She turns to him, silent for a moment before speaking. "It's not the kind of problem you're thinking of, Nova. Slavery's illegal here - of biologicals, anyway - and so is treating people how your master treated you; if you're flinching like that where people can see... they're going to want to know why, and their guess is going to be that I did it. I'd get it straightened out eventually, but we'd be in a lot of trouble in the meantime."

"I- oh. Ah-" He doesn't actually know what to say to that. Doesn't really know how to stop being this way. (But he resolves to try.)

"It's okay, Nova. It's all right that you need time."

    "I'm going to need time, too," Nine adds.

Nova sneaks a sideways glance at Nine. Then nods tiredly. He doesn't exactly feel like it's okay, but...

But they both seem to think it is. He can listen to that. And it's something he can do, work on, try to be less...this. so Nine can get his(?) papers.

She watches, grinning slightly when he steels himself, and for a moment more, and then she turns back to her work; just a few more reconnections and she's done. "It's about bedtime for us," she says, patting him companionably on the arm, when the last bolt is in place. "Daisy can show you around, but don't hesitate to wake me if you need anything, all right?"

    "Yes, Ma- ... Yes... thank you?"

"You're welcome; see you in the morning. Nova; shower and change of clothes before bed?"

It takes him a moment to realise that that's actually a question. (But he does, in fact, realise that fact.)

He nods a little hesitantly. "Please?"

"Yeah. Go on in."

The change of clothes is still under his pillow, and she brings three more sets down from where they were stashed atop the cabinet and tucks them under the bed; the same fluffy towel he used last time is now hanging next to hers on the inside of the bathroom door. She asks whether Daisy showed him how to adjust the water, shows him how, when it turns out that she didn't, and leaves him to it; she's curled up on the bed with a datapad when he's done, and looks up when he comes into the room. "Good night, Nova."

He doesn't comment on the clothes getting tucked under the bed, but looks at least somewhat startled. He showers quickly, and makes his way back through to where the cot is.

"G'night, ma'am," he murmurs, after a moment of confusion where he works out that that's probably the kind of response she's looking for.

Then he slips out of her room, and curls up on the cot (under the blanket). It takes him a little while to fall asleep, but he does.

A few hours later, near midnight, the droids come through the room to go to Pradnakt's; Nine isn't as good at being quiet as Daisy is.

He wakes up, and half starts to get up before stopping - it's still night, he's fairly sure it's not time to be getting up.

"It's all right, Nova, we're just going to talk to Pradnakt." And in they go, and shut the door behind them.

After a moment he can hear Nine's deep voice; it's too indistinct to make out the words, but he seems unhappy about something.

He stays sat up, tangling his fingers nervously together. (They shut the door, they don't want him to hear this, he shouldn't-)

He twists his fingers roughly, trying to get them to hurt.

Nothing hurts and earlier it was wonderful, but now, it's weird and wrongwrongwrong, and he doesn't know what's happening, and he might not need to know but-

He takes a breath, and focuses on the twinging in his fingers as he twists them slightly past the angle they should go, rather than what's going on behind the door.

The door opens again, light spilling out from the room beyond, and Pradnakt leans out. "Nova, would you come talk to us for a minute? You're not in any trouble."

He slides off the cot and walks over to the door, wrapping his arms around himself, and not saying anything, trying to focus on Pradnakt saying he wasn't in trouble. (It's harder than he would've thought.)

The room beyond is crowded, with Nine taking up most of the floor space and Pradnakt squashing herself against the wall by the door to leave room for him to pass. Daisy is sitting on the far corner of the bed, one knee brought up to her chest, the other leg crossed in front of herself; Pradnakt gestures for him to join her on it, though there's enough space that he doesn't have to get very close to her to comply.

He does comply, keeping himself small. And while he doesn't sit very close to Daisy, he's not sat as far away from her as he could be.

Pradnakt closes the door again, leans on the frame, and sighs, shooting a look at Nine and then down at the floor before looking back to Nova.

"So, there's a couple of things I haven't told you about myself. They're going to be - hard things for you to deal with; complicated, and I think you have enough complicated things going on right now - I don't think it'd be fair to you to tell you yet. Nine disagrees, though; he thinks it's not fair to keep you here without you knowing them, and that once I tell you, you'll be upset that I waited. He might be right about that, but I think it'll be better to wait even if it's true, because if you do want to leave, we don't have a very good way of doing that, yet. Do you want to know?"

He stares at Pradnakt's knees, trying to wrap his head around what she's just said. He pulls his knees up to his chest and hugs them. He doesn't know what to do or say here. Can't figure out what's expected of him. Doesn't know how he's even supposed to make that decision. He glances briefly at Nine, can't fully understand why Pradnakt's bothering to ask him, if she doesn't think it's a good idea.

He half shrugs, half shakes his head.

"I- whatever you- think best, ma'am?" he sounds utterly lost as he says it.

"I'm sorry, Nova, that really wasn't fair to even ask." She looks back to Nine. "Good enough?"

The droid produces a low, discontented rumble rather than answer.

"I think she's right, Nine," Daisy pipes up. "While he's having this much trouble making decisions for himself, we need to think about what's best for him. It's not letting him go or letting him stay, right now, it's keeping him or sending him away. And you're right that keeping him isn't perfect, but sending him away would be worse."

"It should be his decision to make," he rumbles.

"And I gave it to him," Pradnakt replies, "and you heard his answer. He knows he's not ready for this kind of question, either, and maybe I'm not the best person to answer it instead, but this is what we've got to work with."

"Mmm." He still doesn't sound pleased, but more accepting, at least.

Nova curls down on himself a little more. "M'sorry," he mumbles to the room at large, not entirely sure for what - for not being able to make the decision, for Nine not being happy, maybe just for existing here. He twists his fingers back together to the point of pain. (It's easier to focus on that rather than anything else.)

"And now we're upsetting him," she sighs at Nine, and plops onto the edge of the bed, twisting a little to at least half face Nova. "Hey, listen to me. We want you to be okay, all right? All three of us want that. It's just hard to figure out how to get it, sometimes, and that's not your fault."

(That it's not his fault sounds like a lie, but he can ignore that, he can.)

"I- o-okay. Yes, ma'am." (He doesn't sound entirely sure, but it's probably the best she's going to get right now.)

She goes tense for a second, then takes a deep breath and carefully relaxes.

"It's really not. It's your master's fault if anyone's. And it's not fair to you to have to deal with this, but here we are, and we'll all just have to do our best. Okay?" She looks to the droids with the question.

"Of course," Daisy replies immediately, and Nine's "yes" follows promptly.

Nova takes a breath, that turns into a sob, and he buries his face in his knees, trying to hide the fact that he's crying now, even if quiet sobs and hitching shoulders are likely giving him away.

(It's been a while since he's cried, but he remembers he's not supposed to. Not supposed to let his own emotions interfere.)

"Out," she tells the droids, "and shut the door behind you."

When they're gone, she scoots up next to him and gently guides him to lie down, cuddling up behind him as she does. "It's okay, Nova. You are doing your best. I know it's hard."