Waiting for the hint of a spark

[guardsintheory]

For almost a week, an apartment building across the street (and down the block, just a tiny bit) from the Kashtta Tower has played host to a rather tall, morose young man. He's been sitting out in the lobby, on a rather uncomfortable and heavy bench, for... pretty much the whole time. The second day, a pair of little old ladies living on the first floor noticed him, and coerced him inside to eat and use their bathroom, and when he went back out and fell asleep propped against the wall, they left him a pillow and draped a blanket over him. He has decided to come and check on them as often as possible, for being so sweet, even though he didn't speak the whole time, except the one bit where his girlfriend was there.

Now, however, Mat has finally gotten the stomach to stand up, exit the building in his dirty, blood-stained, rumpled clothes that he's been wearing since last Tuesday, and walk through the front door. He has to get Nate's things. He has to go back to the Gauche. It's the closest thing to a home that he's got, now.

He stops just inside the door with a lost, bewildered sort of look on his face, though. There appears to be a very shallow lake in the lobby.

Huh.