With a laugh, Rae watched the reaction that spread across his face and looked at the fuzzy pink things, reaching a hand out to gather them and hold onto them for a second. She'd always liked fuzzy things. The smile she wore then was genuine, if a little reserved. She'd put them on later. For now, she just deposited her book back onto the table and placed them on top of it.
Yet again, she laughed. "No, maybe not ready for an AARP card, but I deserve every year I've got." Her tone was light, like it was a joke, but the statement itself was true enough. She felt like she'd earned every year, for the past five years especially, and just because she looked younger than she was, and just because she was young period didn't mean that she should be begrudged those years. "Don't worry, though. I won't be getting fitted for orthopedic shoes any time soon," she joked.
Rae was surprised to see the blanket draped over her legs, but her smile didn't fade. She simply quirked an intrigued eyebrow and then looked up at the man again. "Thank you," she repeated, putting her hands on the top of the blanket and pulling it up a little bit. She wasn't terribly cold, not really, but she knew that she needed warmth more than most people did now. "This was a nice gesture."
She meant all of it; the blanket, the slipper socks, the unexpected company… as someone who thrived on people and their reactions to her, this was a welcome distraction from just being here by herself. And even though the guy was a stranger and she didn't know him from a hole in the ground, he'd quite obviously gone through a lot of trouble to get these things for her. Slipper socks and insulated blankets weren't as easily obtained as they used to be, after all.
"Because drafty tablecloths used to be cheaper than insulated blankets and old habits are hard to break," Rae deadpanned, but it wasn't too long before a smirk played across her face. "Actually, I think it has more to do with allergies, but I like my first answer better."
Rae always heard that. That she had spirit and spunk. It was genuinely one of the greatest compliments that someone could give a girl like her. People with spirit, spunk or however you chose to put it were always the ones who saw things like this through. Seeing as that was exactly what she wanted to do, she always took it as the utmost compliment. "Losing your spirit is the first step to losing yourself," she said seriously. Her mother had always said that to her and she smiled sullenly at the memory. "Yes, I would much rather be death warmed over than death served cold right now. I think I've had enough cold for two lifetimes. When this whole thing is over I'm moving to Mercury."
He mostly kept to the library. Which meant that he was quite a ways away from his usual haunt. She extended her hand to shake his. "This is a long way to come to check on a stranger," she said, her tone holding no bite and her smile grateful. "Have a seat," she added, gesturing to either chair in the room.
To a less confident person, it probably would have been creepy. But Rae really wasn't bothered by it. She'd heard stranger things, and she shrugged off his concern, shaking her head no. "Not creepy. Well, not really," she added jokingly, with a light chuckle to punctuate. "I'm glad people are worrying… which sounds worse than I meant it to, but… what I really meant was like, it's nice to know that people care."