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[noburden]

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[noburden]

Jill, at least, has all of her clothing on right. She can tell that t-shirt is not the right way on, but doesn't say anything. She's too tired to comment on how he's a mess, because that will open a can of worms she rather not so soon after yesterday.

"Good morning," she echoes, lacking warmth. Torgal does not catch the bird, but he does find a tree to lift his leg up beside and let out a torrent of piss.

And while it's cold, Clive steps a little too close, and Jill takes another step just to have that much more space between them.

"How was he?" She asks, though she can already tell another night back at Clive's hasn't done much to help.

[rosarianoath]

He notes her coolness, her distance, and this time it does not surprise him, no matter how much it needles at him. He just nods.

"Noisy, unsettled, dissatisfied," he lists off, but there's no heat there. Annoying as it is, this is his best friend. "How long has it been? Three weeks?"

[noburden]

"A lifetime," she says quietly, answering a different question. She's lost all track of time since that night he told her he couldn't be with her. The ball hasn't helped matters.

"It'll be my turn again, tonight." Keeping Torgal is no punishment, but she's already exhausted. Tomorrow is going to be horrible.

[rosarianoath]

He's thinking it too. It has been a lifetime. Clive just stares across the field at Torgal, wondering how he could possibly explain this to a wolf.

"How long do you think he'll do this?"

[noburden]

"A few more exchanges, possibly..."

Which would be nearing a month. He wasn't even this troublesome as a pup, though they were often all together when he was that small.

[rosarianoath]

“I’m going to be clumsy with a blade at this rate,” he says, partly just thinking aloud. How did he manage like this when he was younger? He closes his eyes momentarily, as if to sleep right there. He can’t. “What if he doesn’t stop? He’s never been fettered like this before. It’s not in his nature.”

[noburden]

Jill frowns slightly. She nearly tripped over a crack in the sidewalk while on her way over. Clive might have a point, and it bothers her.

As hurt as she is, she'd never wish him harm.

"Then one of us needs to find a home out in the woods," she says for lack of better answer.

[rosarianoath]

Not a terrible idea either, but…

“Wouldn’t bode well for anyone,” he says. “Given what happens to people here if they don’t connect with others.”

[noburden]

She gives him a look.

"I wasn't serious. I can only imagine how much that would cost."

... and Clive is paying the bills. She should do something about that, because for all the time she spends at Dion's, money is still spent.

[rosarianoath]

A look is a look. He’ll take it.

“Whatever needs to be paid, I’ll pay,” he reminds her. “Though perhaps we could consider apartments in one building with a shared park, or a place with a yard for you.”

[noburden]

"Perhaps," Jill says, when really anything that draws them closer sounds like a bad idea. These past two days have already not been wise, as she feels her resolve shuddering under the weight of her love for him. She can't help it.

All she can do is remember the hurt, and how nothing about him has changed since. She's not going to stick her hand into the flames again and be surprised when it burns.

And yet.

"I need something to wake me up," she mumbles, rubbing her face. Her eyelids feel impossibly heavy.

[rosarianoath]

Her response doesn't feel very heartening, but then again, he couldn't have expected otherwise. More distance, he thinks.

"I can go get you a coffee if you want to stay with Torgal," he says. "Or we can walk together."

[noburden]

She looks at Torgal, who seems quite happy now that they've calmed down, ears up and tail slowly wagging as he waits for what's next.

It might be good for him to have them all together. If Jill gets a coffee out of it, even better.

"Let's walk there together," she says. "You should get one as well."

[rosarianoath]

"I should," he agrees. He's hoping to sleep this afternoon, but maybe –– just maybe –– he'll be forced to take an evening off of hunting. Torgal will need to sleep too. "Come on, Torgal."

[noburden]

Torgal barks in compliance and walks beside Jill as she starts off in the direction of the nearest coffee shop, hands in her pockets. She assumes Clive will follow, and she doesn't seem to have anything she'd like to talk about.

Jill's never been very chatty, but with him, she never had a problem finding something to say, and the silences never felt so heavy.

[rosarianoath]

Clive does follow, a step behind, periodically glancing at the side of her head. He wonders if he looked hard and long enough, he could read her mind, and figure out exactly what to say. She doesn't seem to want any of it.

He says, anyway: "Do you have any other plans for today?"

[noburden]

At least he's not bringing up the ball. Jill keeps her eyes ahead.

"Yes." So there will be no time to linger. She's going to get her coffee, let him say goodbye to Torgal one more time, and go. "I was going to see if Dion was busy."

It's the truth. Dion has proven himself a warmhearted friend, and so Jill tries not to show up to hang about only when she's in a poor mood.

But her mood is still up in the air as of right now.

[rosarianoath]

"Oh," he says. It is as carefully neutral as an oh can be. He says: "How has he been lately?"

Arms falling off and knuckles stinging, he hopes.

[noburden]

"I'd say quite well," she says, and leaves it at that. Honestly, she does think he's happier now than he was when she first found him here.

Jill didn't think that among the three of them, Clive would be the odd man out, but there's nothing to be done about it.

There's a silence where she would ask something in return, to keep the conversation flowing, but there's nothing she wants to know.

[rosarianoath]

Agonizing. He's loathe to keep asking about Dion but she's giving him nothing, and it's so isolating he feels he might as well be invisible.

"Good," he says, and he leaves it at that.

It's going to be a long walk.

[noburden]

He's about as invisible as a campfire in the dead of night, but she has to keep herself contained. She doesn't want to be cruel. She doesn't want to be too emotional. She doesn't know how to be a version of herself around him that he can tolerate.

"He's happy, at least."

She nods to Torgal.

[rosarianoath]

At least someone is. He exhales, long and slow, as quietly as possible.

"All he needs is some gazelle to prowl after and he'd be the most content creature imaginable," he remarks.

[noburden]

"Or monsters in the night," she supplies. All the more reason time with Clive makes the most sense.

[rosarianoath]

"Not quite as enjoyable as hunting for pleasure, but it satisfies him too," he says.

And when Clive is this tired, a wolf is one more thing to keep track of on the battlefield.

[noburden]

"He must wonder when we're going back home," she says quietly. She wonders that, too.