At Cris's friendliness, Jon had subtly rolled his eyes, and the child's even tone was all too clear on whether he wanted them to be here or not. Jonathan wasn't heartless, not by any rate, but when giving a child strangers or those who could comfort, giving him ones he didn't know at all seemed too strange.

Though he did agree with Cris's prior argument. Nigel had a family. So why, when they called to see if they could visit, wasn't the one day that the child could have visitors already taken?

It was a bit too much to think about. Anything that Cris might have said was cut off by Jon coming forward, taking the plant up again, before holding it out. "You don't even know us, and we're talking at you like this."

Cris blinked at that, an almost comical show of surprise. "Oh! Right. I'm Cris, and this is Jonathan. We were never really introduced, ha ha."

Never introduced, but two men with a laid-back schedule could notice a child's likes. Cris had suggested bringing a plant, but it was Jon who acknowledged seeing that particular child staring at plants quite often. "Here."

The shorter man smiled wanly at the seemingly unfriendliness of the other, then filled in the blanks. "We thought you might like to have this in your room. Bring a little life into this place."