Emmalina perks up slightly. There are cats here? She drops the remaining flowers on top of the pile of shreds and opens the door.

There is a small grey tuxedo tabby standing there. She meows again and lifts a paw to step into the room, but waits for an invitation before actually doing so.

"Well, hello. Aren't you pretty?" Emmalina hasn't been around many cats, but there were a couple mousers in the castle kitchens; she has a vague understanding of the rules of feline politeness. She scoots back a little, kneels on the carpet and offers a hand for the cat to sniff.

The cat accepts this invitation as sufficient, comes in, inspects Emmalina's hand, and bumps her head against it in the traditional 'you may pet me' manner.

Emmalina adjusts herself more comfortably on her knees and supplies head scratches, as requested. "You're so soft," she murmurs.

The cat purrs agreeably.

"Awwww." Emmalina smiles down sadly at the cat. "At least you like me."

Further agreeable purring. Soft cat snuggles.

Emmalina sighs and cuddles the cat, careful not to interrupt the petting. "You'll keep me company till Jann comes back, right?" she hums to the cat. If he came back, anyway- which was a train of thought she decides not to follow. "You're soft and pretty and cuddly, aren't you, we should be friends."

Purr purr. Snuggle snuggle. Soft soft.

Pet pet. "Is official cat petter a job?" Emmalina wonders aloud, not at all seriously. "Maybe I can do that. I don't have anything else to do, but. This is nice."

The cat snuggles contentedly for a bit longer, and then gets up and pats Emmalina's knee with her paw and leaves, meowing a gracious farewell on her way out. At least it's probably a gracious farewell. It's hard to tell, from a cat.

Well. It was nice while it lasted, at least. Emmalina waves goodbye to the cat, inspects her mostly-shredded flowers woefully, and starts plaiting the unharmed ones into a chain. It reminds her of her daisies from the trip, and the thought causes her throat to tighten. Never mind plaiting. Back to shredding.

Emmalina is not paying attention to the height of the meow, and is delighted by the idea of cat snuggles as an alternative to- whatever it was she was doing. Nothing, really. She opens the door, blinks once in surprise at the definitely-not-a-cat man that accompanied the cat, and curtsies politely.

"No trouble at all," he says. "Jann's parents are off catching up. I'm not in the middle of anything. So I hear you were recently rescued from a dragon in the Mountains of Mourning. If you don't mind my asking, did you hear anything about Roxim while you were there? He answers letters very spottily when he's between princesses, so I haven't heard from him in a while."

"I'm sorry, I didn't get to meet him," Emma apologizes. "Morath is quite a bit younger, I think. But when people mentioned him they sounded fond of him? He seems to be everyone's favorite cranky grandfather figure."

"Sounds about right. Well, thank you anyway. I haven't heard much about Morath; was he all right, as dragons go?"

She smiles fondly. "He was always nice to me. Honest, maybe too much sometimes, but nice. And to the knights, too. He seemed to think it was all a big game; he never hurt them, not truly." Then her brain catches up with her. "But how do you know R- oh! Milo! You're Jann's cousin?"

"Yes. Did he mention my dragon-related misadventures to you, by any chance?"

"There was some story telling," Emmalina agrees with a laugh. "Jann's a good storyteller, it made the ride easier." The ache is back in her chest. Stupid chest. "He's especially fond of the one with the rabbit."

"Yes," says Milo. "I know. Rarely does Jann pass up an opportunity to remind me about that time I accidentally got him turned into a rabbit. Jann makes an adorable rabbit, by the way, I'm sure he neglected to mention that part."

"He did! I'm sure he was very adorable." Jann's pretty adorable as a human, so this is not a stretch. "Your fluffiness was mentioned, though. I'm told it was quite impressive."

"My fluff was magnificent. Pales in comparison to Glynn's, though - when Glynn decided to try the rabbit carpet on a whim, he turned into a little blond fluff orb."

"That sounds frighteningly cute." She agrees, then looks around. They're still standing in the doorway, Cath contentedly curled on Prince Milo's shoulder. The guest bedroom doesn't seem to be hiding a socialization corner, and even if it did, inviting him in seems. Easy to misinterpret. "I'm sorry, did you want to... go somewhere and sit?"

"Yes, let's," he says. "Have you been shown around the castle yet? My favourite place to sit and chat is the library, but perhaps you have a different opinion."

"I've explored the gardens some, that's all. The library sounds lovely," she says immediately. The gardens were nice and all, but she has some (one) decidedly unfond memories of them at the moment.

"I was visiting an acquaintance and a tiny grey kitten climbed onto my foot. Not being a witch, I had some trouble communicating with her, but we managed to establish that she wanted to come home with me, so she did. We've improved our understanding since then. Invented a sort of language of meows."

So the witch part of the stories was right, Emmalina muses. This has all been quite a learning experience. "Awww, that sounds cute. It was nice of you to bring her home. So, Cath, you like it here?" It's odd addressing a question to a cat, but really, it's impolite to exclude her from the conversation, surely?

"As someone on the receiving end, I agree with Cath," Emmalina says, more seriously than she meant to. "Everyone's been very kind to me."

"That's good to hear."

She squirms slightly, but decides that she helped to get the water, she can at least ask. "Did. Did everything go well this morning?"

"Seems to have. The reunion was a little awkward, but Jann's parents seem very happy, and I'm sure we'll all get used to the change."

"I'm. Glad. I hope everyone-" Jann, "-is happy."

Milo smiles. "Yeah."

Don't ask about Jann, don't- "So, do you and Jann have other friends around the palace?" Emmalina asks Milo. "Or is it usually just the two of you?"

"Usually just the two of us, except when Glynn visits. Or Reko, but that's pretty rare, he's busy. And sometimes Jann invites a girl up from a nearby town for a little while."

"Ah." She comes as close to slumping as her ingrained good posture will allow. She knows she should say something, but. He does this a lot? It sounds like he does this a lot. At this point, the tightness in her throat is practically a given.

"...Um...?"

She summons up her Polite Princess smile. "Yes?"

Cath meows pointedly and disembarks from Milo's shoulder to go sit in Emmalina's lap for pets. As an afterthought, she meows a few more times, and Milo - who was looking very torn for a moment there - clears his throat and says, "Cath, um, thinks you seem unhappy."

Emmalina huffs something that at least vaguely resembles a laugh. "It's been... a strange day." How to phrase this? She can't very well say I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen to me now and I feel rather like an unwanted afterthought at the moment to the man whose family is currently generously putting her up in their castle. "It's been very different from my last few days, at least. I'm adjusting."

That was... much more than Emmalina expected, honestly. "Thank you. That's really nice of you," she says quietly. Cath gets ear scritches for the compliment. "You too, pretty fluffy one." She looks back at Milo uncertainly. "Is there anything I can do...? To be helpful, or anything?"

Emmalina considers the question. "I didn't?" she says finally. "Not at home. But I think with more variety, I do. I enjoyed some of Morath's books." She smiles faintly. "And this room looks like it has lots of variety."

"Correct," agrees Milo. "We've got books about nearly anything you could think of. History, geography, magic. Miscellaneous stories."

"Any suggestions?" Emmalina inquires. "Since you did suggest this room. Assume I haven't read much besides etiquette and history."

"Hmm. Well, did you like etiquette and history, or should I avoid those?"

"I think I've had enough for a while, at least. So maybe not those. Or romance."

"Well, if it's a joint recommendation, how can I refuse? Thank you."

Emmalina thanks him and tucks it aside for later. "From Jann's stories I feel like I should be offering to play chess now," she tells him, "but I'm really, truly terrible at it."

"It's not for everyone," he says agreeably. "And when I play someone who isn't any good, the usual result is that neither of us has any fun."

"Sorry. You'll just have to be chessless." She bites her lip, worried, as something occurs to her. "I'm not keeping you from anything, am I? It's very nice of you to entertain me but I wouldn't want to keep you."

"No, no, nothing like that. It's been a quiet week other than Jann coming back."

"It does seem like he's been missed."

Milo is not quite sure what to say. Cath decides this moment calls for more cat snuggles.

Well, Emmalina is perfectly happy to cuddle Cath. Pet, pet. Milo gets bumped up in her internal estimation for knowing when to let her silently brood. (And pet the cat. Petting the cat is an important brooding activity.)

"It seems to me that you have excellent reasons to be out of sorts," says Milo.

"I don't know that it's the usual result of a dragon rescue."

"Well, dragon rescues are habitually preceded by dragon captivities, and those aren't usually the most comfortable way one could possibly spend one's time. For example."

"Once I realized he wasn't going to eat me, it was surprisingly okay?" Emmalina says. "Well. I wasn't thrilled about the cleaning, but the enchanted mop did most of the work."

"Well, all right. Still, it seems like - a disruptive experience."

Emmalina smiles at him ruefully. "You had etiquette classes too, didn't you? 'Disruptive.' Yes, my parents handing me over to a dragon was definitely disruptive. No argument here."

"Um. You probably don't want to answer this, and feel free not to, but: handing you over?"

"Thank you," Emmalina says in a small voice. Cath gets snuggled in return. "I didn't mean to shout. I just. Don't really know what to do? It's uncomfortable."

"Yes, I can see that," says Milo. "Well, I'm sure we can get this sorted out somehow or other."

"I hope so," Emmalina agrees, out of politeness rather than optimism. Recent history is not encouraging. But she nuzzles up to Cath and lets herself be relaxed by the cat snuggles. Cath is really a very good cuddler. She can stay like this for a while.

Jann's friend has said her goodbyes. Jann is brooding (albeit less broodily than he was before he fetched his friend) in his room.

"Hello," says Milo.

"Hi. How's things?"

"I'm fine, but it seems like I'm unusual in that regard."

"Eh. I'll cope. I mean, I'm glad he's okay. It's just weird."

"Cath's friendly. What's unsettling her? I told the staff to get her whatever she needed."

...He's having trouble coming up with an answer here. And how often is Milo at a loss for words?

"Nothing of a rabbitlike nature," Milo hastens to assure him. "It's just. ...What do you think of her, as a person?"

"She's... nice? Hard done by what with the contract dragon-napping. Showed me through the Caves, saved me at least a day. Good company."

"She... didn't particularly look it on the trip. And she does not care for the entire 'rescued from dragon, marry rescuer' paradigm, far as I can tell."

"Well. I don't think she wants to marry you immediately, but there is a wide range of possible options between that and - lack of fondness, isn't there?"

"Lots," agrees Jann. "But again, she didn't look it. Or say it. Or act very flustered while verbally making it clear that we were not getting married, even, which might have been mixed messages but would have been messages. Why do you think she's fond?"

"I'm hardly the world's leading expert on this subject, but she seemed - I don't know. The possibility occurred to me."

"Well, I s'pose I can... talk to her. I've been preoccupied but I'm less preoccupied now."

Milo shrugs.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Emmalina is on her way back to her room from the library when she spots Jann heading towards her room. She swallows nervously, but collects herself and goes to meet him. It's been rather a big day for him, after all. She can mope later. "Hey. How did it go?"

"About as well as could be expected. How are you doing?"

She thinks about how to answer that for a second. "Aimless, I suppose. I haven't had a chance to be idle in a while." She looks at him carefully. "I'm... I don't mean to take up your time. I'm sorry, if you had to come check on me, or something?"

"I wasn't doing much. My, uh, parents, are still catching up, she's the only person in the castle he had... met... before he got turned to stone. So he's probably even more overwhelmed than I am. My presence is not required."

"Do you... want to talk about it?" Emmalina offers awkwardly. "I mean. You listen to me vent about my parents, I'm happy to return the favor?"

"I mean, if you're curious, but there's not very much to say. I never met him but he's my dad and now here he is. He's never met me but he's my dad and now I'm a knight, not, like, a baby."

"Oh, no, you don't have to, it's fine," she assures him. She looks away uncomfortably. "I don't mean to keep you- if you need to meet your friend-" and turns bright, bright pink.

"My..." Blink, blink. "...My friend's gone home, a while ago, I'm free as a bird."

"...oh." She looks down. "Sorry. I shouldn't have- It's none of my business."

"Well," he says. "It. Was, and now you have been rescued, and now if you want things besides to have been rescued they could possibly also happen? If there are any things. If you would rather hang around the castle figuring out what to do with your life you can have as long as you need. ...I cannot really tell what you want. Determining that you wanted to be rescued from the dragon was mostly context."

Emmalina gapes at him for a moment, then presses a hand to her face in exhaustion. "I don't exactly know," she admits. "I'm sorry, I know, it's the least helpful thing, but I'm bad at this. I've never had to think about what I want before. I just-" her stomach twists. "I just saw you with her, and." And you're one of the few good things that's happened to me but no way is she actually saying that, "And it hurt."

Oh dear. This was not what she meant. "It's not your fault!" She promises him. "I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean- we aren't-" this is all horribly embarrassing. "I'm just. Explaining. You didn't know." She laughs, a little hysterically. "I didn't know."

"I didn't want to hurt you."

That gets him a small, fond smile. "I didn't think you did."

"Okay. Good."

She makes the mistake of looking at him a little too directly, and gulps as her brain provides the image of him leaning over the girl for earlier, with his head close to hers, and- "I'm sorry," she says in a rush. "I probably shouldn't have said anything, I... I didn't want to upset you or anything."

"I'm all right, this is not the most emotionally demanding thing that has happened today."

Well, now Emmalina feels like a bug. A tiny, tiny bug. "I'm sorry I made your day worse," she says in a small voice. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, it's, that's not what I meant. It's okay."

Emmalina knows she's bad at talking to people, but this is bad even for her. She leans on her princess training to straighten up and smile tentatively at Jann. "Well. So... I think we're both in something of a odd spot in our lives, at the moment. A little. I don't know that we should continue this right now. But. Maybe we could... Talk later?"

"Sure, good idea. Is there anything you need now?"

"Your cousin was nice enough to show me the library, it'll be a happy distraction for a while. But thank you for checking."

"Okay. Do let me know if you need something."