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Yor carries Anya in. Bond vocalizes quietly upon realizing that they’re home.
“Hi,” she says to Bond. “Keep it quiet. I think Anya’s sleeping.”
“Tired herself out?” Loid asks from the kitchen. Yor jumps about two feet in the air.
“… Yeah,” she says. “I’ll go put her down—”
Anya chooses to tighten her grip on Yor at this moment.
“Maybe not,” Yor says. She hoists her purse off. “Can you help me get my coat off? I don’t think she’ll let me go easily.” She holds her free left arm out for Loid to grasp on to. He takes the sleeve and pulls down, then, like peeling an orange, helps Yor out of the coat.
“Thanks,” she whispers, then shakes out the coat. Without another word, Loid takes the coat and hangs it on the rack. “I thought you weren’t going to be back until much later,” she adds. Then she crosses the room and finds a blanket to tie Anya to her.
Loid thinks of how he intercepted the transmissions of WISE (though, does it count as interception if it isn’t done maliciously) and finagled the deal to go over quicker.
“The keynote speaker had to call out,” he says. “It’s eight. When did she last eat?”
“No idea. I think they fed the kids on the bus.” Yor shrugs helplessly. “I’m not going to wake her up.”
As they stare at each other, this is the first time where Yor sees Loid look completely out of his depth.
“Tea?” she asks.
Loid jumps and nods, then busies himself with procuring it. Yor moves to sit on the chair, since Anya’s weight is starting to make her shoulders hurt, with how they're being pulled forward.
Loid brings a tray over five minutes later. He sits with the mug in both hands, not really looking anywhere.
“Are you okay?” Yor ventures.
“Me? I’m fine. … Are you?”
Yor thinks of how she ran to pick up Anya and wore out her shoes.
“I’m good,” she says.
They’re children, she thinks to herself. Regardless of how rich their parents are.
“Who does this to children?” Loid mutters, more to himself than left out in the air.
“They’re terrorists,” Yor says. “Who knows why they do anything?”
“The sect was a student organization. Red. They didn’t start violent.”
“I don’t care how they started.” Yor shakes her head.
“The state turned violent against them. Almost wiped them out.”
“Don’t tell me you’re defending them,” she says thinly. Tears are rising for some reason.
“I’m not.” Loid moves and sits on the coffee table. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to make you cry.”
“I’m not going to cry.” Yor grinds her teeth trying to stop it.
Loid ducks his head. For two minutes it’s silent.
“I’m from Westalis. Rural, far east,” he says finally. “I fought in the war.”
Yor raises her eyes.
“I enlisted a year before I could’ve, but no one needed to know that, right? I joined because I blamed Ostania for the war.” Loid raises a hand, thinking she’s about to argue, before putting it down after seeing her silence. “But I didn’t know anything about why I had a gun in my hand. I couldn’t even smoke.” He wrestles with himself for a minute, before he adds, “I don’t tell you this to… upset you. Clearly I’ve grown up, right?” Loid offers her a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Yor only nods.
“My old man,” he adds, “had berated me as a young child because I said I wanted to kill the Ostanian bad guys. … It’s terrible when a man like him makes a point.”
“He sounds like a real charmer,” Yor offers. She thinks: It makes sense now, why he had the cold sweats a few weeks ago, when he thought Anya had another Tonitrus. What have you seen, Loid?
“Anyway—my point is, radicalization is not a thing that happens in a vacuum. I’m not…” He scoffs and shrugs that point off. “There’s a reason why I do what I do. I don’t want there to be a world where children cry anymore. I probably won’t forgive them for what they did. I doubt Anya will. I doubt you will. … My first thought is that we should understand why someone is where they are, so we don’t end up hijacking a bus-full of children ourselves.”
Yor smiles. “I get it. That’s why I do what I do, too. … To protect other people’s carefree lives. Yours, Anya's. It’s not easy… but nothing ever worth having comes easy, does it?”
Loid shakes his head. “I would’ve hoped that children, regardless of who their parents are, would be safe.” He stares at Anya now, and his eyes keep darting down to where her back is, monitoring her breathing.
“Eden is second to none, you said,” Yor points out. “I don’t think they could’ve foreseen this.” I could’ve stopped it, though, she thinks. If I hadn’t been so sloppy. She purses her lips. “I don’t want her to go to school tomorrow.”
“If Eden has any sense, they’ll cancel classes and reorganize. … Even if that’s not the case, we’ll keep her home tomorrow. She needs a breather before she goes back.”
Yor nods and shuts her eyes. “What if we both have to work?” Already she has mental images of burglaries gone wrong.
“The hospital has a daycare. If that doesn’t work, she can stay with me personally.”
“Right,” Yor mutters, eyes still shut. “We’re a team.”
Wordlessly, Loid bumps his mug with hers.
"Why not go to bed early?" he adds. "I'm sure you're worn out from worrying."
Yor actually smiles. "I can't sleep now. Too much adrenaline."
Loid pauses, considers his next move, and says, "I'll take her. You can do whatever you need to do."
Yor also pauses, considers her next move, and says, "All right."
She undoes the knot, level with her lumbar vertebrae, and tries to hand off Anya to Loid. He takes the blanket and throws it over himself and Anya, then waves Yor off.
While Yor decides to take a quick shower, Loid himself is itching to go to sleep. He checks if he has clearance to move, then stands and, as quietly as possible, walks to his room. On the way, he grabs her pajamas and Mr. Chimera. He sets down Anya and changes her out of her uniform, makes a mental note to throw that into the laundry as soon as possible. (It's soaked with sweat and tears.)
Then he changes as well and pulls the covers up over them both.
Yor comes out of the shower and gets dressed, then spots Loid sleeping in the same bed with Anya.
'Papa's a big softie,' she hears Anya say, and Yor smiles. She pulls her mattress down to Loid's room and decides that she will sleep there tonight.