And everything looks better with my eyes closed

When Dawn and Rose developed their strategy to help Rose break down Ella’s walls and get to know her (and Cinder) better, Dawn had weighed the situation carefully, and put a significant amount of thought into whether or not she should leave this in Rose’s grubby little hands.

After all, Rose was… Rose.

Dawn knew the actress well enough by now to recognize that the blonde may have good intentions, but those good intentions were likely to result in some very big mistakes. And it might be good for Ella to have someone in the room that she trusted, who she could lean on when Rose inevitably screwed things up. Which Dawn really, really hoped she wouldn’t.

She wanted to have faith in the other girl, she really did. But Rose… was Rose.

Dawn had been burned too many times.

Still- she had ultimately decided not to accompany the other woman back to the Fashion Suite, and chose to believe in Rose’s ability to resolve the situation herself. While her relationship with Rose was a complicated one, she still wanted to believe in the actress’s ability to make a genuine connection with Ella. Dawn wasn’t a gambler, but it wasn’t gambling to put your faith in someone else.

Besides, if Dawn had gone along with her, it could have resulted in an even MORE unstable situation. It would signal to Rose that Dawn didn’t have faith in her, while at the same time resulting in Ella being outnumbered. Ella in turn would likely regard Dawn’s presence there with suspicion, and feel like she was being underestimated and patronized.

That was a sore spot for the other girl.

I’m not her mother. She’s not even that much younger than me! I can’t be babying her. I can’t be babying either one of them! I just have to trust that they can handle things themselves, without relying on me to do it.

It was strange. Dawn didn’t like being the girl people went to just for advice, but she couldn’t help but want to give it. Her need to be helpful was a positive thing- but it could backfire, like what was happening right now.

So Dawn saw Rose off with a shaky smile, and ordered in a late dinner, and hoped that when the dust settled everything would go fine.

A couple hours later, as she was preparing for bed, she noted that the hotel hadn’t burned to the ground, so the worst-case scenarios had probably been avoided.

Then came a knock on the door that made her ears jump up and her tail stand on end.

Dawn immediately swung her eyes around towards the door, and wondered warily who it could be. Certainly not Rose, right? Not at this hour…

Just as she was weighing whether or not to ignore it and feign going to sleep…

“Dawn!”

Morgana’s voice in her head caused her to freeze in place.

“Morgana? Is that you?” Dawn asked. It was still hard, getting used to the psychic communication with her friend. “Did you knock on my door just now?”

“No… that, that wasn’t me… I think it was Amelia. She just left saying she was going to see you. I think she wants to talk about something. But she didn’t say what.”

Dawn blinked curiously. That was interesting.

“I-I think you should open it.”

The mental messages from Morgana’s boon were incapable of transmitting tone of voice, and yet she could still somehow sense Morgana’s wariness all the same. A wry smile touched her lips and her ears twitched as she walked forward, making up her mind.

“Thanks for the heads up, Morgana,” she thanked her friend. “I can handle this.”

She was curious what Amelia would want with her. Dawn hadn’t really interacted with Nick’s stepmother that much since the older woman came to the island, but they seemed to be on a pretty similar wavelength. They both mostly just stayed out of each other’s way.

So for the distant woman to come seeking her out in particular… that meant it must be important. Like her, Amelia didn’t do things without reason.

“Yes?” Dawn asked innocently, opening the door. “Who is it?”

She pretended to be surprised when she saw Amelia standing in the doorway with a stoic expression on her face.

“Oh, Amelia! What brings you here?”

Amelia blinked. “Morgana informed you?”

Dawn liked to think she had a good poker face, not that she would ever do something like play poker. (Although she was obviously a wiz at counting cards!)

Amelia clearly wasn’t fooled by it, though.

“You, uh… …Yeah. How did you know?” She asked, raising her eyebrow.

“You two are close friends. I asked her to inform you I was coming.”

Dawn scrunched up her nose. Morgana hadn’t told her anything like that. “You did? Because she didn’t mention that part…”

Amelia looked momentarily perplexed. “…I see. Looking back, I was… imprecise with my words. When I informed her that I was going to talk to you, I expected her to contact you as a matter of course… but perhaps I should have asked her to do that explicitly.”

It was a reasonable assumption Amelia had made, but an embarrassing oversight on her part. “Please forgive me for the confusion,” she apologized politely. “I dislike making unannounced intrusions this late in the evening. I’m sure you can understand.”

The last time she had done something like that had been when her stepson was still a teenager. After that mess, she vowed to always give ample warning to anyone before coming to check up on them at night. And she always made sure to knock, even just on the wall if the door was wide open.

You could never be too careful.

Dawn didn’t pick up on any of this, because Amelia’s poker face was even better than hers. She just looked curiously at the older woman, and wondered what she wanted.

“So… what can I do for you, then?” She finally asked the older woman. “I’m sure you didn’t just drop by for a late-night cup of tea.”

Amelia shook her head. “Thank you for the offer, but no. I dislike drinking caffeine this late in the evening.”

Dawn nodded slowly. Her offer hadn’t been entirely sincere anyway; but she was still curious to know if Amelia even drank tea at all. She’d certainly never seen it. But it seemed obvious that a woman of upper-crust English nobility like her would, right?

“…So is there anything I can do for you?” Dawn prodded.

Amelia blinked. She realized then that she had dismissed Dawn’s polite offer without actually informing the other girl of her reason for coming here. “Ah, please excuse me. I wished to talk to you about your roommate.”

Dawn’s face immediately turned sour. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now.

“Sorry, but she’s not here,” Dawn said, trying to maintain her polite tone of voice even with the shift in conversation. The cat girl shook her head, flicking her ears. “I don’t know where she is, either. Even though it’s past curfew…”

On the island, it was encouraged that people be in their rooms by six. But that wasn’t a hard and fast rule for anyone other than the master and his guest for the evening. While Dakota had been heavy-handed with enforcing the curfew at various points, for the most part the contestants could come and go as they pleased so long as they weren’t abusing the system too heavily.

Case in point, Amelia was standing right in front of her.

“I see.” Amelia’s succinct answer wasn’t exactly conducive to a productive conversation, much to Dawn’s chagrin. The older woman didn’t excuse herself, either.

“…Anything about Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin in particular, or…?” She tried again, prodding Amelia a bit more.

Amelia hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. “This is… difficult for me to discuss,” the older woman finally stated. Dawn could hear a faint sigh in her words. “I dislike idle gossip, particularly in talking about others behind their backs. However…”

“Yeah, I get it… she’s… really something, huh?” Dawn sighed, shaking her head. “What did she do this time…?”

“You misunderstand. It is not something that she has done,” Amelia clarified. “I am merely… concerned about her.”

Dawn perked up a little when she heard that. “Concerned?” She asked hesitantly. “Concerned about what?”

“What is your opinion of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s demeanor?” Amelia asked, evidently having already gotten over that “dislike idle gossip” thing.

Dawn bit the inside of her cheek. “…She kept me up all night playing arcade games until I bribed her with stories about Nick from his childhood, so there’s that.”

Amelia had experienced a similar exchange. “So… you would say you dislike her, then?”

Dawn winced. “I-I wouldn’t go that far… okay, well, maybe I would. But it’s not that I dislike her, I just don’t like the way she acts sometimes, and- okay, what are you getting at?”

The cat girl was getting all tangled up trying to express herself, and it felt like Amelia was trying to get her to say something without actually saying it.

“May I please come in, first?” Amelia asked. It was only then that Dawn realized they were having this conversation in the middle of the hall, and she was wearing her pajamas.

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” Dawn said hastily, cheeks heating up. She scrambled back inside and held the door open wide for the other woman, just to show that there were no hard feelings. “Sorry.”

“Not at all,” Amelia said calmly. She walked into the room, barely noticing the beeps and whirls of the arcade machines, and sat down on a chair. As she did, she raised her head, and looked right into Dawn’s eyes.

What Dawn saw reflected back in those bright green orbs was a look of genuine concern. She bit her lip and sat down across from her.

“You have not yet given me your opinion,” Amelia stated.

Dawn frowned. “Because it’s a hard question,” she replied. “You’re asking for my opinion on another person… and this isn’t just ‘gossip’ like you said, it’s serious. SHE’S serious. And… I don’t know how I feel about her.”

Amelia raised her eyebrow curiously. “You’ve been living with her since the start of the round,” she pointed out. “Are you saying you still have not formed an opinion?”

Dawn returned her stony look with a serious expression. “I don’t like making snap judgments about people,” she said seriously. “I make observations, I take things slow, I try to get to understand who and what I’m dealing with. I don’t rush things, especially when it comes to other people.”

Amelia’s lips twitched. Dawn wasn’t sure if it was a frown the older woman was trying to keep off of her face, or the beginning of a smile.

“So… you have not.”

Dawn narrowed her eyes. “What about you, then?” She asked.

Amelia raised a crooked eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’ve been teaching her for, what, about a week now?” Dawn pointed out. “You should have a pretty good sense of the sort of person she is, right? So what’s YOUR opinion? It seems kind of unfair for you to be interrogating me, but I can’t interrogate you back.”

Amelia looked ambivalent. “I was merely asking because I was concerned about her,” she replied. “What purpose would it serve to reveal my own feelings on the subject?”

Dawn blushed. True, she’d mainly asked the question because she didn’t like that only she was answering them. She supposed it didn’t really matter…

“I was just… curious,” she admitted sheepishly. “I’m concerned about her, too.”

Amelia and Dawn shared a look with one another. Neither woman was adept at communicating their feelings, but they both seemed to understand the other in that moment.

“It appears we are concerned about the very same thing, then,” Amelia said finally. “How well Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin gets along with others.”

Dawn nodded. It looked like that was the case. “If it helps, I think she is making friends,” Dawn tried. “Or at least she’s making steps closer to that goal, anyway. Last night, she came out drinking with Gina and I.”

That came out a little more venomously than Dawn had intended. “In fact, if you want to know where she is… I’d bet it’s there. Gina probably took her out for a night on the town again.”

“Oh?” Amelia raised her eyebrow. “I did not know she was drinking.”

“Oh yeah, what a naughty student,” Dawn laughed. “She doesn’t even have ID! What a little criminal!”

She found it amusing to call a trained assassin a criminal for drinking without valid ID. Not that Dawn had her own driver’s license with her.

It was a bit of a sore spot. She’d been carded so many times, it was no wonder she didn’t ever drink, even putting aside her sensitivity to ****.

“What she does in her spare time is not my concern,” Amelia said, having no intention of chastising the assassin for going out drinking. After all, she herself enjoyed a glass of wine on occasion.

“Well, it seems like it’s your concern, since you’re here talking to me about it,” Dawn reminded the older woman gently.

Amelia raised her eyebrow and adjusted her glasses.

“…Understandable,” she conceded. “To return to the discussion at hand, however… do you believe that she is making friends?”

Dawn was still a little confused by Amelia’s question. Why would she even care? …Wait, duh! Because Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin and Nick are sleeping together, she thinks of her as a daughter! And anyone would naturally be concerned if their daughter was having trouble integrating and making friends!

Seeing Amelia’s inquiry in a brand new light, Dawn adjusted in her seat and cleared her throat. “To answer your question, Amelia, I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” she assured the other woman. “I mean, do Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s disabilities make it a little harder for her to befriend others? Sure!”

That, and her general personality and completely selfish possessiveness, she silently added.

“…But she and Kim get along great. And I think she’s getting closer with Sylvia, too,” Dawn recalled, nodding thoughtfully.

Amelia nodded back. “I see… and Gina as well, it would appear.”

It wasn’t many people, but it was a start. “I think she’s starting to get along with Dani, too,” Dawn recalled, remembering seeing the two of them interacting positively a few times. “And then there’s you, of course. …Honestly? I think she likes people who aren’t fuck- err, I mean…”

Dawn’s face lit up like a cherry as she realized what she had almost said. She hastily cleared her throat. “That is… I think she likes people who aren’t, um, sleeping with Nick. Like Sylvia, and Dani, and, well, you, obviously.”

Amelia nodded slowly. “…Obviously.”

Dawn let out a sigh of relief. She’d nearly stepped into a very awkward puddle.

“…And what about you?” Amelia asked.

Dawn blinked and her ears twitched on her head. “What, me? I mean… look, she’s my roommate, so we spend a lot of time together, but I don’t think I’d consider us friends. I’m not exactly an easy person to get to know, and neither is she, so…”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Amelia clarified, shaking her head. “I meant… what about you? Are you making friends?”

If there was a less awkward way to ask that question, Dawn couldn’t think of it. She stared blankly at Amelia for a few seconds, processing what the older woman was saying. “W-wait, you mean… me? My friends?”

Amelia nodded. Now that her concerns about Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin were addressed, she could move onto the other subject that had her worried. This seemed perfectly obvious to her, but it never occurred to the older woman that Dawn would be confused by the sudden and drastic shift in subject matter.

And indeed, it took Dawn a couple seconds to fully process what Amelia was saying to her. When she did, she blushed.

“W-well… look, it’s not a big deal, alright?” She stammered, recalling her earlier conversation with Rose. “I have friends. Morgana! And, and Ella and I, w-we get along.”

Amelia nodded. “That is good,” she agreed. But the way she said it sounded so… patronizing!

Wow, is this how Ella feels when I worry too much about her? Guess I owe that girl an apology. Dawn tried to keep her cool. But being subjected to a conversation like this!? Gah! It was like being interrogated by her mother!

A look of sadness flickered across Dawn’s face as her mother came to mind, something Amelia picked up on immediately.

“Is everything alright?” She asked tentatively, wondering if it was better not to pry but doing so anyway. She was never the best when it came to expressing herself so she hoped she came across as sympathetic and concerned.

Dawn nodded and her smile returned. “Yeah, it’s fine, just… it’s been a while since I had someone worry about me like that. Back home, my mom would always be fretting over me, asking if I was seeing anyone or when I planned to settle down and get married instead of traveling all the time… and I always dreaded those calls, because I was just trying to live my life, with barely any room to let anybody else in, but…”

She really wanted to talk to her mom right now. She hadn’t felt like this since she was a little girl, it was so unlike her.

I guess even with my perfect memory I can still miss people.

“…It’s natural for a mother to be concerned about her child,” Amelia said gently. “Her attentiveness is how she shows you that she cares.”

Amelia’s eyes fell to the floor. “At times I find myself wishing that I could be so attentive.”

Dawn was surprised by the sincerity in Amelia’s voice. “Amelia, I think you’re a great mother! I mean, Nick turned out-! Err… we-well, everyone’s getting along great now! And you’ve got such a big heart, looking out for me, and even Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin… so you’re not the best at connecting with people, so what? I’m not so great at it either, but that’s not a bad thing!”

She was frantically trying to pick up the older woman’s mood, so much so she didn’t even realize that the solemn expression on Amelia’s face had passed.

Amelia was almost smiling as she looked into Dawn’s eyes.

“…Thank you for your kind words,” she said gently. “They are much appreciated.”

Amelia really hoped that she hadn’t messed up and had expressed her gratitude properly. She was terribly bad at conveying her feelings through words, and Dawn was too far away to do so with gestures. But she wanted more than anything for the other woman to know how happy she was to hear that from someone else.

She didn’t need to worry. Dawn got her message loud and clear.