Sofia's noise filtered through first, Bryant reacting to it before even the shadow on the page or the palpable presence beside him brought the rest of his brain up to speed on the very real fact that there was someone else in the room. He reacted to her 'eugh' as if he'd been in the middle of a conversation with her on the fascinating subject of preventative dentistry: "I quite agree; it l-looks ruddy awful," he murmured distantly, flipping the page to the next, absorbed in what he was studying. "But if it helps, I-I daresay I c-could... I could..."
The words trailed when Bryant realized that his tone was starting to veer toward absent-minded professor, as if he was about to explain a procedure to a patient. This implied that he wasn't the only one in the room. This meant, more simply put, someone else was there with him without his knowing they'd entered. Of course, there'd been a minimum of stuttering, something his brain was aware of in an unconscious sort of way, meaning that he'd somehow logged this interloper as more than simply 'nonthreatening' and into a much smaller category of 'trusted.'
That didn't at all help the undignified squeak and flinch combo that escaped his throat as Bryant looked up from the book to find Sofia right bloody there. With his desk facing the door, he should have seen her coming, but he'd been buried in the text, attention completely buried -- not for the first time -- and able to sneak 'round him to peek over his massive shoulder. Instead of reacting with any sort of anger or frustration at being caught unawares, however, when Bryant saw it was Sofia who'd joined him, his expression immediately brightened into a smile, the genuine ones that crinkled the corners of his eyes. "Oh! Ah, t-terrribly sorry. You gave me a bit of a start, is all. Hello." There would always be something a little shy that curled around the Briton's greetings but around his best friends -- something that Sofia certainly was -- he became less stilted and formal much faster than around many of the others.
Still, Bryant stood to greet her properly as his manners typically required of him, letting the book go completely and not caring which page it fell to. Dentistry could wait. His standing certainly accentuated their height difference, one that wasn't exactly hard to tell when he'd been seated. Tussled russet hair and pale blue eyes and a well-worn red t-shirt couldn't really compete with the... well, with the whatever get-up that Sofia had gotten up to today. He was used to the pigtails and increasingly seeing the more... doll-like outfits. Bryant wasn't quite sure what to call them, though he'd heard Sofia speak of manga and anime before, even read and watched some because of her interest in it.
With a smile, Bryant sought to compliment her, "You're looking v-very much like you today." There was a slight pause before a note of slight anxiety entered his tone as he sought to reword himself. "W-what I mean t-to say by that is, ah, is that y-you seem... happier? when you wear these cl-clothes and I-I-I think they rather suit you m-most favorably a-and so therefore you look like... you." Another pause. "Was any of that close to correct?" he sighed, giving up with a free admission of his failure to communicate social norms. She looked nice. Why was it other people could just say that?