Anathema gives him his time and his space, much as one might a skittish dog. She goes to fetch the tea (an omnipresent accessory for her, to be honest) and a tin of slightly-stale cookies (they got a little old while they were away), and brings them back to the boy. It still feels so odd to look down at him rather than up.

"It's a full house now, somehow. I'm not that close to any of them, though. There's a bizarre guy who likes to float around and eat all our snacks, and an older actor, and a new guy also named Adam — I haven't even met him yet." In the grand scale of everything, going around and making her cordial hellos to the new housemate had fallen so far off the priority list that it had tumbled right off. There was still to much to wrestle with, first.

There's a pained look that flickers across her face. "If we had a spare room, I'd have wanted you to take it long-term. If you wanted."