"I- if-if you're sure, ma'am? I-I can- pay you back? Earn my keep?"

"You don't-"  but god, she remembers when useful felt like safe-

"...well.  Um.  You don't need to, I'm not gonna kick you out in the rain either way, but- how would you like to be a- a quality assurance checker?"

"-I don't know what that is, ma'am?"

"Okay, so: I build things-" she gives a redundant wave toward the piles of scrap appliances- "sometimes just for me but usually for other people.  An' I don't always catch when how to use something is obvious to me 'cause I know how it works on the inside but isn't obvious if you're just picking it up, like how it's easier to proofread someone else's writing?  So if you wanted, what you'd be doing is when I have a usable prototype, I'd bring it to you and you'd try it out and tell me if anything was confusing."

"Oh- I- Yes? I-If you think I can?"

"Mmhmm, I bet you could.  And if it turns out you don't like it then you don't have to.  But- tomorrow, yeah?"

"I- okay. Yes, ma'am. I- Thank you!"

"You're gonna be fine."  Cassie nods, a little more decisively than she's feeling.  "Want something to eat before we get the couch set up?  I know I missed dinner..."  She clicks over to the fridge as she's talking, moving sideways rather than twist around to talk over her shoulder.  "I've got leftover pizza, or... toast with- various things to go on it- I kind of don't have a microwave right now..."

"I, um- I'll be- fine, ma'am. I-" (It's not that she's not hungry, it's that she doesn't want to be burden.)

Cassie pokes her head out from behind the fridge door and frowns a bit.  "You're sure?  Toaster's big enough for two, and I don't think you snuck out for Chinese while I was in the zone."

She cracks half a smile, and doesn't say, And you look like you've missed too many meals already.

"I- um. I can- if you want-?" she gestures vaguely at the toaster, not sure what she's intending to say.

...how do you even act like a safe person to express preferences to.

"Okay, um, I'll go ahead and make extra toast, and if you don't want it right now I'll leave it in the toaster so you can have it in case you get hungry in the night."  She suits action to words- the toaster oven is in fact large enough to reheat two pieces of pizza at once, if you squashed them in and overlapped them a little bit.

"I- Um. Th-thank you."

She draws a little closer, still staying out of arm's reach.

Small smile.  Plates, knife, jar.  "Peanut butter all right?"

"-yes? I- whatever is fine, thank you."

Cassie slides a plate of peanut butter toast down the counter to within Blaze's reach and starts on a second one.  "Bathroom's that way, if you wake up before I do or after I'm gone you can help yourself to breakfast, I've got a client meeting at ten- well, potential client.  Hopefully client."

-She hesitates, and then hunger wins out and she pulls the plate closer, and takes a bite of one of the slices. It vanishes pretty quickly after the first bite.

"I- um, yes, ma'am," she agrees with a nod.

Cassie glances her way with a small smile and quietly puts more bread in the toaster, munching on her own.

Blaze hovers, unsure what to do.

Cassie leaves the second batch of bread toasting while she goes to dig sheets and a spare toothbrush out from the boxes under her bed and gets the couch set up.

Blaze opens her mouth a couple of times, to say she can do it, to try to help in some way but...something keeps her from actually saying anything other than 'thank you' again.

"No problem."  Cassie doesn't have a spare pillow, but she can stuff a couple of folded sweaters into a pillowcase.  "This'll probably fit you?"  She offers Blaze a gray nightgown with a picture of a cow on the front.  "Want first turn in the bathroom?  I ought to unload the van so I don't forget tomorrow."

"I- um, as you- if that's- alright with you, ma'am?" She reaches out hesitantly to take the nightgown.

"Wouldn't offer if it wasn't."  She collects what looks like the mutant offspring of a two-wheel dolly and a scissor lift and heads off to the empty patch of floor where the van is parked.

Blaze in the meanwhile, uses the bathroom, a quick shower, brushes her teeth, and changes. She folds her clothes neatly, and braids her hair back from her face before making her way back out into the main room.