Blaze seems almost frozen, unsure what to do.

Eventually: "I- I understand. If this means you don't-"

"If I- no!  No, I- I said you could stay here and I meant it and I still mean it, I don't- we can make the job work, if we need to, there's lots of ways-"

"I- I don't want to- be a burden?"

"You're- you're not, okay, you don't even need to read for most of my stuff- and I- I like having people around."

Blaze hiccups, sways towards Cassie as though to hug her, but stops part way through the motion like she's no sure she's allowed to.

Cassie pushes up out of the chair, leans against the counter and opens her arms.

Blaze can see tacit permission, and leans into Cassie.

Hug.  So much hug.

(It's a little more obvious, now, what was making the chair fidgety- Cassie's trembling a little, breathing not quite steady, and she's maybe clinging a little tighter than is traditional for comforting somebody else.)

-Blaze clings in turn, not sure how to help, not sure how to make Cassie feel better, but hugging...hugging she can do? A little unpracticed, but she doesn't think Cassie's going to be judging her for that.

No judgement here, only hugging.

After a little while, Cassie seems to calm down some.  She relaxes her grip without letting go and says to the air over Blaze's shoulder, "If.  If you wanted to leave, you could and I wouldn't try to keep you.  But don't think you have to leave 'cause I don't want you here, 'cause I do."

Blaze is quiet for a moment, uncertain. "I- I like. Being here?"

"Mmkay."  Gentle squeeze.  "I- I'm glad." 

"You don't have to pick right now, but do you think you might like to learn to read, or get a text-to-speech thingy to read aloud to you, or try both and see which you like better?"

She nods slowly. "I- I- thank you?"

"Yeah, no problem."  She takes a slow breath and settles a bit against the counter.  "I can figure something else out for the QA stuff, text-to-speech doesn't cope well with handwriting off the shelf and that's more computers than I wanna deal with right now."

Blaze nods."I- that's- fine? Whenever you- I can-" She looks around a little. "I can...I can cook some? And clean? Until then?"

"Yeah- getting on toward lunch, isn't it.  An' it shouldn't be too long to get some picture labels together or something but- maybe not today, if you're okay with that."

She nods, "I-yes.That's fine? If you- I can make lunch?"

"Yeah, if you- that'd be nice.  I should probably put that titanium order in anyway."

Blaze smiles, nods a little (it'll be nice to have something she can do, that she knows how to do, that'll pay Cassie back a little). "I'll do that then."

She doesn't seem in a massive hurry to pull away entirely though.

Luckily Cassie isn't either, so this is the opposite of a problem.

Eventually though, Blaze straightens a little. "I should- make you lunch."

"Should make both of us lunch, you need to eat too."

"Ah- yes. Yes. I-" Blaze nods, smiles a little. "I will."

Cassie reluctantly lets go.  "Right, okay.  I'll get this cleared out of your way, then."

Blaze smiles. "I can work around it," she assures, getting to her feet to go and make lunch.