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At first he tries to get out of their way.
He can't say how grateful he is to see Flick again, terrible hair and all. He just didn’t expect so many people with her. He can see they’re her friends, and of course he knew about them, most of them at least, but he can’t help to feel a slight pinprick of jealousy at the easy way she can talk to them, and they respond, like they listen.
Like what she says matters to them.
He wants to be angry, he is angry, but the moment she smiles at him, all guilty and unsure, he feels like crying and just hopes she’ll never run again.
When she asks, he knows she talked to Fyr beforehand and again feels hurt, just a bit. They worry, he knows, and tells her the truth.
He is trying, but sometimes he just isn’t enough.
She kicks him. Hard. And then she drags him into a hug, smelling nothing like herself, and he missed this so much. She lets the topic slide, and his heart skips a beat when rather than harass him, she offers a sweet, beautiful like a gem.
She tells him it’s from Leo and he couldn’t stop the smile even if he tried. When he decides to check on Fyr before going to his room, he does not expect Leo. Or the bird. He stops a bit awkwardly in the entrance, and manages to stammer out a greeting and die a bit on the inside when Leo doesn’t stop him when words just pour of his mouth, so in the end he runs away.
He spends the night trying to follow Flick’s advice, and make the drawing as good as he can. In the middle of the night Ivia sneak in and crawls into his bed, but he just shrugs. Not like he planned to use it anyway.
When he hears people moving around, he gives up. Ivia has a terrible bedhead, he sees from the corner of his eye when she tries to sneak out. He rolls the drawing gently and puts it in the pocket he knows it won’t get destroyed in and decides it still needs some work.
When Leo asks to talk during breakfast, he panics and gives him the drawing, and hopes.
When Cyn and Fyr manage to nearly kill him with laughter, it’s not something he expects. The easy acceptance and willingness to search out his company still surprises him, especially since Fyr knows so much about him. Still, he is not going to question their good will, and intends to enjoy it while it lasts.
When Albany allows him to behave like an idiot it’s another surprise. He is kinder than expected and Nil almost wants to trust him.
The darkness makes him desperate, Nil knows that, and maybe he’s seeing things that aren’t here at all, but, just for the moment, he wants to believe this is how an actual friendship feels like. He could get used to that.