Greylock closed the door behind Sofia as she left the room, and looked back at Cedric laying curled at the end of his bed. He looked a bit like a small and frightened child, though the unfocused eyes were more than a bit unsettling.

Over on the other side of the room, Greylock sat on his own bed and sighed. "I'm so sorry," he said to Cedric - or rather, at him. It hadn't happened often, but Greylock knew that when Cedric was like this, he quickly became totally unresponsive. Still, he continued, "I should have- I saw the signs you were like this again. I just didn't want to believe it." Cedric had said he was all right, and that was all Greylock had wanted to hear, so he believed it without much scrutiny.

With a sniffle, Greylock continued softly, "I really don't know what I'd do without you, you know. I'm not even sure why you tolerate me, as irritating as I am. You're the only friend who's actually stuck with me, and I…" He wanted to say I love you so much, but aside from being incredibly inappropriate given that Cedric was tied to Sofia, he already knew that Cedric didn't feel the same. Not that it mattered much, given the state Cedric was in, due at least partially to Sofia pushing too far.

"I know you can't make promises, but please don't hurt yourself." It hurts me too much, but of course that was selfish. "You mean so much. You're wonderful, and the world would be a much smaller, a much sadder place without you in it. I only-" Greylock was interrupted by another sniffle, and realized he was crying in earnest at this point. He took a breath and continued, "I only wish I knew how I could make it easier for you."

Greylock sat in silence for nearly a minute, unable to motivate himself to do anything at all at the moment. He was startled out of his inaction though, when he heard from across the room, "You could turn out the lights."

After Greylock did as asked, Cedric still looked unfocused, nor did he react to the blanket that Greylock pulled over him - but he didn't shrug it off either.

"So then," Greylock said as he followed Sofia into the communal sleeping area of Crage House the following afternoon, "what's so pressing that you'd bring me here yourself? You were so off-put when I visited you last time."

Sofia glanced back towards him, but quickly looked away; she'd been behaving oddly all day. Little wonder, given last night, but this still felt… off. At any rate, she reached up and took the school coat she still had of his off of the peg on the wall. Rather than doing much of anything with it, she used her other hand to unlock the drawer in the bedside table, and pulled out a small black leather-bound book, which she put in one of the large pockets of the coat.

Finally, she turned around, and said, "Greylock, I'm sorry I didn't give back your coat sooner. And… It's not labeled, but I think that journal is Cedric's, could you give it back to him?"

Greylock blinked. "Come again?"

"The handwriting in that journal, and what it said-"

"No, I don't doubt it," Greylock interrupted, "I don't understand why you would need me to give it back. He'd be delighted that you found it, he's been missing it." Greylock's heart hurt as he remembered the signs of self-harm he'd noticed but ignored, and added, "Probably more than he let on, honestly."

Sofia flinched at the response. "Well, for one, I needed to talk to you about it, too. The tea recipe I worked from last night - it was my own creation, but it combined the elements of several different recipes for tea from the journal." She took a breath and continued, "And given he was able to remember his mis-labelings by heart, I think he was even closer to actually going through with the plan than was even apparent last night."

"Of course he- what, weren't you listening last night?" Greylock took a deep breath. Well, no, she hadn't been around yet the first time Cedric nearly went through with it, but even such it should have still been obvious he was quite serious. "Though, wait. Hold up just a moment. Are you telling me you've had that long enough to-" Greylock stopped as he realized he'd seen her reading the book a while back. How long ago was that?

Greylock took the coat from Sofia's hands, rather more roughly than necessary. "I can't believe you, Sofia. I thought you cared for Cedric. But you invade his privacy by reading a journal you know to be his, you endanger his life on your whims." Logically, he knew it wasn't Sofia's fault that Cedric was suicidal, it wasn't her fault that he had kept a stockpile of poison on-hand for a rainy day. "Dear gods above, neither of us last night even asked if he'd taken any counter-measures. It wasn't until this morning the thought even occurred to me. We're lucky-" He couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence, so instead he reached inside the pocket to retrieve the journal. "And this is why, you are why he was in that position in the first place."

Sofia's eyes were wide as she looked at Greylock, who was breathing hard in anger, and waving the journal about. He knew how this must look to her, happy Greylock, joking Greylock, you-can-always-come-back Greylock who never gets mad. Honestly, though, she deserved the scare. She'd put herself in this situation all on her own.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked. Any other time, that might have weakened or even broken any defenses. "I didn't mean-" Her hand went up to her collarbone and played with a lump in the fabric of her uniform's collar. "I never meant to hurt him, I just wanted to get to know him better."

As Sofia took a breath between sentences, Greylock pre-empted her with, "Really? That's your excuse. Pushing him to breakdown was definitely worth it, wasn't it?"

She gasped, and shook her head. "No! Not at all, I was just trying to explain." Sofia glanced to the side, then continued, "But yeah, you're definitely right. I'm guessing Cedric wouldn't be too happy that I had his journal either, but he definitely needs it back."

Greylock took a moment to think. "You'd deserve any anger he sent your way, honestly." As Greylock took a breath, Sofia bit her lip and her eyes started to shine with tears. "However, what's done is done. There's no reason to hurt him more than you already have." He put the book back in the pocket of the coat she'd given back to him.

Sofia nodded. "Thank you. I-"

"Don't thank me. This is for Cedric. You-" Greylock crossed his arms and made sure he had Sofia's gaze. "I can't believe you did this. This isn't the end of our friendship, but you've got a lot of work ahead of you, rebuilding trust."

She nodded hastily. "I'm so sorry. I'll try, I won't mess up again, I didn't mean for any of this." Aaand the threatened tears were starting.

Greylock sighed, and felt a lot of the anger go out of him. "Hey, look. Calm down, Sofia." She glanced up at him with wide eyes, which may have been surprised but it was hard to tell through her crying. "I am angry, and none of what you did was okay- but that wasn't a threat. I do care about you as your own person, outside of our mutual connection to Cedric." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Just promise not to do anything like this again, all right? This really was very far from okay, but - well, you know how I feel about mistakes."

After Sofia gave Greylock a questioning look, and he said, "You can always come back."

Sofia gave a small laugh that might have actually been a hiccup. "I never expected that to be used on me."