Demanding Answers(Mano/Lani)

Lani pulled a hand up to rest it on the one on her shoulder. After the evening she'd had, the contact was more than welcome. She would have been able to help Mano better had she not had her own disaster, something she wanted to talk about, at least a little, but couldn't bring herself to do. "I should have never gone home," she managed. "I just thought it would be fun..." Then she had seen Eros and Mano, and things had gone downhill from there.

That brought back a few things that had come up in the conversation, as well as the fact that Lani had been hiding when he and Evelyn had gotten home. "You don't have to talk about it, but you can," he said. He wasn't the best person for advice, unless it came to a few topics he loved, Evelyn was the one for that, but Cat was here now, and he wouldn't just shove Lani off.

"Mano and Eros were arguing about coming out," Lani said. She watched as her two big toes twisted together on the tile. "I was so frustrated...I accidentally called Indigo a mudblood. I never use that word! It's just that the family would see him as such and..." She caught her breath and looked up at Cat, her brows creased and her eyes just short of tears. Although the age difference between her and her housemates was relatively small, the pair often felt like mentors, and after this disastrous night she thought that maybe Cat could provide insight.

Ouch. Cat knew Lani well enough to be okay, but he knew as well as anyone how bad she'd f~ed up. "Breathe," he told her. He flicked his wand to bring over a box of tissues, then folded himself onto the couch. "So you've got some apologies to make," he said. It had been pretty obvious how much Lani liked Indigo, and whether or not anything was going to happen there, Cat didn't think she should just leave it.

Lani nodded as she took a tissue and turned her eyes away from Cat. "He said the date was over, and the elf took him home. That's when I ran into Eros and..." The tension of her talk with Mano finally took hold and she couldn't hold back a sob. "I didn't want to hurt Indigo, but I did and then I hurt Eros instead." Which meant she had hurt Mano, which she still felt bad about despite the restrictions he had placed on her as she grew.

Ahhh. "Lani, don't beat yourself up over all this. All you can do is talk to them, try to make it up or patch it up or something." He glanced over his shoulder to the rest of the house. Evelyn would do such a better job than him.

Although it took a few moments, Lani eventually nodded and gave a watery smile. I think the best thing for me right now is to sleep," she said. Not that she thought she could actually sleep right then, but she didn't know what good could come from talking when she wasn't even able to sort her own thoughts. She stood, untangling her toes and smoothing her dress as she did. "Goodnight, Cat, I'm sorry for disrupting your evening."