...oh no. She-

She should just leave before she upsets him any more.

(He asked her not to, but surely he'll have changed his mind now?)

She slides off the couch to curl against it, burying her face in her knees, and wrapping her arms around her legs, shaking.

After a minute or two he comes back.

"...Sorry, uh, I guess I still freaked you out..."

He sits down cautiously back on the couch.

"We should...teach you to read, yeah?"

She looks up at him, a little disbelieving, a tiny bit hopeful.

Than she shakes her head. "I- Don't...tease. too stupid. Know that."

He shakes his head firmly.

"Did they ever try to teach you?"

She shakes her head slowly (not entirely sure what the relevance of that is).

"If nobody teaches you how to read, you can't learn. You don't just...know."

"I- there." She shrugs a little. "They. Said I. Wouldn't. Be able. That I wasn't. Smart enough. And. I. Didn't- need to know." (She's speaking a little rapidly.)

This is so fucking awful.

"...I promise you're smart enough. Okay? Even...if you weren't smart at all, pretty much everybody can learn."

"I- don't want to- You-" She doesn't want to be...work. And surely teaching someone is work? But...

"If you don't mind?"

He nods.

"I definitely don't mind."

He hops up off the couch again and returns with a few pieces of paper and a pen.

"Uh...I'm probably not gonna be the greatest teacher, though."

"Prob'ly better than I am student," Blaze mumbles in response. (And then flinches realising that could be seen as an insult.)

He just laughs.

"I guess we'll see which one of us is more terrible."

He starts writing down letters, uppercase and lowercase side by side.

She shuffles over slightly to get a better view, almost inaudibly murmurs the letters she knows.

She is an attentive and focused student (and not nearly as bad as she seems to think she would be).

After a little while, though, she starts. "Y-You said you had. Shows? I-" (She's shaking a little.)

"Oh! Yeah, thanks for reminding me, I've got an alarm..."

He taps his phone.

"But I should probably set up just in case."

"...You did good, though. I'll see if I can dig up some real lessons before next time."

She blushes a little, ducking "I- next time?" She's something between bewildered that he'd do this again and hopeful.

He nods as he stands up.

"Tomorrow, if I've got a little time. That okay with you?"

"I- yes? Please?" Blaze agrees eagerly.

Nod nod.

"For sure."

He disappears promptly into his room, from which one can hear the sound of cleaning and, briefly, the moving of furniture.

She waits a few moments after he's gone before she looks around. Then, she gets to her feet, rolls up her sleeves, and sets about tidying up, and if she can find cleaning supplies, cleaning as well.

Cleaning supplies are conveniently stowed under the kitchen sink!

After a few minutes he pokes his head out the door, not really looking around, just to say–

"Oh, uh, earplugs are in the little box on the shelf if you want 'em. Sorry in advance."

–loudly enough for her to hear wherever in the apartment she is, and shut the door again.

She blinks. Decides that was...probably an instruction to put them in, does so, and goes back to cleaning. (She does, in fact, mostly enjoy cleaning.)

Provided nothing too disturbing happens, she'll keep going until the areas of the apartment she can currently access are immaculate.

Nothing too disturbing happens in an area of the apartment she can access.

There some noises of enjoyment(?) coming from the other room after a few minutes, though, and the volume is...considerable.

...she. Isn't sure what to make of that. (Doesn't entirely understand why he turned her down if...) But.

She resolves to ignore it. (For now.) Eventually the apartment will be clean. She pauses for a moment - Z had said he was, effectively, always hungry. She had, on occasion had to cook. She hesitates, and then investigates whether there's anything she could use to make a meal for Z for when he's done.

There's some staples in the kitchen: canned beans, pasta, a couple of jarred sauces, some sausages in the fridge along with a couple of vegetables at various levels of freshness.

He has a weirdly well-stocked spice cabinet, considering the general bareness of his apartment.