Rannok made a point of dawning early the next day, before the little urchin got up and found her way downstairs. Not that he'd slept much, even less than usual with the new surroundings and the tree branches that drummed against his windows. When he looked outside, barely a sliver of sunlight peeked from between the trees. He rubbed a hand across his aching forehead as he crawled down the stairs. 

Rosa was already in the kitchen, boiling a big pot of porridge over the stove. The smell of it filled the entire kitchen and made Rannok suddenly aware of how dry the inside of his mouth was. He trundled over to the sink after digging around momentarily in the cupboards for a glass.

"You could ask instead of upsetting the order of my cabinets," Rosa said, looking up briefly from the pot of porridge. Her eyes were hard, and sent a slither down Rannok's shoulders. He shrugged, his wings brushing against the cabinet above him as he did so.

"I didn't want to bother you," he said. His hand found the handle of the sink pump and pulled. It hissed a few breaths of air before water began flowing out of it. He didn't look at her as he washed it down his throat.

"Well you failed there," Rosa said. A dry sort of sarcasm dripped from her voice. "Before you even came into the room, actually."

Rannok frowned. His eyebrows furrowed, which just made his headache worse. He was too tired for this shit, but chances are he'd be forced to indulge it anyway. "I haven't even talked to you."

Rosa laughed, but it was a rough sound that scratched on the way out of her throat. She folded her arms. "I can't tell if you are stupid, or really just as clueless as you seem. Do you have any idea how upset you've made your friend?" The last word slipped out like a curse, like it hurt to say. 

Rannok's mind turned over what she'd just said before the information settled, and his chest squeezed a little. "Yeah, actually, I do. I know she's mad at me, you don't need to remind me. Not that you should care." He sighed out his nose and wrapped his hand around the glass of water. It was hard not to think of her downcast eyes, or the quietness of her voice when she spoke to him, or the fact that it was all short, clipped phrases, like his presence bothered her. She'd scurried from the room when she'd seen him come in like he was a cat and she was a mouse.

"Everything that goes on in this kitchen is my business," Rosa said, the edge not dropping from her voice. Her eyes pinned Rannok to the place he was standing, impossible to look away from as she brushed a strand of greying hair back out of her face. "I would implore you to stop playing with that poor girl's heart like it's a toy." 

He blinked, then rocked back on the counter a bit. He rubbed his thumbs across his forehead, where it met his nose, trying to massage away the ache that still grew there. "What are you talking about?"

"The girl," Rosa repeated, as if it were obvious. "Your friend. Sasha."

Rannok raised his eyebrows. "Yeah. What about her?"

Rosa threw up her hands in frustration. "That girl is clearly in love with you, you ninny. And clearly you don't care enough to either let her go or figure how to be an adult about it."

Rannok's eyes didn't leave Rosa's, even though her words felt like a punch in the chest. He thought back to thunderstorms and clenched fists and soft words spoken in the dark. He thought back to running his hand through hers and wishing they were somewhere other than a makeshift tent made out of a piece of canvas that leaked. He remembered the smell of her hair after it rained.

He wondered how in the world any of that had been ambiguous at all. 

He wondered how she would ever think, even for a moment, that he didn't care about her. He wondered what else implicit gestures of affection didn't count towards, and it made his jaw clench, just a touch. 

This wasn't her fault. He shouldn't make it her fault. She'd come all this way for him even when she didn't have to. For a second, he considered how she must be feeling, and all the annoyance rushed out of him at once, in one big wave.

Now he just felt bad about it.

"But I thought—" Rannok paused and folded his arms, mouth still open. He didn't actually know what to think. He thought it had been obvious, how much he cared about her. Now that he realized it wasn't, a sinking feeling settled back in his throat. "I thought we were already--"

Rosa sighed heavily and closed her eyes, arms still folded, before opening them again, as if listening to him physically pained her. "Here's a clue for you, pipsqueak. Women don't know how you're feeling unless you tell them. There, and I didn't even make you pay for my wise advice."

Rannok blinked a few more times. It took him a minute to realize the sinking feeling was guilt. "Wait, so she isn't angry with me?" 

Rosa shrugged. "I mean, if I were her I would be, but there's this funny trick where you can ask her, and she will most likely tell you." She sighed again before turning back to the food she'd been preparing. "I don't know how you two haven't killed one another if this is how you normally communicate."

Rannok chewed his fingernail for a moment. He remembered all the times she'd asked him questions and he'd brushed her off because it hurt too much to talk about. The heavy feeling in his throat twisted into guilt the longer he thought about it. He wondered if that was how she usually felt, and it was all because he was too much of a child to talk to her. Well, he definitely needed to now. His wings drooped a little bit. 

"Thanks," Rannok said, before setting the glass back in the sink. 

"You're welcome," Rosa said. She stirred the porridge and ladled some into a bowl. It made a slopping sound as she set it down on the counter. "Get out of my kitchen, please. I have work to do and you are distracting me."

Rannok shrugged and squeezed back through the kitchen door, careful not to rub his wings up against the sides of it, then up the narrow set of stairs. Before he could make it to the top, a small, blonde blur came careening around the corner.

"Hi!" Adelaide shrieked, before grabbing hold of his pant leg. Rannok recoiled at the sound and resisted the urge to slap her sticky hands away.

"Hi," he grumbled through his teeth. He guessed he'd have to talk to Sasha later.