Astrid was taking her self-inflicted dedication to staying out of Sabine's way as much as possible seriously, right down to avoiding the common room on her floor. She wanted to be like a ghost--appearing every once in a while to change the wall, maybe, but beyond that, beyond perhaps some mysterious cries at night from the dreams she couldn't help, she could try to make it like she wasn't even there at all.

She'd discovered that she preferred the fifth floor--there was hardly anyone up there--but she just didn't feel like going up that far today, especially since she was thinking of heading down to the salle after she'd gotten something to eat, with her mind stuck on swords the way it was after shop class. So the third floor it was, with a can of soup and a sleeve of crackers in hand.

"Oh." She didn't even notice Mae over on the couch at first, taking her for just a shadow with that blanket over her, and practically already had the pan for her soup in her hand by the time she did. "Hi, Mae."

There seemed to be a hesitation, a battle in herself between the part of her that had vowed to stop apologizing for her own presence, and the part of herself that couldn't help it.

"It's cool if I use the stove in here, right?"

She'd have called that a compromise if it weren't for the fact that she knew it was fine, if she didn't already know that she didn't need to ask anyone's permission.