- room 223 - wednesday afternoon - 02/10 -

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Fiona was in her room, putting together the notes she'd written on the reserves so that she'd have them ready for Arthur next week. She needed the distraction after today's class. And considering This Weekend.

[expecting one but open to all!]

Comments

[youcantfollow]

The thing about living practically across the hall from the girl he'd dumped in a fit of anger was that there was the occasional urge to stop and stare at the cracked door on his way back to his room. It was only a few extra steps after all and Griff was so damned curious.

Fortunately he wasn't stupid and kept his lurking brief and solidly in the hallway. Maybe no one would spot him before he turned to find his own room.

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Of course, while the girl herself was preoccupied, there was in fact a cat who knew Griff and could smell him even from the crack in the door. Usually the kittens didn't bother going outside, since their humans were good at keeping them scritched and fed, but Nyx was like her Mommy and thus pushed the door open with her paws to walk over to the human who had been Very Remiss in Paying Attention to her.

Which was when the meowing started.

[youcantfollow]

Outed by the cat.

So typical. A dog had done something similar years back, after all. Griff crouched down to murmur a quiet greeting and give Nyx a familiar rub behind the ears. It was kind of nice, seeing the cat again.

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The meowing caught Fiona's ear and she noticed that the door was a little more open than it should have been before she put down her pen and pushed open the door--

And was rather surprised to see Griff in front of her door, petting her cat. She swallowed hard before she could speak.

"Guess she missed you."

[youcantfollow]

"Rare thing, that," he answered, just barely glancing up to see how thoroughly screwed he was. Griff wished the cat was bigger and less adorable so he wouldn't seem like such a wimp crouched down to give it attention.

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Fiona just looked sad. She also looked well, a little unkept. She hadn't really done anything with her hair, she was wearing some of the formless clothing she'd come to the school with, and she hadn't put on any makeup. There were slightly darker circles under her eyes, but she had been getting sleep.

"Not really."

[youcantfollow]

Griff had meant for himself, not the cat.

And looking at her, he felt a wave of guilt, wondering self-centeredly if he had anything to do with her looking like hell. "You okay?" The question was out before he remembered he had no right to even ask.

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So had she.

"Not really," she said again. With everyone else, she'd tell them she was fine, she'd deflect, or do something else. She was tired of having something wrong and tired of having people listen to it. But Griff already knew about it all, so she wasn't really taxing anyone, was she?

She almost asked him in turn if he was okay, but he'd made it pretty clear she didn't have the right to be concerned about him and she couldn't work enough anger to challenge that.

"Did you want to see me? Or just walking to your room?"

[youcantfollow]

Clearly some part of him had wanted to see her, but right now he wasn't able to admit it, so he ignored the question, focusing instead on her.

"I'd ask if I could help," he said, standing up to nearly meet her gaze, "but I've likely done enough there already."

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Fiona bit down on the first thing that wanted to come out of her mouth and instead gestured to her door.

"Do you want to come in?"

Two could play at this 'ignoring the questions they don't want to answer' game.

[youcantfollow]

They had always been really good at not talking about things, after all.

Still, Griff was surprised by her invitation. "Yeah, alright." Enough that his reply was automatic and would likely be regretted by one or both of them at some point.

[cutsthestrings]

She reached down and picked up her cat, pushing open the door with one foot. She pushed it open far enough that the invitation was clear as she walked in, putting Nyx back down. The cat nonetheless hopped up and curled herself in Fiona's lap as soon as she'd sat on her bed.

"How're you?" she asked then. If he got angry, so be it.

[youcantfollow]

He followed her in and sat across from her on the bed. As awkward as being there was, he was going to roll with it. "Shit." At least he was admitting it now and not trying to be brave and strong about things.

"But it's okay, you know?" Griff had gotten used to it now.

[cutsthestrings]

No, she didn't think it was okay. She hated the idea that he was hurting and that they were going to sit here awkwardly, juggling her cat and Not Talking about anything of any substance. But she wasn't going to turn this into an argument. Emotionally, she just couldn't. And she wasn't stupid enough to try a full frontal assault after the kind of result she'd gotten last time.

"Yeah, kind of."

Especially since she was pretty much in the same state.

[youcantfollow]

"Haven't seen you out much." It was a lot like asking her if she had been avoiding him, too. Of course, without the actual asking.

Naturally, straightforward discussion was far too difficult to maintain.

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Or maybe it was too simple. After all, there was a kind of skill to the way that they neatly avoided topics, leaped over difficult moments, ran full tilt past things that needed dearling with... like emotionally ridiculous parkour.

"I haven't been out. Been doing homework."

Self-assigned homework. He might see the evidence on her desk, from the various books that had been pulled out and replaced, not to mention the stack of mythology texts besides her bed.