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"That doesn't explain anything."

"It kind of does. You're in my squad now, and I know almost nothing about you that didn't come from a file thicker than my head." His mouth twisted. "And the file isn't exactly a conversation."

I looked at him.

Alex shrugged, suddenly less sure of himself than I'd seen him all day. "I thought I'd get to know you." He glanced off toward the trees instead of at me. "I didn't use to belong anywhere. Not really, not before this squad. Corian and the others just decided I was family one day and I never really had to earn it first." He looked back at me. "You could be family too. If you let yourself belong somewhere instead of just being placed there."

I didn't have anything ready to say to that. The words sat there a moment, too big to just nod at and too honest to deflect the way I usually did. I filed it away instead, the way I filed everything I didn't know what to do with yet, and told myself I'd look at it later.

Alex seemed to notice he'd said more than he meant to, because he looked away first, quieter now, like he hadn't meant to let that much out. "Anyway. That's the whole pitch. Ten out of ten, very moving, no notes required."

He glanced back through the trees. "If you want me to leave, I'll go."

I didn't answer right away.

Alex waited.

He didn't tell me I was overreacting. He didn't point out we'd been assigned to the same squad, or claim Corian had given him some responsibility to watch me. More than that, he didn't move any closer.

He just waited.

I looked deeper into the forest.

Ashter had already wandered several feet away and was pawing at something beneath a root, one ear still turned toward us.

I should tell Alex to leave.

I'd come here wanting to be alone, except I hadn't actually decided that. I'd come because Gledhi was familiar, because I wanted to see what it looked like when I didn't have to sneak through it in the dark.

Alex being here changed that.

I wasn't sure it ruined it.

"You can stay."

His eyebrows rose.

"But don't grab me again."

"Understood."

"And you weren't sent."

"No."

"If I find out you're lying, I'm throwing you harder next time."

His grin came back. "There she is."

I frowned. "Who?"

"Nothing."

I immediately regretted letting him stay.

Alex fell into step beside me as I started deeper into the forest, leaving enough space between us that our arms couldn't touch by accident.

That helped.