Jade Fern Grove won't stop the pain, but she'll smell like fabreez

Alexander hadn't known what to expect, whether it be an agreement towards his query or some sort of backlash. To fix the situation had seemed like a long path to take, and it lacked the confirmation that success would be achieved. Simply forgetting everything up until that point and starting over had, to him, seemed like the greater of two choices. There were few things that he was motivated to work towards, and so he'd doubted the likelihood of his being able to remain interested enough to fix something; he knew not, either, if he was even capable of doing so. So much of his life had been spent ruining things, thus there existed within the back of his mind a great deal of worries over how he'd proceed with the group.

It wasn't that simple, to just forget it—as was what she'd said. Ears fell back and he'd readied himself to leave, but paused mid-shift when there came more words. She forgave him, which he hadn't been expecting, and so he'd remained frozen in a partially upright position for several seconds. When the words had finally processed through his mind, he'd touched his stomach back down to the ground, an expression of surprise and something indistinguishable facing her. "I won't," Xan had responded with, assuring her that she'd not made a mistake by forgiving him. He wouldn't mess up again, or, rather, he'd try not to.

"You can go back to sleep," he'd said, knowing not if she was even interested in doing so anymore. He wanted to speak with her more, but he wasn't entirely sure what to talk about, and he also didn't want to force her to stay awake. If he tried, he was sure he'd be able to find a way to keep himself up without her, so why make her exhausted, too?