Her vision of Tavras and Arius had lasted so long that it was impossible to get a full night's sleep. While time passed slower in a vision, time did indeed pass.

Val woke up early out of habit, even though Tavras did not barge into her room and dump a bucket of water on her. Apparently, his rigorous training schedule had been left behind on his Paradise.

"Good morning, Foofy," Val said as she roused him with a shake to his shoulder.

As he got up and stretched, Val remembered something that sent a stab of fear through her very core.

They had spent such a long time living outdoors that she had nearly forgotten about Foofy's house training. When she had stayed with him in a motel, he had tried lifting a leg on a chair. This memory replayed in her mind as he started sniffing along the wall of the empty room.

"Let's go outside!" Val said. "Come!" Out the door, she went running down the hall and through the kitchen.

The loud clatter of dog nails sounded in her wake.

One after the other, Val and Foofy ran past Tavras who was in the kitchen already. Neither one of them gave pause to the smell of cooking fish.

"Good morning—?" he tried saying with a note of confusion.

Without any time to respond, the door slammed behind them.

Val ran out to the nearest tree with Foofy and supervised him while he did his business. "Good Foofy!" As weird as it was having to praise him for peeing, she wanted her divine dog to be house broken one day.

Calmly, they went back inside once Foofy had finished with his sniffs.

Inside, Tavras waited for them where he leaned casually against the counter. Despite how much he had slept yesterday, he still looked tired, though at least some of the cheer had been restored to his voice. "What was all of that about? Foofy did not make a mess in the house, did he?"

"Nope. I quickly took him outside to make sure that an accident didn't happen."

"So…" Tavras drawled out, "he's not house broken?"

"No, not yet," she admitted sheepishly.

"Great. I am totally looking forward to living with a disgusting, smelly animal."

With an intonation of great offence, Val said, "He's a good boy, and you saw for yourself how fast he learns. Foofy will only be more obedient now that he is a divine dog, too." She walked over to join Tavras at the counter and stared at the fillets of fish on the stovetop. "We're having fish again?"

"What can I say? I like fish."

In the absence of furniture, they sat on the ground with their backs against opposite walls. While they ate, they had a conversation over breakfast like no fight had transpired between them yesterday.

"How do you feel about furniture?" Tavras asked. "Personally, I think it is overrated. We already have the bare essentials that we need to live here in my opinion."

Val laughed hard enough that she had to cover one hand over her mouth. "Of course, you would not mind living in a completely barren apartment. We should get some things at least. How long do you think that we will be staying in New Gate?"

His fork scritched against the plate while he frowned. "It would depend upon how long Arius makes his challenge take. My guess is that he will drag it out for as long as possible so that he can stay on leave longer."

"Then, how about we get some furniture? A table, two chairs, maybe some beds—the basic pieces of furniture."

Given how much money that Tavras had, he could pay people to move all of it without them lifting a finger. That was what Val would encourage him to do.

First, they needed to finish breakfast, but already, their topics of conversation had run dry. The sound of their soft chewing was drowned out by Foofy gobbling down his kibble. While this pause between them pressed on, Val knew that she had to gather the courage to speak to him. Now that she knew the reason for his struggles, she wanted to offer reassurance to him in some way.

Alas, conversations about feelings were not in Val's forte. So desperately, she wanted to be supportive of him, yet she had no idea what to say, much less how to begin.

As it turned out, Tavras was the one who spoke first. He cleared his throat and said, "Val, I should apologize for yesterday. When I attacked you like that, I was out of line. I don't know what it feels like to have the water pulled from your body, but I understand that it must have been a scary and painful experience." In his apology, he did not look at her, but rather at an adjacent wall. "I wanted to say that I am sorry for doing that to you."

Her heart thumped, the beat particularly pronounced to her. Having her emotions acknowledged by Tavras still set a flutter alight in her mind, even though she felt rather useless in his presence.

"I-I'm sorry too." While she had not felt inclined to him for yesterday originally, the length of her vision made it feel like eons ago already. The words started to tumble from her mouth. "I realize that I do not understand you very well at all. I don't know what it's like to be some thousands of years old. I don't know what it is like to share such a close connection with the ocean. While I still do not approve of the tsunami that you sent to Gon, I did not mean to give you an even harder time when you are already burdened by so much. For that, I'm really sorry."

During their apologies, Tavras had lost his appetite and set his half-eaten dish aside. Now, his head fell down into his knees. His hands balled up at the top of his head, and he started to tremble.

"Tavras?" Val abandoned her own food and slowly came to sit beside him.

His poor state continued, silent and shaking. So much for stalking him in the past to understand him better, because she did not have a clue as to what plagued him right now. Luckily, he used his words. “I never want to hurt anybody,” he mumbled.

Of course, he had not wanted to hurt anybody. Tavras was good-natured and kind. His self-criticism probably scathed at his own conscience.

"Tavras," she whispered.

Not knowing how else to help him, she dared to put a hand to his shoulder. This gesture, she did not intend as a romantic advance on him. Val just wanted to be there for him.

"Don't touch me," he snapped. "You're not the one that I want."

Faster than she had reached out to him, she also drew away. "I'm sorry." Val placed her hands into her lap and let her nails dig into her palms.

Why was she not good enough for him? Despite the way that Evalaite had left him, Tavras still had feelings for her somehow. Val knew herself to be better than her at the very least.

Since Tavras had always been the one to guide her, she had no idea how to handle their roles being reversed. Tentatively, Val pressed on. "I understand that you miss her. She was never good enough for you though. Some eighty years have passed. You could always try being with someone new, someone who would treat you better."

"What? Do you want me to give you a chance?" His attention flashed up to her with angered eyes. "Do you even know what you are talking about? You have no idea who I'm talking about!"

Blinking a few times, she stated, "We were talking about Evalaite."

Tavras leaned back against the wall and slouched into himself. His face turned away so that he could gaze off to a different wall. "So, it seems that we were." His voice sounded low and full of disdain.

Val shifted in her crawling skin.

"I would appreciate it if you would keep out of my past with that ability of yours. If I wanted you to know anything, then I would tell you myself."

"I just wanted to help—"

"You help me?" Tavras asked, his voice spitting and cruel. "I am the one helping you. If you want to repay my kindness one day, then focus on getting stronger. Stick to our bargain if you want me to consider you. Until then, I would like it if you would just leave me alone."

Getting up, Tavras drew his hands over his face and let out a long, dramatic groan. "Our friendship was just fine the way that things were. I feel like I cannot be myself around you anymore because I don't want to encourage you. Why does everything bad always have to happen at once?"

A lump slid down her throat in a hard swallow. Val had only looked outside for the troubles plaguing Tavras. She had never considered that she herself would be one of his problems.

"Please, you do not have to act any differently around me," Val rushed to say. "Like you said, we have our deal! I have a long way to go before I can become a goddess, so until then, nothing has to change between us." As she crept in front of him once more, Val tried her best to offer an encouraging smile.

"Let's take your mind off of this for today," she continued. "We need to arrange for the delivery of some furniture. Then, I think that I know just the thing to cheer you up!"

Tavras looked on at her with doubtful eyes, but he conceded with a dull, "Okay.”

After a long pause, Val jumped around to try to infect him with her extra enthusiasm. “Well, let’s get busy!”

In addition to getting some furniture, they would need to get some fish—not dead ones to eat like Tavras had already bought. She would take him to the nearest pet store to get a goldfish or something, because having a pet fish around the apartment would surely brighten his mood.