"I only drink it when I don't feel well," Ari admitted after a moment. "Otherwise, I mostly drink coffee - yes, even at night, and yes, it has been lamented by my mother previously that both my height and my appalling sleep schedule have to do with this." At the next statement, she paused, then said, "Perhaps, like you, I simply felt the need to ask." She would have left had she been told to leave, but being asked to stay had been an unexpectedly nice surprise.
The return of her kiss was not something she had necessarily expected, but she enjoyed it, though it was still a rather brief and light affair in the end. The path to the couch was traversed easily, and she gave Aspel a startled look when the other woman seemed confounded as to why she was being thanked. Fortunately, the confusion seemed to be cleared up promptly, and when Aspel had finished speaking, she nodded and said, "I did rather think I was... well, one does not expect to find one's mind invaded. It is not comfortable." Which Aspel, fortunately, could understand. "If I had found no one to speak to..." She could only assume Aspel's own experience had been far worse than her own.
When Aspel met her eyes, though, and spoke in a slightly hesitant tone of voice, she almost felt... not nerves, really, nor anticipation, but certainly she couldn't help being curious what such an offer might entail. "I suspect the answer to whether I would allow is yes," she replied, her hand tightening briefly on the spine of the book, "though you may have to be more specific before I can confirm."