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Tybalt sighed as she broke down, hand moving from her shoulder to her back as he tried to soothe her--it always worked in the movies, why wouldn't it in real life? He held her close, freely giving her the hug she had tried to weasel out of him earlier. His cheek remained atop her head, rubbing occasionally against her hair. He couldn't give her much in the way of comfort, but he could give her this.

He pulled away slightly as she calmed, leaning back to inspect her tear-streaked face. The protectiveness he felt for her growled to see her in such a state, demanding immediate revenge against those who had caused it. Tybalt took a deep, calming breath before moving his hand back around, fingers gently wiping the tears from Vidya's cheeks.

"'S alright, Vid...do y' feel better?" he asked, honestly concerned--it felt so different to care about someone other than himself. "Ye look terrible," he said with a small grin, smoothing her hair back. "An' so tired." Although she appeared to be more stable now than she seemed to be when she arrived, he didn't move to free his arm from her grasp. After all, this was Vidya; she got away with more than anyone else did.

Had Tybalt been aware of how uncommonly caring he was being, he would have been surprised too. Then he probably would have slapped himself for being so soft, or yelled at her to offset his apparent bout of empathy. He would have regretted the latter, of course, because this was Vidya, the exception to every rule he had ever set for himself. Tybalt wouldn't admit it, had he known at all.

His wings, aching from the unnatural and strained position, finally withdrew, rustling noisily as they resettled against his back. "Could be worse, eh? Y' could look like me mum." He grinned, awkwardly trying to lighten the mood a bit. The stubborn tone of her protests set him at ease--it was bits of the Vidya he knew and...well, knew, and it reassured him that everything would be alright. Vidya was more resilient than her bubbly, vacant nature suggested, he had learned.

"Sleep?" He looked around his room--the choices were limited. "Ye'll sleep in th' bed, o' course!" Tybalt looked down at her quizzically; where else was she supposed to sleep?

Inle, luckily for her self-esteem, was nowhere near as sympathetic as Tybalt was being at the moment; she had retreated to her room to play internet poker, all thoughts of distraught children and family issues far from her mind.

Tybalt mentally stuttered at her cheer, grin freezing in place. Yes, he had meant she was going to sleep in his bed, and yes, he had planned to sleep there as well, but to hear such words coming out of her mouth just boggled his mind. Luckily, he was too young to think too hard about attaching further meaning to the words; they were, after all, just going to sleep. He wasn't worried about things that older people might have been--his fears ran more along the lines of, "What if she accidentally pulls me feathers out in 'er sleep?" No, he had to hold onto whatever trust he had invested in her if he was going to get through this. "Uh, aye, o' course ye are!" He had never slept with another person in the room, let alone the bed, before. Hell, he locked his door at night to make sure none of the animals crept in with him. This was going to be an interesting experience.

Tybalt winced at the reminder of that; as content as he'd been to spend time with his younger crewmates, he hadn't enjoyed the closeness of the tent or the other three bodies in it. "Aye, less Donny shriekin's certainly a good thing." Things would be much different this time, he resolved--for one, Vidya was no longer a midget, and Donny wasn't around to share his space.

He grinned as she fought off her sleepiness. It was almost cute, he decided. "Whatever y' say, poppet." Hm, what did he want to do now? Usually he just read until he started nodding off, but he wasn't going to do that with Vidya around. It was near the time he usually went to bed, he noticed as his eyes flicked to the clock on his nightstand. Well, while she was here... "I've got somethin' t' show ya," he said, moving towards the desk against the wall. It was neat, save for a few scattered pieces of looseleaf on the top.

Fun, right. Fun for her, of course, because Vidya was ever-social--for him it was an exercise in patience and restraint. He glanced at her oddly as she started spinning around; what was up with that? After a moment he wrote it off as one of the many weird things Vidya did at random, attributing this particular incident to her emotional stress.

Tybalt smiled at her exclamation. He WAS tidy, preferring organization to messy chaos. He opened a drawer, pulling out a notepad and placing the hastily-scrawled notes that littered the desktop in its place. The notepad bore drawings of what appeared to be a ship, random notes scribbled here and there. His self-imposed seclusion from the frigid outside world had given him ample time to practice his penmanship and mastery of the English language, but the notes were barely legible in spite of it. That didn't matter to him--he was the only one that needed to be able to read them anyway.

"Look," he said, handing Vidya the notepad. "That's gonna be our ship, someday," he stated, feathers puffing up. He was quite proud of his sketch; he had done extensive research on olden-day pirate ships and had figured certain aspects of them into his plans along with parts from more modern ships.

She sounded excited--as she should be! Mere thoughts of his own ship brought his mood up from "crabby" to "slightly-less-than-crabby." "Aye, 'twas. Been workin' on it fer quite some time now. When th' spring comes, I'll be able t' start work on 'er." His childhood had not been spent idly; he had taken to visiting Durem on a daily basis before winter had hit, picking pockets in crowded streets. He had been incredibly lucky thus far and had amassed a very small fortune in cash. Tybalt wasn't dumb enough to actually use the credit cards he found in various wallets--those were sold off.

Tybalt gave Vidya a rare smile, placing the notebook back inside the desk drawer. "She will be, aye. She won't be th' biggest ship in th' harbor, but she'll certainly be th' fastest." He had planned on the ship being half the size of a normal schooner--he wasn't stupid, he knew that a real pirate ship in this day and age would be blown right out of the water--making it fit for fast getaways more than sea-combat. His grin fell a bit at her question. As much as he wanted to do it all himself, he was only one person--one small, weak person. "I'll do as much of it meself as I can, o' course. Might recruit some o' th' layabouts 'round 'ere t' help." His words were forced-casual; he didn't want Vidya to know that he just couldn't do it all by himself.

Tybalt preened at the compliment. Of course it was well thought-out, it was his idea, his plan, and it would be his crowning glory. Then he could take Vidya--and Donny and that giraffe boy, perhaps--and escape this frozen hell. Hm. He'd probably need more crew than that, but he'd worry about it when the time came.

He snorted a laugh at her offer of help; though he cared about Vidya more than he cared about anyone else, he didn't think she'd be suitable help. She was clumsy, and vacant, and he didn't trust her not to mess something up because of it. "I'll keep that in mind," he said, noting the sleep in her eyes that totally belied her excited tone. "C'mon, shoes off an' inta bed with ye. Yer tired, I can tell."

Tybalt watched Vidya ready herself for bed, taking note of where she left her things--he didn't want to step on or trip over them on the way to bed after he turned the light off. He hesitated; he usually just wore pants to bed, but he was also usually sleeping by himself. His internal deliberation lasted a mere moment before he reached behind himself to undo the snaps that held his shirt shut around his wings. If she didn't like it, tough--it was his bed, and damned if he was going to do anything differently just because she was in it tonight.

That thought pleased him immensely, for some reason.

"Eh? Oh, uh, that's fine." He usually slept in the middle of the bed, so he had room to stretch his wings out, but he would make do tonight. He shuffled towards the door, draping his shirt over the knob, and flicked the lightswitch off. After a moment of waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he shuffled back, climbing in the opposite side. He paused before settling on his stomach. That was how he usually slept--it hurt his wings if he slept on his back, and his side was usually uncomfortable. Another pause, and his wings were spread, one draped over Vidya, the other sweeping the floor. His head was turned towards her. "Just be careful, eh?"