"So - when it looks like you're being a jerk I can probably call your attention to it less shoutily, huh?"

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah," he says. "And maybe it'll be that I don't care, I don't guarantee I'm gonna care about every single thing you think I should for the rest of forever, but maybe it'll be that I was too busy being wrecked about something to notice."

[instar]

"Are you still? Wrecked?"

[aeskhyne]

He smiles crookedly. "Little bit, yeah. Going to talk to Ax was - not trivial."

[instar]

"I couldn't tell that either."

[aeskhyne]

"I know. That's kind of a thing with me. When I'm scared and living in my head like that, I'm not gonna let anybody know until I've got through it a little. Because it feels safer that way, you know?"

[instar]

"I guess? I don't know, I don't have a thing like that."

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah," he says, "that makes sense."

[instar]

"Well, you - talked to him anyway, which was good, the house is still standing, you have not been slain in a tail-blade duel, etcetera."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble laughs. "Yeah, that's a start."

[instar]

Bella grabs her notebook. She writes something down.

[aeskhyne]

"Mm?"

[instar]

"Loosely - that there is room for more charitable explanations around you than I briefly believed."

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah, okay."

[instar]

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

[aeskhyne]

He shrugs. "Nah."

[instar]

"Okay. Thanks for clearing this up."

[aeskhyne]

"You're welcome."

[instar]

Bella writes inscrutably.

[aeskhyne]

This time he doesn't ask. He just sits there for a moment longer, and then gets up and wanders off.