It's a nice library, especially for such a small town, with plenty of everything, but a focus on science and poetry, a well-appointed children's' section, a nice selection of music and holovids, and comfy chairs offering varying amounts of privacy.
Right now, though, it's closing time; the announcements have been made, the final checkout rush handled, and now the librarian is making one last check before she locks up for the night.
"Okay." She signs again, and leaves the door open as she approaches him. "Hey," she says, softly. "You did something really hard just getting here, it's okay that you need some time to recuperate. It doesn't mean you're bad, it just means you're human. Just give yourself a couple of weeks, okay?" Hug?
"I- o-okay," he agrees - still not quite believing. He's tense, but leans slightly into the hug.
Hug. "I'm glad you did make it here. I don't want something to happen to you now, that'd be ridiculous."
He blinks, and then nods, a little confused by...any of that. He isn't used to anyone caring about any of that.
Well. She gives him a little squeeze. "Want to come help me pick out where your house will go?"
"I- it. Wherever's...easiest?" He's still unsettled by the idea of 'his house', and helping pick out a spot seems...weird, and difficult.
"It's not any harder one place than another, but they'll have different views and things. I can pick for you if you'd rather not, though, it's fine." Hug continues.
"Yeah, I thought that might be the problem. It's okay, I had trouble with it too at first. Do you want to try, with this? I'll help you, but it might still be hard."
She nods. "Okay. Your house is going to be close enough that I don't think it's going to matter very much what it's closest to, but you might not agree with that; do you want to be close to this house or the barn or the garden, or far from one of those?"
Nod, gentle squeeze. "Yeah, I thought so. And you'll have some windows; do you care about what you can see through them? If we put you behind the barn, you can have a window to see Jasmine's pen, and you can have windows to see the sunrise or the sunset or both if you want, and that matters for where we put it - if you want to see the sunset we need to make sure the garage isn't blocking your view."
He shakes his head, not really sure what he's supposed to care about with regards to a view.
"All right. We'll put you on the garage side, then, Pradnakt likes a little more privacy on the other side of the house."
He nods agreeably - it seems fine to him, and he...doesn't want to be...in Pradnakt's way.
"Okay. And we're going to keep it simple inside for now, we can always change things around later. I did get enough glass for a bay window for you, if you want that - it's where the window sticks out a little from the wall, and you can sit in the space that makes and see more of what's going on outside than you could with a flat one. Or we can do small windows, or none at all, if that will make you feel safer; I wasn't sure."
He shrugs, not really sure enough about windows at all to make a decision on what he would like there.
"All right. We'll put one in your front room, then - I want you to tell me if you don't like it, though, okay?"
"All right." Squeeze. "Let me go see what's holding Pradnakt up, I'll be right back."
"She's going to need to make some noise to get the tools out, and she didn't want to startle you. Let's go around back."
"She wants to do better than fine, though. It's important that you feel safe here. For a few reasons - it's important because how you feel matters, and because it'll help you learn to control your fire, and because it bothers her when you're upset. Any one of those would be a good enough reason for her to want to be careful about it."
"I- o-okay," he agrees, sounding a little confused (although that does seem to be a regular state of affairs for him right now).
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