[Capfox] It's the morning of Tuesday, April 27, and the sun is lighting Kyon's room enough from the outside to give it a healthy glow. He rolls up onto his side on the futon, and looks across the room at Katie, sound asleep still in her own. He managed to get back to sleep again pretty easily after she came in last night, but it's still morning. Morning calls for yawns. But Katie still sleeping calls for quiet yawns. He presses himself up quietly, wearing a heather grey Lions shirt and black shorts trimmed with orange, and slides his door open. He pads quietly down the hall into the kitchen, and gets to throwing together a healthy, easy breakfast. The rice is already ready, since he sets that last night, but he quickly grills up some fish, puts together some miso soup with tofu and wakame and green onions, puts some pickled vegetables on a little plate, adds some furikake to rice bowls, puts some hot water in a teapot, and then sticks everything on a tray. The grilling is simple and fast, and everything else was easy to make, so the whole process doesn't take too long. Then he carries it back down the hall to his room, and steps back inside, looking to see whether any of that ended up waking Katie up. --- [Ardweden] Katie is stretching and yawning, having just sat up, and blinks sleepily at Kyon when he walks back through the open doorway. Her bangs are sticking in some interesting directions, and her sleep shirt is rumpled. "Morning," she says. --- [Capfox] Kyon nudges the door open more widely with his elbow, and steps into the room. "Morning. Did I wake you?" --- [Ardweden] "Little bit," Katie admits as she wipes at one of her eyes with the palm of her hand. "It's okay." And then: "Is that breakfast?" --- [Capfox] He smirks back as he nods curtly. "Thought I'd do more than just toast." He walks into the room, setting down the tray, then going to pick up the low table and draw it into the center of the room. --- [Ardweden] "Hey." It comes out almost as a whine as Katie scoots over to where she figures the table will end up, taking her blanket with her. "Toast is great. You can put peanut butter on it." --- [Capfox] Kyon snorts. "Doesn't sound like a plus to me." He sets the table down in the predicted place, and then picks up the tray and lays it down in the middle. --- [Ardweden] Katie snorts. "You are *so* not American." She makes herself comfortable at the table, wrapped in her blanket as it is. It's not even all that cold. "I'm going to figure out how to make peanut butter cookies, and then maybe you'll like those." --- [Capfox] "Welcome to try. Not a huge oven, but should be enough to do some, if you're patient." He sets down a pair of chopsticks on her side, and then settles down back on his, adjusting his futon so it can serve as a cushion. --- [Ardweden] Katie waits for Kyon to settle in, then says, "Itadakimasu" (something she picked up after living with him long enough) and goes for her bowl of soup. --- [Capfox] Kyon echoes her, and then takes up his chopsticks and grabs one of the pickles before asking, "Sleep okay?" --- [Ardweden] Katie makes a small 'mm' noise around her soup, then swallows. "Yeah, once I was in here." She looks down at the bowl. "Thanks." --- [Capfox] Kyon nods back at her, crunches the pickle, and then says, "Welcome." A beat, and then, "Doing that regularly now." --- [Ardweden] Katie winces slightly. She doesn't look up, curling her fingers around the bowl and rubbing at the surface with her thumb. "Sorry. I don't have to." --- [Capfox] Kyon frowns, and reaches for a piece of fish. "Not my point. I meant, it's really regular. Like once a week, more or less." He frees the piece with his chopsticks. "Which to me says either the problem builds up over the week, and then you need an outlet. Or that you'd do it more, but you're rationing it. Either way, should talk about it." --- [Ardweden] Katie flinches again, this time much more obviously. She curls into her blanket, pulling her arms under and folding up her legs, leaving her soup and breakfast behind. --- [Capfox] Kyon watches this, and then says after a beat, "Too much for first thing in the morning?" --- [Ardweden] Katie doesn't uncurl. "No." Her gaze is fixed on the food on the center of the table. "It's..." She stops, then starts. "It's not like- it's that much worse." "Or any worse," she continues. "Really." --- [Capfox] "Right," Kyon says neutrally, and eats the fish. He watches her for a beat, waiting to see if she'll continue. --- [Ardweden] "So it's not..." Katie hesitates, then tries: "I don't want to bother you. All the time. That's not- how this was set up." --- [Capfox] "I thought we set it up so that if you need to come talk with me, or wake me up, or come stay in here, then you do it." He takes a sip of his tea. --- [Ardweden] "N- yes." Katie lets out a breath. "But I feel... bad? All the time. I have nightmares a lot. I thought, if I could deal with them- I mean, I have." She tries looking up at Kyon's face now. "I have, you know? Before this arrangement. Before I started living here." She swallows. "Usually, when I come in, it's not that much worse than it is other nights, so..." --- [Capfox] Kyon watches her for a beat. "But it's better when you're in here. You don't have them as much." --- [Ardweden] Katie nods, a tiny movement of her head, and curls up some more. --- [Capfox] "So then we should try doing that more. See how that goes," Kyon says, in the same neutral tone. "Any reason not to?" --- [Ardweden] "No," Katie says in a small voice. "But I wanted to get better." --- [Capfox] "Could be part of that process," Kyon says, and takes up some rice. "Still have road trips. Still going to have times I'm not here, and you'll be on your own. If this really helps, you could save your strength for those times. When this isn't an option." --- [Ardweden] Katie sucks in a breath. But she nods. --- [Capfox] Kyon cocks his head, and looks at her, reading her expression. "You know if I offer to help, I mean it. Right? I wouldn't offer you something I didn't think I could give you." --- [Ardweden] Katie nods. She's still curled up, which means she's retreating inward, but she's also answering his questions without much of a fight. So she's feeling scared and also vulnerable, and given her responses, is also probably feeling quite uncertain - maybe about how Kyon will react (now or later?), or maybe about what the right thing for her to do is. --- [Capfox] "So you think it'd be helpful, and I'm good with it," he says. "What are you worried about, Katie?" --- [Ardweden] "Just-" Katie stops, looking somewhere past Kyon, then back at him. ""You'd see how messed up I am. And get... I'd be too much work." --- [Capfox] Kyon raises his eyebrows, and then smirks. "I look like I'd judge you for how messed up you are? After you've heard all my stuff?" --- [Ardweden] Katie laughs a little, uncurling slightly. "Yeah, but you don't need to hide in someone else's bedroom." --- [Capfox] Kyon shrugs quickly. "Not worse. Just different." His smirk grows a bit rueful. "I'm the one who wanted his girlfriend sleeping in a different room to begin with." --- [Ardweden] Katie shakes her head. "It's okay. I didn't expect anything different." She uncurls some more, reaching over to get some fish and rice. --- [Capfox] Kyon uncaps his miso soup, swirls it, and takes a sip. "Not better," he says. "Just means you priced my problems in. And it doesn't mean we can't adjust." --- [Ardweden] "I guess." Katie succeeds at getting both fish and rice, drawing the plate back to herself and picking up chopsticks. "How?" --- [Capfox] "Like this," he says, gesturing with his chopsticks at both of them. "Move slowly. Figure out what works. Keep adjusting." --- [Ardweden] Katie nods. "So I'll just..." She trails off, the start of that sentence hovering for a moment, and puts some food in her mouth. --- [Capfox] Kyon takes more pickles, and then some more rice. No reason to charge in and fill in what she's thinking. --- [Ardweden] They eat in silence for about a minute, then, and Katie pokes at what's left on her plate, making a chopstick-sized hole in the fish. "Should I start here? Or try not to worry about waking you up and see..." --- [Capfox] "If you think you'd do better just starting here, then start here. Not like it's been a big problem falling asleep with you in the room so far." --- [Ardweden] Katie laughs, a little. "I guess it's not *that* gradual then..." She glances up at Kyon. "Okay." --- [Capfox] Kyon nods curtly. "Right. So we try it, and then we see how it goes. Best approach, anyway." --- [Ardweden] "Okay," Katie says again, and then lets out a long breath that maybe she didn't now she was holding. She eats the last of her fish, then gets more to put on top of the rice, and a couple of pickles. "How are you doing?" --- [Capfox] Kyon smirks. "Slept fine. Good breakfast. Cutting deals. So nothing's wrong." --- [Ardweden] "Cutting deals." Katie rolls her eyes. "You're ridiculous." But her voice is fond, and she is clearly starting to enjoy her breakfast. --- [Capfox] Kyon snorts a laugh, and takes the rest of the fish. [End!]