Zach stays focused on Sarah as Kiel gets up to get food. He can feel the man’s eyes on him, can practically hear the gears in his head turning as he processes this new side of Zach. It wasn’t how he was planning on spending this evening, that was for sure. Not only was he tired and hungry, but now he also needed to pay attention to an upset child and come up with some kind of backstory to explain how he’s good with children. Not what he’d been looking forward to at all. 

He smiles at the priest to show he’s fine with him leaving, but it slowly melts off his face once the man is out of the door. Yes, not how he had planned to spend his evening. Still, the child is innocent in this, and it’s not like he’s a bad improviser.

“Well then Sarah, seems like we have to entertain ourselves for a while.” He makes sure to mask the disappointment on his face as he turns to her. He knows he could try and ask about what had happened, but it’s unlikely he’ll get anything out of her in the short time they have together. Best to use the age-old tactic of distraction to try and lighten her mood a little. Perhaps if she feels more comfortable with him, it’ll impress Kiel and the evening might not be a bust after all. 

The girl seems in no hurry to talk just yet, though, but looks at him with big eyes from behind her glass of water. Pushing the matter will only make things worse, so Zach grabs his sketchbook from the bag and sits himself down on the floor so Sarah is able to peek over his shoulder if she leans in.

“We went to the aquarium today,” he chats airily, just filling the air up a little without pressuring Sarah to talk back. “I haven’t seen so many fish together in one place before in my life!” He goes on to describe some of the more interesting specimens, flipping through the pages to look at what he’d drawn. A smile creeps on his face when he can hear the girl shift around behind him to get a better look and he makes sure to hold the sketchbook so she can clearly see what he’s drawn. 

When she seems absorbed by his stories, he manages to surprise a small giggle out of her by describing how someone got splashed in the petting pool, and after that she’s confident enough to ask questions here and there. Eventually he ends up sitting on the couch with Sarah tucked against his side as they flip through some of the older drawings at well. She’s mostly silent as they look at delicate drawings of flowers and little songbirds, but speaks up as they pass by a drawing Zach had forgotten was still in there.

“Hey, that’s Kiel,” she says, looking up at him for confirmation. Zach hesitated slightly before nodding, even though it’s impossible to deny the subject of the drawing. He’d indulged in drawing the priest, he knows, but the moment had been hard to resist. Kiel had been reading in the garden with him, for once not looking at him from the corner of his eye. The sun had cast shadows of his lashes on his cheeks, and Zach had carefully traced the contours of his face so that he would do his cheekbones justice. Kiel in the picture looked serene, as he had done in the moment, and there was more… emotion in the piece than he’d been willing to show the priest. What could he say, it was in his nature to appreciate the beauty in people- and Kiel was very beautiful to look at. He’d meant to throw it away, but apparently it slipped his mind. 

“He’s very pretty,” Sarah shakes him from his thoughts and he doesn’t need to look at the child to know her eyes are on his face. 

“Huh,” he says as casually as he could manage. “I didn’t notice. It’s just practice, you know, like with the fish? Fish are more pretty to look at any-“ his casual façade falls flat when he slams the sketchbook shut with a guilty expression at the sound of the front door opening. He puts it down on the arm of the couch and quickly stands up.

“That must be Kiel with the food, I’ll go set the table,” he says before doing just that.