Finale nodded.

“I didn’t really talk to her, but she seemed cool,” Sveta said.

“If you guys want, I have pictures,” Kenzie offered.

“Oh, um,” Caryatid seemed at a loss. “I don’t think I could look at a picture right now.”

“Okay.”

“I could,” Withdrawal said. “I don’t want to say no now, then not run into you again and never get a chance.”

“Our teams are allied, you know,” Kenzie said. “You could call, say hi, ask for whatever.”

“I wouldn’t want to bother you,” Withdrawal told her.

“No bother. Really. Um. Shoot. Victoria or Sveta may I please have permission to grab Withdrawal’s phone info and put the photos there?”

She rolled her eyes a bit as she said it.

“I could give you my permission or number myself,” Withdrawal said.

“Or that. Flick it to my phone. For the record, Victoria, this is really awkward and lame. It’s like the house I grew up on was on a road nobody went down. And I’m having to walk five blocks thataway to go to the traffic lights to cross, then five blocks thisaway, when I could see there are no cars in sight and just cross the street.”

“You broke the rules, you thought there were no cars in sight and you nearly got hit. People in charge noticed. This is me doing one half of the punishment while still trying to be evenhanded,” I said.

“I know, still!”

“Still,” I said.

“Ughhh!”

“Ugh,” I said, monotone.

“It’ll be better in the long run,” Sveta said. “You said you wanted warnings before certain situations came up? This is us helping with something like that.”

“Hey,” Withdrawal said. “Lookout. This is kind of my first time doing this, but I’ve been told that when tinkers hang out, they share ideas? How does that work?”

It was a good distraction, and an intentional one, I suspected.

He was a natural caretaker, I suspected. It would be why he fit into his specific team. Why losing Fume Hood had hit him pretty hard.

Okay. They weren’t totally isolated. Caryatid and Finale joined the conversation. Everyone with people to talk to, connections within this group.

Leaving Sveta and I. Sveta had draped herself over me as I took a seat on the bench, which was simultaneously comfortable and uncomfortably reminsicent of my time in the hospital. The best of the bad days.

There was space to sit down where Trophy Wife had been seated before she’d gone off to tour the area, but Sveta had already been settled; she hadn’t volunteered to move elsewhere, and I hadn’t asked.

Both of us feeling pensive, content to watch the rest.

I touched her tendril. “Can we talk?”

I felt the little organs that were resting against my back expand as she drew in a breath. She didn’t make a sound, but she nodded.