He hesitates and then reaches out and pulls Ant into a hug. "Okay, Bean," he says. "Okay. I'm sorry. I- I'm okay."

He looks at Deskyl and Daisy over Ant's shoulder. It's not gratitude on his face exactly, but it's something close.

Deskyl softens a bit, and nods an acknowledgement.

    "It wasn't necessary, but it wasn't as risky as it sounds. He's very good at fighting."

-The compliment definitely seems to throw Ira.

He covers it admirably. "I- think that it's probably bed time." (Oh. Look: a Distraction.)

Well, they can work on that.

Deskyl goes to talk to DZ, leaning on the desk.

Ant grumbles, but lets Ira guide em to bed.

Ira manages to extract himself from eir arms and grabs a change of clothes on his way to the bathroom.

Shin slides in next to Ant in his place, wrapping an arm around em and letting em snuggle in close.

This is pretty nice.

    "Good night."

"G'night," Shin mumbles.

Ira comes back through a few minutes later, looking...young, in a way he hadn't before, now that he's dressed in an oversized t-shirt and jogging pants.

    "Would you like to look at apartments with us?", DZ asks, quietly.

Ira tilts his head, then shrugs. "Sure," he agrees.

DZ shows him the listings she's been collecting - seven apartment options, all with at least two bedrooms, and two houses, all available for less than they've been spending on motel rooms every month, all in neighborhoods with reasonable crime rates and bus service. Two of the apartments would allow Ant to stay in the same school, and those are the least expensive, but also the most dangerous; the rest of the options would require em to switch to better-rated schools in the same district.

Deskyl would prefer one of the houses: she does better without neighbors quite this close, since her magic senses work through walls.

Ira considers them. He obviously leans slightly towards the less expensive ones, but-

But a better-rated school would be better for Ant. (And he can't deny that being further away from other people would be nice.)

"Would need to ask if Ant's okay moving schools," he settles on eventually.

    "That makes sense."

    "Are there any that you want to rule out? Or anything else you'd like me to check, about these?"

"You've been pretty thorough," Ira admits, but does rule out the apartments that would involve Ant changing schools.

"All right."

They can ask the others in the morning. For now, Deskyl and DZ go outside to practice with the language.

Ira settles into the chair, kicking his feet up on the end of the bed that Shin and Ant are sleeping in.

He watches them quietly, but is still keeping an ear out for Deskyl and DZ coming back in.

They're out surprisingly briefly, perhaps fifteen minutes, and yet Deskyl is clearly exhausted when they return and goes straight to bed.

-Well. If what DZ's said about how Deskyl was hurt is true, and given everything else, he doesn't really blame her for being exhausted.

With her back in bed, he lets himself drift off.

The rest of the night is quiet. Deskyl is still asleep when the others wake up, and DZ is as usual working on a translation project.

It's a weekend, so Ant rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Ira leaves, but is back barely an hour later, grumbling quietly.

"Is everything all right?"

"If I had to guess," Shin says, "I'd guess that Ernie threw him out - uh, his boss."