"Mmmm." Coleman sighs and looks out over the horizon of endless sand. "Yeah, me too. Me too."

It is not the companionable silence of two friends enjoying company, but a quietness brought on by too much internal movement to bother with talking. Paper ruffles as Coleman flips through the drawings, considering and looking back and forth between Sasha and Ailee.

How long has it been before he breaks the silence? Is anyone wearing a watch?

Either way, he finally reaches a decision and nods to himself.  "How would you like to learn more about Sasha?"

The question is, like most things about Coleman, fairly blunt, but Coleman lets it hang in the air before going further. "I'm not sayin' that what you did's okay, right? Lotta trust to rebuild there. But you didn't know, and Sasha isn't fussin' like she would if someone she didn't trust got in there. And to be frank, some of these drawing's are fantastic.

"So, the way I see it--and I'll die before I ever say this again, so listen close--is that there are worse role models for godhood than you. And it'd be useful to have someone else understands Sasha, in case something happens. So I figure, so long as I'm around to supervise, maybe you'd like to learn some more?"