"I told you yesterday; I haven't had time to process."

"Process what? What's even stopping you from processing now, or from having processed it last night or this morning?"

"Just... things. Like having to attack you in the fight. I'm not processing now because I'm... not... processing right now? I'm talking to you, and I was speaking to your mum earlier, and last night I was focusing on you. Not processing." He looks confused.

"Okay." He stops walking, turns his body towards Theo, and folds his arms. "Process."

"Um," he says, looking around. "Can I go somewhere first? I don't think I'd want to do this here."

"Sure. Where?"

"I don't know. At least an empty room, maybe back to my house?"

"Your place, then."

"Okay. I'll be back in a bit then? ... Unless you plan on coming with me."

"If you don't want me to I won't."

"I... I'll be back soon? It's not far, and I'll text you when I'm on my way back, it just seems... stupid that I'm the one that needs to process," Theo says, trying to reassure Sadde.

"Yeah, I guess." Pause. "I mean... if it's relevant, I want to be there with you. Because. Well, I like you, too?"

And the Mr. Obvious award goes to...

"Oh, okay. I guess that's... okay? We can get some food at my place, too, and clean up. Yeah, okay."

He starts walking in the direction of the hospital exit, walking slowly until Sadde starts to follow.

Sadde follows.

There isn't really much conversation.

Eventually they get back to Theo's house. Theo's dad hears them come in and goes to greet them, saying how glad he is that Sadde's mum seems to be doing okay, and that he wishes her a speedy recovery.

He's also looking at Theo a bit weirdly, but it's hardly surprising that Theo's acting weirdly after being witness to a stabbing. He's somewhat more worried about Sadde (not by a huge amount – Theo is still his son – but it wasn't Theo's mum who got stabbed yesterday).

Sadde thanks him for the concern and assures him that Laura's fine.

Well, that's good, and if there's anything he can do to help, he'd apparently be happy to do so.

Theo suggests that they go upstairs.

Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

So they get into his room, and Theo flops on his bed.

Ungh. He makes a pained sound. Why does it feel like he's been hit over the head with a brick?

Sadde sits on Theo's chair, hands on his lap.

Oh, it's because he's tired, and because it turns out that just forcing yourself to continue when you probably shouldn't is typically a bad idea. Who'd've guessed.

Thinking things over, he starts to shake a little. That card was worse than he expected, and seeing Sadde acting psychopathic, trying to attack him and Sadde's mum, was definitely not something he had prepared himself for.

Sadde carefully lies beside Theo to hug him.

Theo's pretty deep in thought by now, so he doesn't properly respond to that, but it's probably nice anyway.

He goes back over the things that happened, trying to work out what triggered him to start acting weirdly, and decides it was about the point that Sadde's mum got stabbed. He started looking around and thinking rather than continuing in a panic, so it was definitely helpful, now he thinks back on it, but it was a weird change, and he doesn't really understand why it happened. Then he went to the hospital, sat there with Sadde because he was needed instead of actually feeling much of anything, and instead made things worse.

... And now he's having a breakdown, 'processing', forcing Sadde to deal with this on top of his mum. It's not Theo's mum who's in the hospital, so why is he forcing Sadde to deal with this too? He knows he's being a burden, and it just makes him feel worse. Now, he seems to actually notice that Sadde's there, and he hugs him back.

Hug! Much hug. "I'm not actually sure what's happening here," he whispers.

"I'm being stupid, and realising I'm being stupid, and realising I've been stupid, and thinking about how horrible the fight was. And I'm sorry."