He stopped suddenly, and turned slowly as he, for the first time in the night, matched her gaze. He was being unfair to her, and he knew it. Showing up at her doorstep with a random stray, dumping his problems on her, and then just shutting himself off again. Maybe, he thought, he should just go for broke while he had exhaustion on his side as an excuse should things go sour.

"I was pretty out of line." He said, his eyes filled with a sort of soft determination. "Saying I didn't have a tether." He paused a moment, unsure of what to say next, before continuing with the question almost guaranteed to create awkwardness.

"I'm getting pretty tired of running away. You?"