Iktome Plains You asked me how long

That should be that, then.

Only Sobo wasn't very good at keeping his feelings to himself. Oh, sure, he was a young man and young men had a tendency to hide all their feelings because they thought it made them look tough. He did that sometimes, especially with Loko, since his brother sometimes teased him. He was first and foremost a young man of Sapphique, though, and raised to be unashamed of these things.

What he was most worried about wasn't that Rosalyn would judge him for having these feelings, but that she would call out the irrationality of them and not side with him when he desperately just needed someone to see him.

He wouldn't say it outright, but after a long silence that felt heavy and awkward to him even when it wasn't, he asked, why did ya an' manman choose ta let da Njord be da when all de ot'ers had no da? He knew part of the answer was that Njord was loyal and deserved it, but he felt rather like his father had squandered it. What he wanted to know in truth was why they had not stuck to the formula that clearly worked in the past, but he didn't know how to phrase it like that. Either way, it was clear from his tone that he was hung up on something involving Njord.