Hypnos smiled at her solution for how to carry the cup. Had he known she'd have some quandary about being able to both transport the cup and take his hand, he would have taken the cup himself. But she was clever and polite and simply handled the situation herself. It showed pragmatic thinking. Hypnos approved. That was the sort of thing that should be fostered in children so that they could learn to be independent thinkers. So he said nothing about the cup, he simply led the way to the kitchen.
There was something about having a child's hand placed so trustingly in one's own, he reflected as they walked. It made him want to stand taller, to be a good example. Hypnos didn't think that it was something that was the sole provision of a parent, either, though that certainly made it more pronounced. No, he'd felt it before, with younger siblings; mildly when he was an adolescent, more so an adult, and fully and completely once he became a father. Responsibility became a gift rather than a burden at times, and there was something special about that connection, simple as it was. Hand to hand.
Thinking of such things brought his own children to mind, and her connection to one of them. Just as he was about to ask her about her friendship with Phobetor, however, Melinoe posed her own question. Given how polite and self-contained she'd seemed thus far, the question took him rather by surprise. It felt personal, because it was about his twin. Then he reminded himself that the little girl knew his brother as well, because Thanatos spent time with her father. So she wouldn't think it was too personal, given that she knew the party in question.
As he led her toward the stools that sat around the kitchen table, waiting there for any who might want to rest themselves for whatever reason in that room, he considered how to answer. Hypnos did not believe in lying to children, however, so he finally said, “I don't actually know. I can make some guesses, but they would only be guesses, and maybe not the answer. You see that I have many places to lie down in my home? Thanatos does not use the beds here either. He will sleep on a divan or a lounge, and there is one room where I have tried to make it out of down covered pillows-- though that room did not turn out as well as I'd hoped, I will have to work on that-- but he has slept in that room as well, but not on a bed. I have a theory. Do you? Why do you think he doesn't sleep in a bed, Melinoe? You tell me your idea, and I will tell you mine.”