He saw her crying. She didn't want him to, but he did anyway. And he did that thing with her chin that Father did sometimes. Lottie knew what that meant. It meant he didn't know what to say. Probably because she was crying and that bothered him. It always seemed to bother him, which was why she tried so hard not to.
Now she felt really bad that she didn't hide it good enough. That made her want to cry some more. She blinked really fast to try to keep the tears from getting out. If she squeezed her eyes shut, they could sneak through. Blinking fast could trick them sometimes. It almost worked this time too. Almost.
There was a tiny little sniffle. Not because she was crying. Her nose was just stuffed up. A second small sniffle snuck out, but then she could breathe a little better, and all the while, she just watched Than's face. Because he was thinking and he was going to say something very important. Lottie could tell. He was thinking hard.
Then he said it wouldn't be fun, and she was relieved. She had worried that he was going to just say no. No meant no. That's what Mother kept telling her. But Thanatos hadn't said no. He'd just said it wouldn't be fun.
“That's alright!” she burst out happily. “It don't gots to be fun. I can help you. I can. Please, Thanatos? Please? I wanna go with you.”