maidstone | stolen from another life { p h i l l i p }

Phillip followed behind her, quietly after he'd asked and she had answered. Her reply had been polite but it hadn't really offered him much information. If he had been paying less attention to her, which he couldn't possibly do at this moment even if he tried, he might not have noticed the fact that she was oddly quiet. Anytime Billie lead him somewhere, or to do something, she usually narrated it. Offering him little bits of information as they went, so that he could be as informed as she was, and he always appreciated that. Phillip was naturally curious about everything but he'd stopped asking questions of most people a long time ago. Billie always saved him from having to ask too many questions. Right now, she was quiet, and he found that strange but also entirely relatable. It was the first time she'd been back since she packed her things, it was a big moment, and seeing the state of the plants (some thriving, some rotting) must have carried a lot of weight.

When she finally did speak again Phillip didn't even take a moment to think about his response, "Of course, yeah," he said, half-turning where he was standing and waiting for her so they could walk out of the greenhouse together. Making sure not to trip on anything as they walked Phillip was quiet again. He slipped his hand into hers, giving it a tiny reassuring squeeze, as they exited, using the other to hold open the ornate doors.

While he couldn't possibly know exactly what she was thinking but he thought he could assume enough. Their situations were different, but similar in so many ways. The wizard remembered what he had felt like when they visited Ireland. It wasn't his childhood home but the spot they'd went to was as close to his heart as a home would have been. He'd been swept away by his emotions that day, overcome by grief and longing but also a sense of comfort knowing it was still there after all this time. He wondered if she felt something similar coming back here. He hoped she felt more comfort than anything else, and either way, he was still going to try to provide her with some if he could.

When they finally returned to the sunlight and the grass outside of the Greenhouse Phillip looked down toward her. His eyes searched her face for any sign of what she was experiencing. For anything that would help him, help her, because that was all he wanted to do right now. As much as he had loved kissing her (and he had really loved it) he was entirely here at this moment now. Thoughts of what they had been doing, what they could have been doing, had been pushed to the back by his undying need to comfort her. To make her feel safe and secure, and like she wasn't going to lose anything else. Phillip thought about saying a hundred different things, about trying to make her laugh or empathizing, but instead, he just wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug.

He half turned, and she started walking back towards him, feeling a mix of claustrophobic and exposed at the same time. As she got close, she thought about taking his hand again... but chickened out. She was grateful then, a moment later, when he didn’t chicken out, and she gave him a small, thankful smile when he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Somewhere in the back of her head, Billie registered a kind of relief that they still had this part of their relationship. She was so obviously into him it was embarrassing, and she melted when he kissed her, but all of that stuff was built on this – a solid, caring, understanding of one another. A real friendship. It was a relief to be able to access that now, even though she’d been utterly fixated on the way his hands had felt on her body – and nothing else – only minutes ago.

She didn’t say anything as they stepped outside, but she felt a lot better as soon as she was out here. Would she be able to go back in there sometime, she wondered? Naturally, her thoughts drifted to the estate on her island. In a moment, she imagined the little caves, the bay, the building itself and the smaller hut on the other side of the island. The stone walls, the overgrown gardens, the cliffs. She was quiet for a while, just letting him hug her as her thoughts drifted. She rested her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes, the cool breeze the only thing to break the silence. Billie stood there for a minute, letting her feelings settle in her chest.

After a moment, she sighed, then pulled back, smiling when they made eye contact.

“I thought I’d feel like that in there,” she said quietly, before glancing over her shoulder at the house. She looked up at the top room, where she could see one of the windows. “I suppose once that was okay, I thought it’d be fine,” she added. Billie knew she didn’t have to elaborate, and she didn’t especially enjoy talking about her grief, or exploring the different ways that different things made her feel bad in various ways, but this was something she could share with him. This part, at least, she could share. And she wanted to. She looked back at him.

Being close to her had always made him feel more durable, even before they had become close in these new sorts of way, being her friend had a profound effect on him. He felt more secure in his own grief, longing for a family he could never get back and missing what he had lost. Billie had never made him feel like those things were less important because of the time that had passed or because he was far from the only tragic story born from the War. She listened, she cared, and she gave him the strength to face and even learn how to deal with the complex emotions that had come out of losing everything. He hoped he could be that same sort of rock for her to lean on, but knew he'd never be as good as Billie. She was a great listener, but Billie also knew how to say just the right thing at the right time, or when to say nothing at all, just be there.

Holding her hand as they exited the Greenhouse, Phillip felt like he was on the right track. Wrapping his arms around her felt right, not just because he desperately wanted physical closeness now that it had become an option (and what an amazing option it was) Phillip's heart raced a little when she put her cheek against his chest. The physicality of the moment reminded him of when they were at the Giant's steps back in Ireland, of what they had shared, of how they had just stood there close like this for longer than Phillip knew. It was comforting, the stillness, the reminder that no matter how much he felt like it, he wasn't alone. Rubbing her back gently, Phillip remained silent until she was ready to talk about it. Phillip wouldn't push, but when she wanted to tell him, he would listen.

He would be there for her. "Yeah," he barely spoke, eyes following hers up to the top window of the house they'd just apparated from. Up there, everything had seemed so distant, her room was a small pocket in a house full of memories. He wondered if that room was less haunted to her. If that was why the mood had been so different. It made Phillip want to ask why the greenhouse meant so much to her, he wanted to know the memories behind it, why she was feeling how she was. "It will be, one day," Phillip promised her, knowing from experience, but for her sake, he hoped it wouldn't be years before she was able to return to the greenhouse. It was apparent how dear it was, and he wanted her to be able to enjoy it again and reflect on the good memories and not the ghosts of the past.

Green eyes dipped back down to her face, exploring it for clues, "There were many different plant species in there, was your aunt a Herbologist?" Phillip inquired even though he wasn't sure if questions and talking about it would make it easier or more difficult for her.

She smiled when he said that it would be one day, and she wondered when that day would be. She wondered, then, when she would be able to go back to her childhood home. When she’d be able to go back and not feel like pieces were torn out of her. If she would be able to go back at all. She certainly couldn’t ask Phillip to take her. She glanced at him as he spoke again. Billie started walking slowly, slipping her hand back into his and feeling a little more comfortable doing it.

“I think so,” Billie said, frowning but nodding at the same time. Her aunt – or, her great-aunt-some-amount-of-times-removed or whatever her actual familial relationship was to Billie – she’d never actually worked it out properly – had been well over a hundred years old when she died. Billie knew that she’d gone through several career changes before she’d retired. “Not for a long time, though... She was very old.” Billie tried to imagine what it’d be like to see the wizarding world change over that amount of time. A hundred years ago, Ethel had been a young woman; it was almost impossible to imagine.

“I think she was a healer for a while,” she added. She still didn’t know what house her aunt had been in – it was something that had concerned her a year ago, when she and Phillip had spoken about it atop the astronomy tower, but she’d never gotten around to actually finding it out. Billie knew that she’d be able to find it if she looked hard enough. It had occurred to her at some point that Ethelinda Fay wasn’t even her aunt’s real name. Billie wondered if she was really Ethelinda Sinnoway, or if her first name had changed when she’d changed her surname. But she’d talked about being a healer, once.

“I’m…” Billie glanced at Phillip again, before looking down at the ground as they stepped from the grass to the path that led back to the house. “I’m taking the OWLs one needs to be a healer, actually,” she said. She hadn’t told him – or anyone – that, yet. Not even Kendrick. She didn’t want to jinx it or something; Billie was a very studious girl, but to be a healer one needed a decent NEWT in Defence against the Dark Arts of all things. It wasn’t exactly her best subject.

Phillip nodded replied to his question, eyes still searching her face for any sign of whether this was helpful or not. Though he never knew it at the time, once and a while sharing things made the pain a little easier to bear. Most of the time he didn't want to talk about his feelings, but when he did it was almost always with her. And as he stood there, green eyes fixated on her delicate features, he hoped she felt the same way. When Billie spoke again Phillip silently wondered what very old meant to a witch or wizard. There were some that lived well past a century, some even longer, the term didn't have the same meaning across the wizarding world as it did the muggle one. He figured it meant she must have been at least a hundred, and he was impressed by the number.

"Oh?" He asked, seeing how the trajectory from being a herbologist to a healer could be beneficial. Phillip wondered if there was a bit of potioneering in there too. From everything, he'd read in their history books seventy years ago things were far different. Fewer witches and wizards went to institutions like St. Mungo's for every little thing. They often relied on the witch or two in the village who was good at things like potions, herbs, and healing tonics. Phillip pictured her aunt being that person, and easily enough he could see that gentle caring nature he knew so well in Billie somehow in the image he'd made up in his head of her Aunt. He'd never seen a picture of her, didn't really even know anything about her, but little by little he was formulating images of what she looked and acted like from bits of information Billie gave him. He had the same little mental files for her parents, and for the things she never really told him anything about. Filling in the details as best he could, but working hard to not make too many assumptions.

Phillip followed her onto the path and felt the stones shifting underneath his sneakers. "Are you?" Phillip asked, pulling on her hand a little to stop them when she told him her plans to be a healer. It was the first time he'd heard it, the first time really she'd asserted anything about her future that he could remember really. The two of them lived in their past, haunted by memories and tragedies. Most days it was a wonder they moved forward at all, but planning out what she might like to do after Hogwarts was a huge step. When Phillip had signed up for his OWLs he just picked the classes he found most interesting. He hadn't bothered to set a career path or double-check to see which ones he'd need. That was too much forethought.

"Any kind of healer specifically?" He asked wondering if she wanted to work with children or do emergency medicine, or if she hadn't gotten that far yet. Either way, the incoming fifth year had already surpassed him in the "planning for the future" department.

Billie stopped, turning back to him as he tugged her hand, a little wide-eyed. “Oh,” she said, glancing down at their entwined fingers. “I’m not sure,” she said tentatively. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when she’d shifted the conversation this way, but honestly, it should have been this. Of course he’d take an interest in something like that. She tried to downplay it, shaking her head as she tucked some stray strands of hair behind one ear with the hand that wasn’t holding his.

“I mean, it’s just the big five,” she replied, glancing back up at him. She didn’t know why it made her so nervous to talk about. Perhaps because Phillip only had one year left at Hogwarts, while she had three? NEWT exams were a long way away for the blonde. Billie counted the classes with her other hand as she listed them. “Defence, potions, charms, transfiguration, herbology. Plus one extra, but the final class can be anything,” she added. “It’s not as if I’m making a commitment to career or anything.”

If she thought about it a little more, it couldn’t just be the age thing. She hadn’t told Kendrick, either. Perhaps a part of her was nervous about asserting herself, making her own decisions about her future. She didn’t want to want something, and have it taken away from her. Billie's life was already divided into a neat set of befores and afters; she’d learned first hand and up close that nothing was promised. Things didn’t stay.

Behind Phillip, Billie could see the greenhouse; they were close enough that it was still tall and looming. She glanced back to meet his eyes, feeling a little swell of emotion.

Phillip was surprised by this admission but only because he hadn't known about it sooner, because in reality, being a healer was a good fit for Billie. She was caring, empathetic in a way he never knew possible, and she was a quick learner. From the conversations, they'd had over the years ranging from muggle physics to magical enchantments and everywhere in between, he had no doubt she had the mind to pick up medical spells too. "That's really cool though Billie," he told her sincerely with a little squeeze of her hand. Phillip wondered why she hadn't told him before now, assuming she'd been planning on it for some time. Billie wasn't the type to leave things till the last moment, to put off homework or studying, so he figured she hadn't waited until the last moment to send in her class requests either. Phillip nodded when she mentioned it wasn't concrete and spoke again.

"True, but with those NEWTs, you can get just about any job you want." For a moment Phillip let his mind wander to what the future might look like. He was constantly turning off those images, not wanting to imagine a future without being able to see Billie every day. These past few weeks especially had made the reality of graduating in one term even more painful to imagine. She'd still have two years to go after he graduated and no matter how he thought about it there was no good answer. She was the closest friend he had and leaving her behind was not something he was looking forward to. Sometimes he wished she was older, or even that he was younger because he'd spend a few more years in Hogwarts if it meant more time with her.

Billie smiled a small smile, still not really meeting his eye when he said it was cool. A very Ravenclaw thing to think, she thought, squeezing his hand back a little in response. Billie was more aware than anyone of Phillip’s disdain for their curriculum and the schooling system in general, but she was thankful that he didn’t scoff at her need to achieve things within that system.

“Yes, that’s true, too,” she agreed diplomatically. Again, though, she was reminded of just how far away NEWTs were for her; she was only just now entering her fifth year. NEWT examinations were two and a half years away. “I’m taking Care of Magical Creatures in case I want to go into magizoology or something instead,” she admitted softly, taking a couple of hesitant steps, then falling into step and walking more confidently beside him when he started walking too. “But let's just see how it all goes,” she added, a part of her wanting to look over her shoulder at the greenhouse as they walked away from it.

Internally, she finished that sentence – before we start talking about careers. It was her fault – she’d been the one to bring it up – but there was still something very uncomfortable about asserting herself like this. Saying what she wanted out loud. There were a lot of things that she wanted, if she pressed herself to answer the question. There were so many things going right in her life at the moment that, for the most part, she wanted things to stay the same.

She and Kendrick were close, she and Phillip were… well, they hadn’t talked about it, but they were something. And it was the first summer where she’d had more than two friends, too. Billie had had nightmares for as long as she could remember, usually featuring dementors or demons or the deaths of loved ones. She had a lot to lose at the moment, and if she thought too closely about the ways that she wanted to hold onto it all, it almost felt like she was dipping a toe into tempting fate. She gave Phillip’s hand another squeeze for no reason as they walked up the path together.

There were so many things Phillip disliked, distrusted, or down right disdained about the Hogwarts curriculum but despite his personal feelings he wasn't a fool. And he hated how important their NEWTs grades were to the success of the rest of their life but it wasn't something that was going to change anytime soon. As much as the teenager had wanted to just skip them all together he knew better. Get decent grades, finish Hogwarts, have the ability to finally choose his own future. That was the plan, and every part had to work together.

While she knew more than anyone how much he hated classes, mostly because he felt like he already knew whatever his year mates were struggling to grasp, he was proud of her for taking her future into her own hands. It didn't matter what she was planning, or even if the plans were loose and tentative, it was impressive that she was taking control in the first place.

Falling easily into step beside her Phillip returned her words with a faint smile, "Yeah, see how to all goes," Phillip's words mirrored hers but his thoughts were miles away. His thoughts of a distant future morphing into questions about their future. About what all of this meant. When he'd considered graduating first before it was always from a 'leaving a friend behind' point of view but now he it was more than that. The look on his face changing into one she'd probably seen a million times before, lost in thought, wheels turning  His eyes trailed away from her and off into the distance, past the trail, past the house, and he took a deep breath. As Billie squeezed his hand he felt himself being tugged back to the present, returning her gesture with a faint smile. He was always so obsessed with the past, stuck in it, but now it seemed he was getting lost in the future just as easily. He needed to focus on the here and now, Phillip reminded himself as his features fell flat again.

"I'm glad you didn't go to that summer camp," he told her, meeting her eyes for a moment before looking ahead of him again. Maybe it was a selfish thing to say but Phillip knew he wanted to spend every possible moment with her.

There were fruit trees lining either side of the path now, and some of their branches were heavy with fruit. Billie wondered about the wastefulness of it all; was it okay that there was a big, beautiful house here, sitting empty, while not everyone had a home to go to? even Phillip, she thought with a start, could have benefited from being in a place like this, the last few breaks. Last winter he’d even been old enough to do magic.

Though if he hadn’t been at school last winter, then she wouldn’t have been either. And then… Well, who knew? Billie stole a sidelong glance his way as they walked, and she noted that he looked a little distant. She didn’t say anything, though. It was a bit of a relief when he didn’t say anything either; she was eternally grateful to him for never pushing when it was clear that she didn’t want to talk about something. The blonde adjusted her collar absentmindedly, hoping her other hand wasn't getting too sweaty.

They walked in silence for a little while, and when he broke it, the topic had changed quite a lot. She wondered at his thoughts, how he'd ended up talking about summer camp. “I only would have gone if you were going,” she answered honestly, eyes on the path ahead of them. Her words were true, and more than a little revealing. It felt a little more okay to say things like that now, though. "So I'd say I'm glad you didn't go either but..." She gave him a little smile before looking ahead. If he'd have gone, she'd have gone. It was as simple as that.

Her thoughts wandered briefly to what the camp might have been like. Would they have had time alone, like now? She tried to imagine Phillip in a camp-like environment; in her head it was like school, but with more outdoor activities and no school uniform. Billie had never been to a school camp before, though, so her imaginings were built from friend descriptions and pamphlets.

Phillip's thoughts had fallen back to the present, his eyes bouncing from her to the fruit trees they passed as they headed back to the main house. They had apparated from her attic bedroom, so he'd missed all of these things on the way down. Now Phillip was taking all of them in. It must have been a beautiful place to live, he thought. It seemed grand but not in an overly ornate kind of way, but more in a refined style, like Billie. It was rich, but it didn't flaunt it, it just was. The Victorian revival house itself was aging and weatherbeaten, but he could tell someone had put a bit of effort into building it. He hadn't looked at it much as they were first walking up to it, he'd been preoccupied with other things, but now he was really taking a moment to look.

The silence between them was easy, comfortable, and it felt as natural for them as talking. The Ravenclaw used the quiet to let his curious eyes move over the asymmetrical mansard roof, with a decorative cornice and elaborate trim. It was something, but it wasn't too much. Even the dormers with their sash windows didn't seem too overbearing, it was elegant and exciting. A far cry from the houses back in the city if you could even call them that. Everything was square-shaped and plain, squished in together as close as possible, where this house seemed to take up as much space as it wanted. It might have seemed silly to think a house had its own presence, but nothing was too far out of the cauldron in the wizarding world. Even if there were no physical ghosts, there were plenty of lingering spirits here, he could see them in the eave brackets and the wrap around porch, the gable treatments, and the worn white paint.

His eyes had followed the lines of the roofing details back up to the Belvedere that housed her attic room. Phillip's thoughts lingered on the moments they had spent there while she replied to his statement about the camp. He couldn't imagine himself at camp; he hated summer things, especially when he was expected to participate in sports and activities. All of that aside, the idea of a summer focussed on Science had been attractive to the Ravenclaw. Interestingly enough that he'd considered it for a whole two minutes before realizing he'd never afford it, and he wasn't going to ask anyone for a scholarship. He chewed on the inside of his cheek when Billie's words started to sink in, wondering if he had held her back from going and worrying about it.

"This is way better than camp," he replied after another moment, giving her hand yet another squeeze as his green eyes fell to their intertwined fingers and back up to her eyes. While he was no stranger to the deep conversations, emotions laid bare, that they often shared, this was also nice. Phillip was glad to be able to see all of the different sides of her, the playful ones, the vulnerable ones, the ones that made his heart race. It was like being on top of the Belevedere again, and it was a great view.

Billie felt a little better as they moved away from the greenhouse. A part of her wanted to find a way to look after all of those plants. Just letting them die in there made her feel unsettled; she knew they weren’t… animals… or anything but they were alive, and neglected, and there was something very uncomfortable about that.

But she knew it wasn’t really feasible; Kendrick would have to arrange for a herbologist to come to the property regularly. He’d have to organise to pay them out of her bank account. They’d have to be a specialist, too; there were plenty of obscure plants in there, and it wouldn’t be cheap. Billie wouldn’t ask him to do it; he was already doing so much for her by letting her live at his house each summer until she graduated. She didn’t want to be more of a burden, so she couldn’t ask for burdensome favours like this.

Regardless, she felt a bit better moving away from there, and back towards the house, hand in hand with a boy that she cared about, that liked her too.

Speaking of…

Billie glanced up at him again, smiling a bit. She felt that fluttery feeling again as she looked at him, but also the wave of self awareness that reminded her that the world was only moving in slow motion for her and that she should relax a bit. Billie looked ahead so she’d stop being so distracted by him. “Do you…”  she started, watching her steps with mild interest, “think you would have kissed me – if we’d ended up at summer camp?” she asked. The first camp session had started in July, not June, but Billie didn’t know that.

Walking beside her Phillip faced forward when she did, being careful not to step on uneven stones that might make him unbalanced. He took deliberate steps, watching where his shoes were going to make sure he didn't tilt one of the pavers up from the Earth. But it wouldn't be the rocks that made him unbalanced. Green eyes shot up when her question fully registered in his mind, would he have kissed her? He'd thought about kissing her so many times, and especially now that they had, his first instinct was to immediately say yes. He wanted to assert it, to tell her absolutely, but the Ravenclaw considered all of the possibilities. There were so many things, tiny little things, that led them here and if one of them had been different what would have happened. It was like the theory of the multiverse, an uncountable number of outcomes, and Phillip couldn't stop himself from really thinking about it for a moment before answering.

"I'd like to think so," he told her honestly. Phillip had wanted to kiss her before Ireland but before then it had just been a pipe dream. Something he thought about late at night when she'd stopped replying to the journal letters, she always fell asleep earlier, but by the time he woke up the next morning any gusto about actually doing it had started to fade. Phillip had never thought of himself as weak or easily frightened but the idea of kissing her and her not feeling the same way and terrified him. Especially after what had happened at the end of the term before last, everything had felt so muddied then, and it had confused him. When they'd first met he hadn't thought of her the same way he did now, he hadn't even though of her this way ten months ago, but sometime around Christmas, or maybe her birthday, things had started to shift.

"But I very much prefer Ireland." Phillip turned to look over at her, hoping to catch her eyes so she could see the little reassuring smile on his face. Maybe he wouldn't have kissed her at camp, maybe everything would be different right now, but Phillip was glad that it wasn't. For once he was glad to be stuck here in this moment, solidified by all of the moments that came before. It was a new feeling for the teenager, being happy about where he was and not wishing he could retrace and change every step that led him here.

Billie had been teasing, so when Phillip took some time to respond, she felt a bit nervous. She looked up at him, nodding once when he said that he’d like to think it would have happened. The question hadn’t been meant seriously, but because he was clearly taking it seriously, she couldn’t help but do the same. Would she have confessed her feelings if they’d been somewhere else, in a different setting? She would have had to have felt just as strongly in the moment, and they would have had to have been just as isolated. Billie hadn’t asked or anything, but it felt pretty obvious that him kissing her had been in response to that. She wondered what was going through his head in the moments before he’d made the move.

He spoke and she felt a mix of things. Relief. Sentimentality. “I like Ireland too,” Billie said, responding to his smile with a small one of her own before looking ahead again, feeling her cheeks get a little pinker. “Giants’ Causeway at sunset,” she added, feeling like she was perhaps revealing herself a little here. Billie couldn’t help it if she thought of things as moments. It was very teeny of her, and a part of her wanted to shy away from it because she didn’t think he’d be very impressed, but the kiss had been a very romantic moment for her. Or… She glanced at him again, smiled, then looked ahead, thinking that romantic wasn’t really the right word for it.

It was romantic, but it had been a lot more than romantic too, in a way. Billie knew Phillip well enough to know that that entire night had been a very vulnerable one for him. It had felt fragile, somehow, like they were walking a path together where treading too heavily would leave permanent damage. Instead, they’d gone hand in hand with light steps. She still felt a little surprised, and so deeply honoured that he’d been able to share that with her. That he'd wanted to.

Billie felt a little flutter in her chest, going over all of that in her head. She wanted to communicate it somehow, properly express to him how she felt, but she wasn't sure how to put it into words. Instead, she was quiet as they approached the back door of her house. She realised belatedly that she hadn't unlocked the back door, and took the right path at the fork to head towards the front of the house instead. "Should we do some work?" Billie asked curiously, glancing his way. She wasn't sure how long they'd been here for, but they hadn't gotten anything done that they'd come here for.

Giant's Causeway at sunset.

The way she said it made him smile a little brighter, she made it sound such a fancy special moment and it made him happy to hear it. He felt the same way, but saying things like that out loud wasn't something he was particularly fond of. Instead, he just murmured in quiet agreement to the sentiment and kept walking. Phillip never held on to things, he didn't find objects or possessions sentimental anymore, but he would hold on to that memory. Not only because of what he had shared with Billie but because it marked the first time he returned to Ireland after way too long, and even though it had been hard, it had also been a comfort.

Following her toward the front porch he easily fell into step beside her. Long legs and a bad attitude typically meant Phillip walked much faster than his peers, especially ones like Billie who barely broke the five-foot barrier, but over the years he'd gotten used to keeping pace with her. It was second nature now, he barely even had to pay attention to how fast he was moving. Getting to the steps of the porch again he shrugged at her question. "Suppose we should," Getting word done, even if was research for something he was more invested in than was healthy, suddenly felt far less important than kissing her.

"Unless you want to..." Phillip couldn't keep his eyes from flicking down toward her lips as they stopped just shy of the door and he looked at her. "... Show me the rest of the house?" He finished. The words nearly catching in his throat because he'd of rather asked if she wanted to go back up to her old bedroom.