"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Emmalina is on her way back to her room from the library when she spots Jann heading towards her room. She swallows nervously, but collects herself and goes to meet him. It's been rather a big day for him, after all. She can mope later. "Hey. How did it go?"

"About as well as could be expected. How are you doing?"

She thinks about how to answer that for a second. "Aimless, I suppose. I haven't had a chance to be idle in a while." She looks at him carefully. "I'm... I don't mean to take up your time. I'm sorry, if you had to come check on me, or something?"

"I wasn't doing much. My, uh, parents, are still catching up, she's the only person in the castle he had... met... before he got turned to stone. So he's probably even more overwhelmed than I am. My presence is not required."

"Do you... want to talk about it?" Emmalina offers awkwardly. "I mean. You listen to me vent about my parents, I'm happy to return the favor?"

"I mean, if you're curious, but there's not very much to say. I never met him but he's my dad and now here he is. He's never met me but he's my dad and now I'm a knight, not, like, a baby."

"Oh, no, you don't have to, it's fine," she assures him. She looks away uncomfortably. "I don't mean to keep you- if you need to meet your friend-" and turns bright, bright pink.

"My..." Blink, blink. "...My friend's gone home, a while ago, I'm free as a bird."

"...oh." She looks down. "Sorry. I shouldn't have- It's none of my business."

"Well," he says. "It. Was, and now you have been rescued, and now if you want things besides to have been rescued they could possibly also happen? If there are any things. If you would rather hang around the castle figuring out what to do with your life you can have as long as you need. ...I cannot really tell what you want. Determining that you wanted to be rescued from the dragon was mostly context."

Emmalina gapes at him for a moment, then presses a hand to her face in exhaustion. "I don't exactly know," she admits. "I'm sorry, I know, it's the least helpful thing, but I'm bad at this. I've never had to think about what I want before. I just-" her stomach twists. "I just saw you with her, and." And you're one of the few good things that's happened to me but no way is she actually saying that, "And it hurt."

Oh dear. This was not what she meant. "It's not your fault!" She promises him. "I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean- we aren't-" this is all horribly embarrassing. "I'm just. Explaining. You didn't know." She laughs, a little hysterically. "I didn't know."

"I didn't want to hurt you."

That gets him a small, fond smile. "I didn't think you did."

"Okay. Good."

She makes the mistake of looking at him a little too directly, and gulps as her brain provides the image of him leaning over the girl for earlier, with his head close to hers, and- "I'm sorry," she says in a rush. "I probably shouldn't have said anything, I... I didn't want to upset you or anything."

"I'm all right, this is not the most emotionally demanding thing that has happened today."

Well, now Emmalina feels like a bug. A tiny, tiny bug. "I'm sorry I made your day worse," she says in a small voice. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, it's, that's not what I meant. It's okay."