At his words of reassurance, Aves offered him a little smile that may have been more of a wince. "I'm that transparent, huh?" She was impressed, though that he'd picked out the exact fears she'd had, and wondered briefly if he might have some form of telepathy. His offer to go with her was even more surprising and warmed her heart a bit. He was comforting her when she'd clearly just associated his aunt with something negative. Aves looked down at her plate before answering. "Thank you. I might need a little time first, but it would help things along..." She let her voice trail off as she looked back up at him. Maybe he was an even better guy than she'd thought.
Smiling, Aves put down the crust of the pizza, having nibbled off everything tasty. "Delight, actually," she said. "So my first summer of training was just a lot of desensitization to delight." She paused, considered how that might sound, then added, "It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Plus, it worked wonders. I was able to stay in school, and I've rarely had any issues with suppressing my shadows."
She considered the man before her, wondering if a half alien might have an emotional trigger, or if he had any trigger at all. She knew that for herself, she could tap into her trigger to make her shadows more formidable, but that she could also wield them without being triggered. "If you have a trigger," she said, picking up from the middle of her thought, "we might be able to identify it and work on helping you cope with it."