Arius jumped over the fence and beamed away. This left Val and Foofy alone to face the apartment that was supposed to be theirs, but she did not feel particularly welcome anymore. The gathering storm made the weather apt for the atmosphere of the situation.

Val decided that the best course of action was to knock. The hollow thump of her knuckles against the door sounded two times. On her third knock, her fist attempted to rap against air when the door opened.

“There you are.” Tavras said, “Val!” He dragged her inside and slapped both hands onto her cheeks.

While he held her face in between his big, warm hands, Val had no idea how to respond. Her shock made her mouth hang open, trying to formulate words to say.

“I was so worried about you!” he exclaimed with all intensity.

Val shrunk back. From where she leaned away, her rigid spine pressed up against the door. “W-Why would you worry about me?”

“You can’t leave all night like that. I sent Evalaite away soon after you left, figuring that you would just go on a short walk with Foofy. I stayed up all night for you!” Now, Tavras had let her go in favor of pacing across the kitchen. “I went for a walk. I searched down by the river. I looked around the damn pet store! I had no idea where else to search. If you did not come home soon, I was going to use this rainstorm to find you.”

The water droplets must be able to inform him about the location of what they touched. Here, Val had thought that the impending storm had reflected his anger, but he had actually been mad with worry.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I thought that you wouldn’t care if I left.”

Tavras hefted out a sigh. “Of course I care. It was wrong of me to discuss things with Evalaite here. It was not even a productive conversation, just aggravating for everyone involved.” He shook his head with his eyes closed in a wince. “I’m sorry that you had to overhear that.”

Val remained still from where she rested against the door. She did not exactly want to accept an apology from Tavras that easily.

He seemed to recognize her discontent and put in a greater effort to smooth things over with her. “You don’t know how glad I am that you’re back.” Tavras returned to stand in front of her and wrapped her in a hug. This embrace felt different from the more familiar hugs that she had shared with him before. It was rather more tender.

A small grunt escaped from her as she shoved him away. “Of course I came back. Where else would I go?”

“I don’t know.” Along the side of her cheek, Tavras traced a few of his knuckles. “You have a history of running away.”

The touch felt nice for a second, and Val just wanted to savor Tavras’s concerned gaze. The beginnings of the shadows under his eyes could confirm that he had indeed stayed up all night, worrying about her. She wanted to bask in this sweet sort of attention that she had craved from him for so long, but Val caught herself in these thoughts. She slapped his hand away.

He was acting weird after last night. A pang of guilt struck through her. If Evalaite had done anything to him, only Val was to blame for that. She had left him alone with someone who could manipulate memories, and for that, she wanted to pity Tavras.

Even before Evalaite had done anything to him—if she did anything to him at all—Tavras had treated her with unparalleled disrespect. Val kept her voice stern.

“I’m at the Summit now. I don’t plan to run away again.” Not even when Tavras wanted to encourage her to leave with him into obscurity, she had no desire to flee from any of the trials before her.

The pause provided a segue for the most pressing question that must have been on Tavras’s mind. “Where were you last night?”

A lump caught in her throat. Honesty might not be the best policy, but she did not know what else to say. “I was with Arius.”

For the duration that Tavras stared at her, Val thought that he had developed a momentary eye twitch. “You did not spend the night with that demented son of a bitch.” He did not even ask that as a question but simply stated his disbelief.

“I did. Arius was actually really kind—”

“What did he do to you?”

“He did nothing wrong—"

Instantly, Tavras jumped to conclusions. “Did he threaten you? Whatever things he said to you, I promise that you can confide in me. I won’t react right away if that would only make the situation worse. Let me help you deal with the Ravager—”

“Arius was perfectly nice!” No matter how many times she said it or how loud she shouted it, she already knew that the simple reality would never get through to Tavras. This insufferable god had hated Arius ever since he was a literal child.

“He has some kind of angle,” Tavras insisted, “and I think that it is important for me to explain some things to you.” Brow knitted together, he looked more vexed than concerned. Tavras extended one hand out to the kitchen table to invite her to sit.

Gingerly, she sat.

“Since you are back,” Tavras said, “how about I make breakfast?”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” As if on cue, Val could feel her stomach rumble through her folded arms, but luckily the noise had been quiet enough for Tavras to either not notice or overlook.

While he took his place in the kitchen to cook something, Val looked down to her phone in her lap. “You know, if you had a phone, I would have contacted you last night so that you wouldn’t have had to worry so much.”

The pan clanged roughly against the stovetop. “What, so you could let me know that you were spending the night with the Ravager? That totally would have helped me feel at ease.”

Val gave a big, helpless shrug. “All I am saying is that technology might have saved you a headache. You could have just called me instead of conjuring up a storm.”

Notably, there was no thundering rain outside. With any luck, Tavras would have the ability to send rain away as well as call it so that they could enjoy a nice day without freezing sleet or snow.

“You would not have to get a cell phone either,” she tried to suggest. “We could get a landline for the apartment—tuck it away in a corner of the kitchen. That way we could contact each other.”

He sighed while setting food on the stove. “I will consider it,” he muttered.

Val looked down to her own phone where she prepared to send a message to the god who did have a phone. As nerve wracking as it felt to send the first text to Arius, she reminded herself that they were supposedly soulmates. Arius had been plenty nice to her already, so she sent that text without overthinking things any further.

Val: Hi, this is Val.

It might be a bit before I’m ready to go. It looks like Tavras wants to talk to me about something.

I just wanted to let you know, not that you were waiting around for us.

Having sent that, her anxiety renewed itself as she waited for a reply.

The message that he sent back was quick and short.

Arius: Okay, thanks.

She had been honored with not one but two whole words from the Ravager. Val found herself snickering at the table uncontrollably.

“What are you laughing about?” Tavras asked.

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing. I’m going to feed Foofy.” While Val padded across the floor to scoop up Foofy’s kibble, he watched her with eager eyes.

The kibble clanged into the metal dish and made some scratching sounds as he set to wolfing down his food.

Val returned to the table, continuing to watch Foofy eat and Tavras cook. Her attention drifted down to her phone, and while she could contain her silly smile, she could not resist sending Arius another text.

Val: Make sure you get breakfast.

Arius: Thanks, I will.

Again, Val failed to stop herself from giggling. He was such a simple texter. At least she knew that she would not have much to look forward to in the digital department of their potential, future relationship.

“Stop laughing,” Tavras snapped. The pan clattered roughly against the stovetop. “I don’t want to sound like your mother,” he continued. “In fact, I really do not want to sound like her at all.

Val let a small laugh titter out, figuring it was acceptable to laugh when her attention was on Tavras. Otherwise, she did not know how else to respond now that she knew for a fact that he knew her mother. It hurt that Tavras had not been the one to tell her the truth about her identity—more secrets that Val hated.

“It is important that you understand this for your own safety though, if you think that you can run around with men at night, alone.”

Oh no. It was going to be one of those sorts of talks.

Tavras brought the food over to the table. One platter he set down in front of Val, and the other plate he had at the spot where he sat across from Val. They were going to talk over breakfast, as if she wanted to eat during this conversation.

She groaned loudly, because the last thing that she wanted was to have Tavras give her a talk about boys.