Cling, nod. She's going to be an esper. Okay. 

"T-thank you", she manages to mumble out.

"Hey, we've all been there. Awakening sucks."

Yeah. Yeah it really does. 

She fidgets a bit, still clinging to him. "...Do you need anything?"

"- uh, in a little bit your Aunt Rachel's going to call me and I might want you to talk to her, but no, I don't... need anything..."

...oh, okay.

She'll... keep hugging him, then, and wait. 

(her shaking seems to be lessening a bit, at least.)

Poor Cara. "- the cat over there is Cricket, he's a person. I've told him not to give you any instructions."

The cat is a person? Cool -

- wait, what??? Why???

 "...but what if he needs something? I can help..."

She looks at Haru in confused concern.

"I'm worried it'd be hard for him to be careful about only saying - real instructions and not ones that are jokes or exaggerations, which he wouldn't want you to obey in the first place - and also it's not your job to take care of him."

She frowns in confusion, trying to think that through. Not her job to take care of him?

Not her job...

WAIT OH NO HER JOB???

"Oh no oh no I don't remember when I'm supposed to be at work next but I think it might be soon?? And I'm not there, I'm here, and I don't know where here is, and,"

"- you have a job on top of school? I wrote your advisor and she said she was cancelling your TA shifts for the week but if you have another job I didn't know about we can cancel that too, you're awakening. You're at my house."

"- oh, sorry, I meant my TA shifts, that's my job."  Apparently awakening means that she's useless and won't be allowed to help anyone? Oh no...

She lets herself slump into Haru's arms, shivering.

Pet pet. "Everybody'll understand, everyone knows hell week is a valid medical excuse for an absence."

...the words kind of wash over her but the pets are really nice. She melts, eyes drooping shut.

Pet pet. "I'm not going to be able to keep you at a lower level of backlash than this all week, but some of the time I can use my powers a little and then that will pull yours down harder. We could go flying."

Woah, flying? But it sounds like that's a lot of work for him...

"...If you want!" 

"Only if you're not scared of heights or anything. - if that's too hard to think about I'll ask Rachel."

His phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Traceless? This is Cara's Aunt Rachel."

"Hi, Rachel, this is Traceless, good to meet you. Thanks for the tipoff that she's cuddly, I wasn't sure how huggy I should get but she seems a bit more lucid now."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well! And oh, that's good to hear", especially because it means that Traceless is being careful with her dear niece, though what she skimmed off the man's blog over breakfast certainly implied good things in that direction, "glad I could help! Is she lucid enough to answer your other questions?"

"Mostly? Cara, are you scared of heights?"

She thinks about it for a bit, then shrugs.

"I would be shocked if she was! She's always loved climbing trees, rocks, furniture, the occasional wall..."