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[weboftime]

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[wishiwasatree]

"And my boys were alright? Kaz and Dorian?" she asks as she slips into the cabin. "They take care of you? Dorian didn't fuck with you, did he?"

Too much she means to say. Didn't fuck with him 'too much'.

[weboftime]

"No."

He sits down at his desk to resume his work.

"He got me drunk and we watched dinosaur movies."

[wishiwasatree]

"Got you drunk?"

She sits down on the edge of his bed to watch him fiddle with the rocks. She'll ask about those later.

[weboftime]

"Yes. He specifically wanted a sleepover. Then Jon came over."

He picks through the rocks, finding the best looking ones for his spiders.

[wishiwasatree]

That doesn't surprise her in the slightest. What does make her give pause is the fact that Henry apparently allowed it, but the mention of Jon derails her train of thought.

"Heard he left," she remarks, giving no opinion one way or the other. Not yet.

[weboftime]

"Yes. He left me his collection of Godzilla movies." He gestures to the drawers of his desk where they sit.

"I'm not upset about him leaving." Might as well get that out of the way.

[wishiwasatree]

“Alright, I hear you.”

She doesn’t say anything more. She’s been reading about this technique — maybe if she just gives him neutral statements he’ll volunteer information on his own.

[weboftime]

He narrows his eyes. "What are you doing?"

This is suspicious.

[wishiwasatree]

Fuck.

Well, maybe not all is lost? Maybe she can still spin this?

"What do you think I'm doing?"

[weboftime]

"I think you're trying something new you read in a book," he mutters, turning back to his spiders.

"I'm really not upset, Trixie. I'm - I don't know what I am. But I'm not angry that he left."

[wishiwasatree]

She glowers at him, but without her usual bite. Yeah, she's been found out, but Henry's actually talking to her. That's what she's going to focus on.

"There are more emotions than just angry or not-angry. What are you feeling? If you can't name it, can you describe it?"

[weboftime]

One of the spiders is coaxed onto his hand so he can switch out the rocks with the prettier ones he found in the cave.

"I wish he hadn't left. He was kind to me."

[wishiwasatree]

He's upset, that much is obvious, but there are nuances to it. Trixie watches him rearrange the spiders' habitat and leans forward a little.

"We humans call that being sad."

[weboftime]

"I know what sadness is, Trixie. I'm not completely hopeless."

The spider is deposited on the table.

[wishiwasatree]

"Didn't say you were. Sometimes it just helps to say it out loud."

She frowns and inches a little further away from the table.

"Is that what you're feeling? Maybe regret?"

[weboftime]

He lets out a very annoyed breath.

"Does the name of the feeling matter? If it's regret, if it's sadness, then what? There's no use to it beyond the label."

[wishiwasatree]

"When we name the feeling then we can take control of it. Figure out how to fucking go on from it."

She tilts her head.

"Ain't useless, promise."

[weboftime]

"It's not uncomfortable or unpleasant," he points out to her. "It just - is."

[wishiwasatree]

"But don't it feel bad?"

Because just 'is' isn't exactly how emotions work.

[weboftime]

"It isn't hurting me," he finally admits. "But there's nothing to be done about it. He's gone and he'll return when he wants."

[wishiwasatree]

But it's difficult not to be in control of it.

"It's alright to miss him," she says quietly. "And it's alright if you don't either. Just...glad you talked to me about it."

[weboftime]

He huffs. "You missed the port," he finally says to change the subject.

[wishiwasatree]

He can huff all he wants, Trixie knows progress when she sees it. “Guess so. Heard it was caves.”

She gestures to the rocks. “That where you picked those up?”

[weboftime]

"Yes. Zack let me off the ship and we went exploring."

And there's a bit more happiness in his tone. Something like true joy.

[wishiwasatree]

She can see that happiness too. It’s…oddly charming. Maybe he’d like to go out more into the Enclosure.

“What did you see?”