"But instinct is powerful," added Eloise, thoughtful. "We build a lot of walls trying to get away from it."
Clinical terms, scientific explanation.
She was thinking of something else to say -- sometimes a gargantuan undertaking -- when suddenly Evan was looking at her again, grinning, and of course she had to grin back at him; there really was no choice. And grinning at Evan was easy. Maybe that's what all of this was, after all.
"Silly," Ellie said, at last. "I look like I'm ready for the apocalypse in that hat." She adjusted the blanket around herself, feeling... Well. Happy, lucky, comfortable...? Some semblance of those things, as she understood them.
But there was an inherent peace in sitting awake while others slept.
Even just to watch Evan's fingers, the way he held the pencil as he drew; it made her feel like a part of something, a good thing happening. Eloise had no idea what kind of meaning any of this held in the scheme of things -- if feeling connected to anyone was some sentimental bias, old world emotionalism -- but it was simpler than that, probably. She tried to take most things a moment at a time if she could; it was easy when Evan was creating things a moment a time, little movements here or there with his wrist.
Ellie almost didn't register exactly what Evan had drawn, even, though she was listening to him quite intently.
When he turned to her she looked up from the drawing at last, expectant, and nodded; productive was a word she might have used. Maybe. A good wall to put up against any instinct.
He put his arm around her then. Ellie hadn't had anything to say, but her lips moved slightly, and she let out a little sigh that sounded more tired than anything else. Then she looked at him carefully, thinking, struck by some strange sense that there was a choice in whatever she did -- some inherent message she might or might not send. Eloise had no idea what the options were. Things had probably changed since the last time anyone put an arm around her.
So... She didn't do or say much of anything at all. She settled against him in the way she would have settled against anyone she knew, anyone who might want her close. It was hard to think of why Evan would want her close, but being human meant that these things happened sometimes. They were easy things if you decided that they were.