Giggle.

"Mine was interesting, want to see?" And she opens her sketchbook to the sketch she drew for Satele. "Those are copies but I drew the originals just a few minutes apart."

"...huh. That's weird."

Hug, nod; she's a bit more serious and reassuring, now. "Master Satele thought so, too, but they seemed to think it was clearly a good thing."

"I guess she would know."

...

"Are you okay?"

Hug.

"I'll be fine."

Hug.

She takes the sketchbook back, and tucks it away, and eats her dinner, much more subdued.

(Raafi, sitting on Ana's other side today, gives her a hug and kisses her hair.)

Ana regains her good humor fairly quickly, as dinner is eaten.

The kobold, not so much.

More hugs before bed, then.

Sure, that can happen.

"What's wrong?"

Raafi comes around to the kobold's seat, and picks her up and settles her on his lap there.

"Share what you think of Occlus?" he asks Ana.

"Um. She didn't exactly make a good first impression? And she keeps being surprising and. Surprising from a Sith is usually a bad thing? But. Um. You keep coming back perfectly fine. And Master Satele and the Council think we should work with her, so. I don't know."

Raafi nods. "Kobold?"

"If normal is bad, and surprising is bad too..." she trails off and snuggles back against Raafi.

"...then what would it take for you to give her any benefit of the doubt," he finishes, and the kobold nods.

"They're a person," the kobold says, and Raafi looks like this suddenly makes much more sense to him. "Indeed."

"Sith I've encountered are bad. Without exception. I tried giving them the benefit of the doubt, but every time, they used my hesitation to do something worse. I had to stop, because I couldn't solve the problem. And now I have these patterns that I use to deal with Sith and I stopped getting burned by them. That's probably why I'm back here, instead of out there. I'm trying to not let that get in the way, but it's hard, there's a lot of experience I have to work through, and. I don't know."

"I'm sorry."

The kobold wriggles out of Raafi's hug and into Ana's lap. "It's okay if it's hard. I just need you to try."

Hugs.

"I will."

Such hugs.

"If you want to talk about it, or if there's anything you need... it's hard for me, too, sometimes, but I'd rather help even if it's hard. Okay?"

"Okay."

Hug.

"Are you going to be okay to go to bed?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I'll," hug, "see you tomorrow?"

"You can come to the cave if you want. Kobolds always sleep in groups, it doesn't mean anything special." Hug. "Or I'll see you in the morning."

Ana needs some alone time tonight.

But the next morning she is cheerful as ever.