Re: lakeside mansion; hugh c./dietre a.
Hugh didn't mind silences particularly. He could fill them himself if he did mind them, but he wasn't feeling particularly awkward about these silences. Silences were awkward when filled with things that you thought should be said, or you didn't know how to say, not necessarily when you were just in the presence of someone else. His lips turned up as he watched the dogs play, and turned up further as he spied Dietre's look towards his dog. It had been clear that he'd missed her before, and it was clear to Hugh he liked being back with her around.
"I was my sibling's pet, I think," Hugh quipped. They hadn't had animals. Isaac hadn't liked them, and his mother hadn't pushed for it. "But I didn't get any of mine until I moved out. Espresso, my cat, I got from a shelter when I was attending University. I've had Heart," he thought back, "two years now I guess? I got her from a shelter too. I was going through... a difficult time and I figured training her would be a distraction."
Which it had been. A distraction from a bad break-up, and the immediate press following the trial. Hugh's gaze shifted to Heart and for a second his expression turned more melancholy too. It hadn't been just the distraction, he realized, there'd been a part of him that'd had some weird hope of reviving a relationship that - in retrospect - maybe hadn't been that healthy. It hadn't worked like that, but Heart had been a fiercely loyal companion, and he loved having her in the house and traveling with him, and curling up next to him with warmth when he slept.
"Definitely one of the best decisions I made," he turned back to Dietre, more serious. "She's been a form of therapy really. I've got another cat too, she's a Tortoiseshell I found down by the lake when she was a kitten and when nobody claimed her I decided I had plenty of space, and why not." He shrugged.