"Nah, he just gets like that," says Tony. "It's not anybody's fault. He'll cheer up eventually, it helps if you're nice and don't bug him when he's not feeling talky."

"Oh. Okay. I guess it's good I found you first, then, I was going to ask him about it."

"I usually just hug him and tell him I love him and then leave him alone," Tony says cheerfully. "Your mileage may vary."

"I did hug him yesterday, but there was no declaration of love," snorts Bella.

"Hugs are still good," Tony says wisely. "Hugs usually are."

"Yep! He looked like he needed it."

"Sherry needs hugs a lot," sighs Tony.

"If only he'd be around to get them," says Bella.

"Yeah."

In the morning, there is no sign he was ever in the room.

Feral is at breakfast!

Okay! He probably can't help her with explaining her roommate but he is fine to sit with. She sits there. "Hi," she says.

"Hi! How're you doing?"

"I'm okay, but something's up with Sherlock, I haven't seen him outside of class since the evening before classes started and he's been unfriendly all of a sudden in classes. How're you?"

"Same old, same old," he says. "Wonder what's up with your roommate."

"Tony says he just gets like that sometimes, but that doesn't tell me what exactly 'like that' is."

"Hide-y?" suggests Feral.

"And uncommunicative, like, I wouldn't be dwelling on it if I never saw him outside class but he still talked to me in class."

Feral shrugs. "I've had moods like that too. It's probably not the same thing, though."

"What is it when you do it, then?"

"When I don't wanna talk to anybody? I dunno," he says, "I just... get fed up. Or scared, sometimes."

"Scared of what?"

"People," says Feral. "They can be pretty nasty, y'know."