"It's bucketing out, if you wanna stay till you don't need it that's fine with me, but I'd rather you take it if you need to go before the rain lets up.  Honestly you don't even need to bring it back if you don't live around here, I paid like three cents for it."

"I. Um. Yes, ma'am. Th-thank you."

Cassie nods as a chirping sound comes from the direction of the hot plate.  "You're welcome- I'll just, uh.  Get that."

She quickly empties a pair of instant cocoa packets into the two mugs and sets them in the sink to pour the milk in, then brings them over and sets them on the end table.  She pulls another blanket off the bed and arranges it on one end of the sofa before sinking onto it, using the sofa arm to balance the two steps it takes.  (The chair tucks all its legs in neatly once she's out of it.)

"You can, uh, sit down- a little damp won't hurt it, should've said that sooner."

"I- thank you."

She perches herself on the end of the sofa. (She may in fact be steaming very gently? Although that might be a mirage.)

Cassie wraps the corners of her blanket around her shoulders and picks up one of the cocoas, just holding it and breathing in the steam for a minute.

The table has now settled into a pleasant heat, although there's a bit of a draft from somewhere off in the room.

It takes Blaze a moment but-

She reaches out hesitantly, sneaking glances at Cassie, watching for a trap, looking to make sure this is okay, and picks up the other mug, wrapping her hands around the mug immediately.

Cassie doesn't react as though this is any way a problem.

She does blow on her own cocoa for a bit and take a tentative sip.

Blaze mimics her, but her sip is a little less tentative - almost like she doesn't have any experience with hot drinks burning her.

Quiet companionable cocoa.

For about five minutes, and then Cassie jumps a little bit and hisses under her breath.  She puts her mug back on the end table, licking the spilled cocoa off her other hand before it can get on the blanket.

"Sorry, I gotta go get the van inside before someone steals the hubcaps, be just a minute."

Blaze flinches when Cassie moves, but nods a little jerkily in response to her words.

Cassie shifts back into her spider-chair, then heads around the corner and wheels past in the normal one a moment later.  Muttering and muffled clanging sounds come from the other side of the opposite wall, followed by the purr of a car engine and some more clanging.

...Blaze is tired, and as warm as she ever remembers being.

She doesn't mean to fall asleep, but she can't keep her eyes open, and drifts off.

...aww.

Cassie carefully drapes the other blanket over her feet and then goes to disassemble a couple of TVs.  Unloading the lathes can wait until it won't wake anyone up.

She looks like she's going to be asleep for a while.

Cassie definitely meant to check on her after an hour or so and put the leftover cocoa away.  But one of the TVs turned out to have exactly the capacitor she needed to bring the experimental inertial tracker off the back-burner, and then that needed some counter space so she had to move the flash-freezer but packing it up she realized what the problem had been, and eventually she noticed it was quarter to midnight and she hadn't eaten dinner but it was so close to working...

About half one in the morning, Blaze jerks awake, scrambling to her feet, getting caught in the blankets, but managing to stop her fall-

And that makes her stop, looking around, lost, confused, and the panic is back, but it's different and-

Cassie's elbow-deep in the back of the doorless fridge but the movement catches her eye and she blinks, coming up slowly.  "What- sorry, I- right, were you-"

Blaze ducks her head, shoulders closing in on herself, arms wrapped protectively around her stomach. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't- mean to? To fall asleep. I-"

Cassie shakes her head a couple of times and scrubs her hands on a bandanna.  "Right, sorry, I- forgot-"  She comes over to the edge of the former office.  "You looked like you needed it, I didn't wanna wake you, and then I, uh.  Got distracted..."  She waves a hand vaguely behind her.

Blaze doesn't quite relax at that but-

"I- I wasn't- I haven't disturbed you? I didn't mean to- I- I'll just-"

"God, no, I worked through an actual earthquake one time."  She bites her lip.  "Do you- need a ride somewhere, have I made you late to anything?  It's not- the safest time of night, we're about to hit the bar-closing crowd."

-And Blaze looks completely lost, like she's only just realised that she has nowhere to go.

(She does.)

(Except she can't. They'll hurt her baby.)

Aww no, she knows that look.  "Or you could- stick around?  Could put sheets on the sofa, so you can sleep without getting a crick in your neck?"

"I- I wouldn't want to be in the way, ma'am-"

"No, it's fine, I like having people around."  And she'd worry if Blaze went off alone, but let's not lay on a guilt trip right now.  "Besides, 's not like I'm short on space."  

This is true- a good two-thirds of the warehouse is either empty or at a density around one random object per ten square meters.  Not that blank concrete floor is exactly the limiting factor at the moment.