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"Heya, Love?"
Steinbeck watched as his words took a moment to reach his partner; slowly, he blinked and looked up from his position, seated cross-legged on the floor.
(If his legs didn't look like they were at quite the right angle, noone seemed to have noticed. Or maybe they just didn't mind.)
"Mm?"
"You know, y'can tell her to buzz off if she's crowdin' you...?"
Lovecrafts gaze dragged itself away to glance back at Ruthie- kneeling on the hardwood deck behind him, freckled face scrunched up in concentration, weaving his hair into what John assumed was supposed to be a braid, albiet a messy one. It was hard to tell if the attention bothered him; his expression was as unreadable as always, a vacant stare that seemed to go through whatever he turned to.
Ruthie seemed none the wiser, lost in her own little world of make-believe hairdressing.
"This is fine."
"Y'sure?"
"She is...doing no harm. I don't mind."
That leaden gaze settled back on him, now. He looked sleepy. That wasn't new, but he'd probably have to shoo Ruth off of him sometime soon and run the guy a bath...they'd been out in the sun all day, and even with that big sunhat that Stienbeck had borrowed from Ma, he could tell the bright rays still bothered him.
"If you're sure..."
He chuckled, stretched as he stood up from his perch on the patio's edge; his bad knee twinged, but otherwise behaved as he padded across the decking on bare feet, headed inside. Lovecraft stirred, watching him go with a quizzical tilt of his head.
"John."
"Yeah?" He paused mid step, looking back over his shoulder. "Y'okay?"
"You're...coming back. Yes?"
Ah, right. He chuckled, surprising himself with how affectionate the noise that bubbled up from his chest sounded.
" 'Course I am, Love. M'just getting a drink."
"...Alright."
His gaze dropped once more, satisfied, and Ruthie carried on with her quest to tame his hair.
It only occured to him as he stepped inside, into the shade of the kitchen, that Howard had been counting the wood grain below him.
...Ha. Typical Howard. What was he gonna do with that guy?