There were times when Noah could almost feel Vienna trying to figure him out; it was something in the very slight tilt of her head and the expression in her eyes when she looked at him. She might have been surprised to know that he couldn't necessarily figure her out, either. Women were such a puzzle to him a lot of times, and he thought that might have been the reason he'd stuck exclusively to men for a while. Still, that wasn't really relevant right now.
Ty had ceased to pay attention to Noah and Vienna once they began heading off for her room. He was getting settled on the couch again and giving serious thought to Ledger's question. "Not necessarily," he said as he got the blanket arranged just like he liked it. "It can be for manly guys like us, too. Everyone needs rest." He'd found that he got a kick out of how Ledger was so literal; maybe everyone who was three years old was like that. He didn't even mind coming up with explanations on the fly.
Now, though, he was hoping Ledger would go back to sleep before he did, because he didn't want the kid deciding to go back to Mommy and interrupting whatever was going to go on back there.
Finally-- finally-- they were in Vienna's room, a place where he'd never been before. Noah realized that he'd been holding his entire body tensely, his frame taut as if braced against impact, and he let his shoulders relax. He had no idea what to say, how to explain that he wanted things to go back to how they'd been, but better. For someone who was relatively well-read and who enjoyed words and poetry, he was surprisingly bad at talking about feelings.
"I, uhm--." Noah raked a hand through his hair again and sighed, exhaling it in a short, choppy breath. Then, before he even knew he was going to do it, he was closing the gap between them and pulling Vienna against him to hold her close. "I don't want things to be like this," he mumbled into the soft skin just beneath her ear. "'Cause I miss you." He breathed her in, nuzzled his nose against her neck, feeling instantly better just being this close to her.