Nancy gives Amber a little squeeze, steering her towards the couch.
“It’s alright, sweetheart, don’t worry.” She coos soothingly, directing the girl to sit down. “You’ve been through a lot, I can tell, it’s alright…”
She looks over at Donny when Amber mentions how he helped, her mouth in a hard line, her face not matching the calmness of her voice. Donny’s shoulders hunch a little under her gaze.
“I’m sure he was.” Nancy nods at her son, a signal for him to follow her to the kitchen nook on the other side of the room. He does so, reluctantly, and stands there as he watches his mother start to make tea.
“What happened, Donny.” She repeats her question from before, her voice low and sharp. “I saw the smoke. Did you have anything to do with it?”
“What? Mom, no!” His refusal is believable enough, at least. And the hurt on his face, that’ real. “Why would you think-”
“Donny, I’m your mother. I know you.” Nancy looks away from him, pouring water from the kettle into a mug. “You’ve been starting fires since you were old enough to hold a lighter. No matter what I did. Just… just tell me it wasn’t you.”
Donny’s shoulders slump. Nothing she says is untrue. He does have a… history. It’s been a source of tension between them for years. She’s never understood why he couldn’t just… stop. Though really, neither has he.
But that doesn’t stop the accusation from hurting.
“…Amber hired me to escort her through Freeside.” Donny finally begins to speak, softly. “That’s… that’s all. When we… heard it happen, and saw the fire, I just tried to get her away. She’s just a kid. It wasn’t safe, so… I brought her here.”
Nancy sets down the kettle and gives him a long, hard look. Finally, she sighs, picking up the mug and turning away from him, back over to the sitting area and to Amber.
“Here you go, sweetheart. This should calm your nerves.” She passes the girl the mug. “You’re safe here. You can stay the night, at least, till the commotion quiets down.”
Amber sits down on the couch heavily. She watches Nancy and Donny walk across the room and furrows her eyebrows together quietly. Their voices are too low for her to catch more than the tone they’re spoken in, but something inside her stomach clenches and she can’t help but wince at how familiar the sounds are.
When Nancy walks back with the tea, Amber takes it wordlessly and wraps both hands tightly around the cup. It’s warm to the touch. Her fingers twitch, but she looks up and manages a polite smile.
“...thank you. That’s...that’s nice of you.” She doesn’t make any motions to raise it to her lips. “I promise I’ll be out of your hair in the morning. My...friend and my brother are probably wondering what happened to me.”
Which is true. She's alone on this particular trip even though she’s been traveling by herself less and less lately, and Nathan usually forgets when she’ll be back, but if she’s gone long enough even he’ll begin to worry. Besides, it's better to sound missed and looked for to a stranger no matter how kind they’re being. Donny and his mother haven’t given her any reasons to distrust them, but old habits die hard.
