[ it's not the first time she makes that mistake and, honestly, she doesn't even notice she's said or done anything wrong until his silence prompts her to replay it in her head. grief isn't a straight line and being a person who keeps her relationships casual because she can't take that kind of heartache, it's a line she keeps stumbling over. she can never really predict how certain comments are going to land and she hasn't reached a place where she feels like she can talk to him about it when she feels like there's a part of him that... might place some of the blame on her.

there's a noticeable shift in the tone of her voice, all that earlier playfulness now gone. ]

So, let's make sure it looks nice for her, then. Try and give her something that resembles normal in all this... weirdness.

[ the kid isn't much older than she was when she was being bounced around from place to place. it's not quite the same, but being taken from everything you know and being forced into an uncomfortable situation isn't exactly hard to sympathize with. ]

I could help. I really could help with the decorating, that doesn't have to be just innuendo. I could, I don't know... pick up a couple gifts for you to put under that tree for her.