It took some time longer for her to realize just how long he'd been absent. At first it hadn't bothered her much at all - he'd be back when he got back - but as the hour turned to two, the realization that, perhaps the Magesterium has indeed followed them, found him, and accosted him, suddenly popped into her head. Were that to have happened, she was locked in a room, nowhere to go, left to the whims of an ogre who wouldn't arrive until the next morning. It wasn't worry, but trepidation, perhaps, that began to wind down her spine. She began eying the door, expectantly, from time to time, almost hoping to see him return - to know he hadn't been taken by the Mages, if for no other reason than her own self-preservation.

That's what she told herself, anyway, especially once she'd cleared all that she could and was left to her own devices. She nearly leapt from the floor entirely as soon as the lock began to click awake, her eyes immediately spinning over toward the door to find Darragh stepping inside with a smile.

"You will not believe what I managed to find!" he spoke up, elatedly, despite having very little in his hands, and even less breath in his lungs, turning confused eyes to examine the room, "Did they come back to lick it all up?"

Colette snapped, "I shoved it all over there- What is it?!"

"Okay! Look!" he stepped close and fell to his knees, dropping a canvas bag of groceries onto the floor in front of Colette, whose eyes widened in surprise, turning up to follow Darragh as he returned to his feet, speaking excitedly, "I went down the street to the nearest vendor, asked for his stock, but it's super busy, right? Super competitive! So, I asked about the stall across the street, he wouldn't have it, I went over there. That woman had better prices, but the stock was a bit iffy, and the amount was kind of scrawny. I'm trying to get the best punch for my coin, so I run from stall to stall- I literally make my way down most of the avenue until I come to the Orbital - so odd gathering hub, place, thing - they just had stock arrive, and it's literally too much, they're trying to offload it at bare-bottom prices, and who's there to help them out but dear old Darragh Wynd?! We've got steak for you, some vegetables- I thought to buy some gruel just for the joke, but thought better of it. I mean, we better hope we don't have to buy anything else until Fardenn, but-"

His face tensed in worry as he rested his hands atop his hips, still battling exhaustion as he heaved heavy breaths, "What?"

"I said you didn't have to-!"

He quickly interrupted, "You also said you could eat me, and I doubt you're gonna live up to your word on that."

Colette's face twisted, almost angrily, "This is too much!"

"This is dinner!" Darragh clarified with as forceful of a voice as he'd ever spoken around Colette. He crouched down to better match her level. "Now, if you're too uncomfortable to accept kindness from someone, then accept kindness from the poor soul you're sharing space with in some fae glimmer's orgy room for the day."

Her face tensed, "I thought you were captured! or dead! or-!"

Darragh watched her, his forceful posture immediately waning as he took in her meaning. "You're right. I thought I was being helpful, but I could have gone about it better." He bowed his head.

"Gods, knock it off," she spun her head away, "You don't have to get weird about it." She examined him sidelong, easier given her wyrmish eyes. "It's just that- in many ways, my life hinges on you. I literally couldn't tidy up how I wanted because I physically couldn’t. Had you been abducted or captured, I'd have been locked in here, left to that ogre woman's devices, and- who knows what else."

Nodding, Darragh agreed, "You're right. Look-" He buried his head low, reaching out an open hand. "It won't happen again."

She so wanted to say "Yeah, right!" or deny him that though in a myriad other ways. Yet, somehow, something in her mind though, for a moment- perhaps he meant that.

"How, pray tell, am I supposed to shake to that?"

Darragh eyed his hand, nodding quickly, "Oh, right. Alright, we'll spit on it."

"Not helping at all."

He cocked a grin, rising to his feet, "Well, then, I have nothing but my word. I'll have to earn it. but I expect the same in return; you have my back, I have your- scales."

"Cute," she rolled her eyes, only just hiding her grin at the joke.

Sighing, Darragh lowered his head to examine his haul, "Well, if I have your forgiveness, I'd quite like to enjoy our meal before it begins to turn." He examined the room as he sat there on the floor, cross-legged. "You did a wonderful job cleaning up. I'd hardly have thought a bunch of fae got their elbows wet in here if I hadn't known any better."

"Well, I had nothing better to do," Colette frowned, "I wasn't about to worm around in the puddles. and I couldn't get up to the ceiling, so-"

"Yeah, we'll just avoid that in case it starts dripping," sighed Darragh, sliding over the bowl of steak that had already been sliced and grilled into fine stretches of meat, pushing it toward his traveling companion, "Dig in."

She eyed him with severity, "All of this?"

"Well, I know I can eat all of this. We don't know what you can or can't, but I'd imagine that should be fine. Have you ever heard of a vegan dragon?"

Eyes widened in a brief moment of exasperation, Colette frowned at the consideration but didn't bother arguing. She was rather hungry by that point, and if he was choosing to go without, she wasn't about to argue. Bending her head low, she snatched as a swath of steak where it hung there, dangling past her teeth when she only then realized she hadn't ever needed to practice these movements. She instantly felt pale with nerves as Darragh watched her quizzically, no doubt wondering why she had paused mid-bite.

"Need help?" he inquired, holding back a smirk as he did so.

She frowned, not daring to reply lest she drop the strips of steak, or worse - at this point, she wasn't sure what this wyrm body would do - leaving her to simply freeze in focus as she considered every option, or rather every muscle. On a whim, she tugged at her jaw, hoping that would have the desired effect of dropping the steak, where she would then snatch it out of the air in a more proper manner to eat it, only for the neurons in her brain to crossfire, jumbling at various segments of communication, leaving her stuck there in place as the strips of grilled meat flew through the air - directly toward the puddle of fae fluids. Colette's eyes glinted with terror at the sight before her, alongside a suddenly immense swell of guilt that her foreign body had made such an error, only for a pair of sticks to appear in her vision, a dexterous hand thrust into sight as Darragh clutched the steak between a pair of chopsticks in his hand, pulling it close as he wore exasperation on his face.

"You know, most people say 'my compliments to the chef' or say grace or something; this is incredibly odd behavior."

Colette felt what must have been the wyrm equivalent of a blush, feeling embarrassment covering her face, "That- That was my mistake!"

"I'm running out of things to attribute your oddities to," he sighed, "Is this a florist thing? the result of your auspicious setting amidst Aubernpine society? I'm altogether curious."

Groaning, Colette frowned, "It's nothing of the sort, I- simply am still trying to figure out this body is all. I was trying to correct my aim, but my muscles acted different from what I was expecting."

"Uh huh," Darragh nodded, his voice noncommittal, as though he didn't believe her.

"I'm serious!"

He gestured toward the bowl her steak had been presented within, "So just dig in; you don't-"

"How undignified would that-!"

"Oh, I thought you were way beyond undignified," Darragh laughed, "Transfigured and supping not five feet from the result of a number of glimmer gam, as my friend would call it."

Colette frowned, twisting her face in a severe manner, "It is times like these where remaining dignified is at its most crucial, I would contend. Lest we lose ourselves and what we hope to return to when these troublesome times pass us by." Her eyes wandered off. "That witch can take a lot from me, but I refuse to allow her to take away my humanity."

"Fair enough," Darragh shrugged.

"Thank you for understanding," Colette sighed a light breath, returning to her meal, "Now, if you'll refrain from-" Her eyes widened. Before her sat the chopsticks in Darragh's hand, the once-airborne steak hanging there as though awaiting her ginger approach. In a second, her eyes shot up toward Darragh's own, staying there for a brutally long moment before returning to the offering, then back to him.

"What are you doing?"

He offered, "Well, you wanted dignity, so-"

"Being-" she couldn't even mutter the word, "This isn't dignity, this is- humiliating!"

Darragh's brow furrowed, "Community and human connection? Look, I'm the first person to find it difficult to accept help from somebody else, much less care. but even I can recognize that such a thing isn't humiliation. Were you wounded on the street and in need of a bandage, were my help, then, be humiliation?"

"This is different," she seethed through shone teeth, "You're just trying to get a rise out of me. or tease me."

Sighing, Darragh admitted with a plain tone, "Okay, I will say, that's a distinct possibility, yes, but you have my word."

"Once again," Colette rolled her eyes.

"It's all I have," it came with his faint smile, hanging along with it some slight sincerity that always seemed hidden behind his words.

She stared at him, again weighing the options. It was a numbers game - it always was. Having a meal, being fed, her sustenance ending up in a puddle of cum.

"Fine," she spoke, grumbling lowly, "But nobody ever hears about this."

Darragh grinned slightly, "I doubt anybody would care about the pride of Aubernpine's florist scene being fed by some vagabond. I've plenty more dirt on you, anyway."

Gods, fuck, Hells; he did, didn't he?

He raised the meat up toward Colette's mouth, allowing her one last moment to withdraw, only the growling of her stomach grew to a roar as she watched the scene before her playing out, not the least of which the man sitting there toying with her - only he wasn't. He wasn't even teasing her, or making light of the situation. Darragh simply sat there, not even smiling; his face was the definition of passivity, only watching to ensure he wasn't to drop the steak. For a split second, Colette recognized that she somewhat missed his character; that zest, that impetus for her own bites back.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?!" she snapped back before taking a back, causing Darragh to pull his hand away as he sighed.

He shrugged defiantly, "You just demanded that I-"

"It's awkward as fuck, so, I don't know, say something," Colette frowned.

Darragh smirked, raising his hand once again, "Open wide."

"Oh, fuck the gods..."

He laughed, shaking his head, "I'm just messing with you. Just take a bite, gods damn! It's going to reincarnate by the time you consume it!"

A scowl as Colette reached her head over, taking the meat from the chopsticks into her mouth, appearing none too pleased with the arrangement, though her insides fluttered, nonetheless, with embarrassment and, somehow, expectation. She retreated as she chewed the meat, ignoring Darragh's amusement as he poked at his own food, taking a bite himself.

"So," Darragh began, "After our meal, I suppose we ought to write your letter and leave it with the staff, just to have that out of the way. Then we trade off sleeping while one keeps watch - you first - until dusk when we- What?"

"Why me first?"

"Because-" Darragh reached for another piece of meat, raising it for Colette to take into her mouth far more absently this time around, "-ideally, we're far enough ahead that the Magesterium hasn't caught up, but on the off-chance that they will, I'd rather somebody six feet tall at the window that somebody just barely casting a glance off the floor."

Colette rolled her eyes, "I'd do a fine job."

"I'm sure you would. We just can't afford to not go with our best options here. You're more our stealth option, right? The one we go to when something needs biting, or- coiling! You ever considered that one?"

She sighed, "I'm a wyrm, not a boa constrictor..."

"I mean, with the right attitude, you could be whatever you wanted to be. So long as it didn't have arms or legs."

Colette allowed her face to twist into a look of disdain, frowning weakly, "And what makes you the most ideal option? What peak existence is your attitude keeping you from attaining? I know you like to ask a lot of questions as a farmhand after feigning entry into such a profession."

"Partly. I spend most of my time cataloguing and researching the more trivial and obscure portions of the universe - the microscopic, the aquatic, the aerial - it's a labor of love, really, but it sure is rewarding."

Colette didn't even need the moment to take a beat anymore, "Uh huh."

He grinned, "Didn't buy it, huh?"

"You stopped thinking I'd actually bite you quite some time ago, as well, I assume."

"Perhaps I need new people, rather than new jokes and tricks," Darragh smirked behind a mouthful of spinach.

"Or you could just spill some of your insecurities that your teasing and humor is hiding," Colette supposed aloud, "It'd save us some time."

He twisted his lips, "Cutting a tad deep for somebody relying on another to eat with dignity, are you not?"

"I can win my dignity back," her voice was spry, as though she knew, for an abject certainty, she now had the upper hand.

Darragh frowned, though he seemed to take his defeat in stride, simply muttering, "That's a Birkie."

"A what?"

"Highest card takes the trick," he grinned, reaching for another sliver of meat the hold there in space, "Maybe we'll play when you get your hands back."

Confused, Colette figured, were this man resorting to such silly methods to parry her attempts at piercing his armor, it must truly be something truly raw she had been aiming for. She reached out for another bite, deciding not to press the issue further; her heart had begun to ache for an hour or so, leaving her feeling a bit anxious, though not enough to consider it much more than a passing concern. The two of them had other matters to attend to than Darragh's insecurities, her pains, or her dignity, for that matter - but she couldn't help but cling onto those parts of her humanity. Perhaps Darragh was doing the same, in his own way.