Before she could wrestle with feelings and realize that incomplete no-deal non-feeling was impossible to budge, he’d gone off to prison. The first time.

Then Lachlan had needed help.

“You didn’t wait long?” Rain asked.

She shook her head.

“Nobody bothered you?”

“No. Who would bother me? The Heartbroken?”

“Kinda. I wouldn’t rule it out,” he said, looking back.

“Chastity has my back,” she replied, while joining Rain in looking back at the assembled people.

“She’s a good one,” was his response.

The kids barely warranted a glance. It was Capricorn’s parents who caught her eye. Golem with his foster family. Even Vista, a little more standoffish with her parents.

Erin’s parents were still Fallen, even though the Fallen were no more. They weren’t alone. A lot of others were out there.

The envy she felt was heavy in her chest. It wasn’t a no-deal feeling, that felt like it could become something overwhelming but never did. It was just overwhelming.

She looked away, looked at Rain.

“You’re limping.”

“From when the guards jumped me. Someone kicked me in the side of the knee.”

“Lean on me,” she said. She moved around to his other side. He rested some of his weight on her, though she suspected not as much as he could have.

Those uneasy, incomplete feelings didn’t budge at the physical contact, and the fact she was touchy-feely by default didn’t seem to impact that. It made her wonder if this set of feelings would be with her the rest of her life, never resolved, caught in a kind of limbo inside of her.

Lachlan had a seat reserved. He raised a hand in greeting, and to indicate where he was.

Rain was so good at taking his lumps that she could glance at him now and have less than zero idea if he was bothered by Lachlan’s presence.

Which was shitty. He deserved better than active poking and prodding until he showed a reaction. But she couldn’t bring herself to broach the subject.

Lachlan, at least, was easy.

The shop was mostly empty, but the people who were present paid attention to Lachlan. He’d been in the media enough that his face was recognizable. He left his things at the table and joined them, where Rain was getting into line.

“Hey Lachlan,” Rain said. “We good?”

Lachlan glanced at Erin, then nodded at Rain. “Yeah.”

Lachlan still had programming he was working through. The way he described it, his first thought was always pro-Fallen, his second thought was a contradiction.

Rain had attacked the Fallen, and so Lachlan’s first thought was one of enmity.

“What have you been up to?” Rain asked. “Sorry you came out here for my sake.”

“Nah. Good to get out and away. Uh, been getting into leatherworking,” Lachlan said. “Talked to you about it ages ago.”