Dove stared at Thorne across the hall. She had expected an insult, maybe a public argument that had followed them both into the tunnels. Being sent away belonged in a different part of the world than making fun of someone.
"Because of the scars?" she asked.
"You said looking at them frightened you. You wanted me gone."
His voice stayed flat. She wanted details that would make the story smaller, but asking him to describe the worst parts while people passed behind him felt like taking something else from him.
"Did anyone ask you what happened?"
"The decision had already been made."
Dove looked down at her own hand on the counter. Pale fingers, neat nails, a face other people recognized before she spoke. She had inherited the safety that came with this body and the damage someone else had done with it.
Thorne’s account might not be the whole story. She had no memory to compare it with. But she remembered the way he had looked when that customer repeated the scar joke, and she did not need a missing memory to know the joke was cruel. She had heard people laugh like that at work, secure in the belief that the person being laughed at could not answer back.
"I don’t remember asking for that," she said. "I’m not calling you a liar. I just can’t give you a memory I don’t have."
His eyes narrowed. "That is convenient."
"For one of us, maybe. I keep meeting people who know the worst thing I ever said to them, and I don’t even know their names."
Kael stood beside the counter without answering for her. Behind Thorne, the men who had watched him defend her cup suddenly found reasons to return to work.
"What happened to you was cruel," she said. "That doesn’t make what happened in the passage all right. Both can be true, and I don’t want to bargain one against the other."
Thorne looked away first. When he answered, the anger had not disappeared, but he was no longer aiming every word straight through her.
"I wasn’t offering it as an excuse."
"Then we understand each other on that part."
She did not offer to fix his scars. The thought crossed her mind only long enough to make her ashamed. He had not come asking to be made easier to look at. His face was not the thing in this conversation that needed correcting.
"That’s enough for today," she said. "I meant it before. I mean it now."
He left without asking her to soften the words. Dove watched until he turned out of sight, then put both hands beneath the counter where nobody could see how tightly she was holding them together.
Kael asked whether she wanted company. She said she wanted five minutes alone and the choice to ask for company afterward. He accepted that and went back to the clinic.
Behind the tarp, Dove sat before entering the space. Sprout reported another two coins from Thorne’s confusion, bringing her balance to twenty-two. The five from his happiness still bothered her more.
"He really liked being called handsome?"
"The recorded reaction was happiness. I cannot offer you a full transcript of his thoughts."
"Good. I barely want the transcript of mine."
On the newly unlocked dental shelf, she selected the eight-coin toothbrush and twelve-coin toothpaste. The purchase left two coins. Both appeared beside her personal supplies, separate from sale stock. She held them to bring them outside, then stared at the ordinary tube in her hand.
She had meant the compliment. That did not mean she wanted Thorne following her around, and it certainly did not mean she had forgiven him.
"Please tell me he didn’t unlock floss," she muttered. "I cannot handle another emotional milestone before brushing."
By late afternoon, Grist called through the tarp. He had returned for mittens and offered four clean sheets of paper from his own bundle. She checked the size and accepted one pair’s price in paper. The mittens counted as one sale item, making two with Kael’s balm. Sprout paid the promised fifteen-coin mission reward, bringing her balance to seventeen.
She listed the remaining mitten pair and stored the fresh paper. Before reopening properly, she brushed her teeth with ordinary wash water and spat into her basin. Mint nearly made her cry. She blamed the cold water.
Once the stall was open, she called across to the salvage keeper and described the pipe’s clicking and rattle. He listened at the recess entrance, keeping clear of the gate, and said he would report it to the men who maintained the heating line. A noise did not tell him enough to promise anything.
Dove wrote down the time. Across the hall, Thorne paused beside a stack of blankets when the keeper crouched to examine her pipe. He stayed there until the inspection ended, despite having nothing in his hands.
"You’re finished here," the keeper told him.
"I can see that."
Dove raised her eyebrows. The panther finally walked on, leaving the keeper staring after him.
Kael returned near closing with his own cup and a bowl from the kitchen. He had come to eat between patients. Dove was grateful he had not arrived with another person who needed her to explain herself, and then annoyed that such a low standard felt generous.
"Long day?" he asked when she lost her place counting six perfectly visible pins.
"I’ve had longer. I usually got paid by the hour for them."
He sat on the hall bench where she could see him, leaving her free to keep working. Dove counted the pins, checked the stock list, and finally carried her own meal to the counter rather than eating behind the tarp.
For a few minutes they ate without trying to make each other talk. Kael’s presence did not remove the day. It made the quiet less sharp around its edges.
She found herself watching his thumb when he lifted the spoon. The small split remained closed. He noticed her looking and turned it once so she could see, then returned to eating without turning it into a discussion about the water.
"Thank you," she said. "For letting me finish talking earlier."
"You weren’t asking me to answer for you."
Three more coins registered when she checked, surprise from Kael, bringing her to twenty. Both daily missions were complete; the dental shelf would stay available. She closed the display quickly. For once she wanted to remember the answer before the payment.
Kael set his bowl aside and looked at her face. "When you talk about home," he asked, "what do you miss first?"