As she watched Sodalite go, ignoring her words, she felt her shame and regret turn into guilt. Then pain, a pain far worse than the worst of the burning sensations that came with the overuse of her powers.

And then she felt numb.

Everything she felt today, confusion, fear, anger, annoyance, regret, sadness, happiness, everything and anything, left in what seemed to be an instant, a weight lifted from her shoulders, leaving her numb to everything but exhaustion. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into the hole she had emerged from and sleep off all the nonsense that had come with today. And then, without the start she would've normally felt, she realised that it would be the first night in her short life away from the Kindergarten. Would the thought have made her sad? Excited? Frightened, embarrassingly enough? Whatever she would've felt, she wasn't feeling it. She felt nothing as Reggie sat down beside her and nothing as she listened to his words, responding to them with the same strange sense of detachment she felt while hearing them.

[color=fafabe]
"I'm not hurt, Reggie, sir. I hurt Sodalite. She had every right to react the way she did, and I don't blame her for it in the least. I'm surprised she took it so easily. So I'm not hurt by it. And as for whether I fix my screw ups, who knows. At this rate, hell if I know anything anymore. Today's been a mess and now my mind is a mess too." [/color]

A pause.
 
[color=fafabe]"I won't give up on her,"[/color] she said, absentmindedly taking the cigarette from Reggie without even looking at it, [color=fafabe]"But I won't blame her if she gives up on me. I know I would've. 'To hell with this bitch', you know?" [/color]

She let out a sigh and finally looked at the cigarette Reggie had offered. Not one thing she thought of could've explained how the hell this thing was supposed to help her, but she appreciated the sentiment and kind words too much to tell Reggie this. And then, her vision be damned, she could've sworn there was already smoke coming out of it. She felt once again. Shock. But then she blinked, and if there had been any smoke at all, it was now mixed in with the smoke Reggie had exhaled.

[color=fafabe]"We're pretty good at doing things that we'll later regret, aren't we?"[/color] She said after a while with a humourless chuckle, her gaze vacant, [color=fafabe]"Things that are bad for us."[/color]

She took the paper that Bloodstone handed out to them wordlessly, in the same hand as the cigarette, and somewhat registered his and Chromite's words.

Sleep. 

[color=fafabe]
"Sleep sounds great, regardless of whether I have suitable quarters or not, Chromite, ma'am," [/color]she replied,[color=fafabe] "You could stuff me back into Reggie's bag and there'd be no issue. Come to think of it, Reggie," [/color]she looked up at him, the first time she'd looked at anyone in the face since her statement on staying with him,[color=fafabe] "Isn't your stuff still down ther-"
[/color]

Her words cut off. Were her eyes deceiving her again? She blinked. No, still there. For some reason, Reggie was crying. And she couldn't help but feel bad. Even responsible. Sodalite's treatment was entirely unjust, but Reggie's was somewhat justified. And he accepted that so simply, not even caring about how angry she had been with him, and had tried to comfort [i]her[/i] despite this. 

Yet he was the one crying.

It didn't make sense.

Maybe he was the hurt one.

Maybe, somehow, she had hurt him too.

[color=fafabe]"...Reggie?"[/color] The hand that had been holding the now fallen note and cigarette was now gently squeezing Reggie's own.

[color=fafabe]
"What's wrong?"[/color]