Ingrid had awoken to the unfamiliar, but not surprising, sound of activity in her apartment. Amalie was here, and after their previous discussion about the company Ingrid kept...She suddenly wasn't feeling all too excited about stepping out of her room.
But, she had to. It was midday (a staggeringly early time for her, considering her general exhaustion being coupled with late nights), and she had things to collect. The thought of picking up some art supplies did brighten her mood enough to usher her out of bed, but sadly, the objective of picking up her bag and leaving didn't go unnoticed.
"Where are you off to?"
"Out."
"I can see that."
Ingrid felt her posture deflate with a sigh, her hand on the doorknob in preparation to leave the moment a chance presented itself. If she kept her gaze fixed firmly towards the door, perhaps it would lessen the feeling of her sister's eyes burning into her skull.
"...You're not doing anything dangerous, are you?"
There was an uncomfortably long silence. The weight of the words carried so much more than a simple question. It was accusatory. It was caring, and concerned.
It was something Ingrid didn't want to deal with right now. Maybe not ever.
"That's none of your business," She replied icily, and before more could be formed, the woman was out the door.
She wasn't going to let that ruin her day. She wasn't going to let it ruin his day, either.
-
By the time evening had rolled around, Ingrid had managed to regain a semblance of her excitement, although ever so gently eroded away by continuous social interaction. She'd been to three stores today, one even being out of the downtown cesspool. To say it was out of her comfort zone was like saying the Antarctic was only mildly frigid, or meeting a scaly monster in the sewers was only slightly out of the ordinary; It was an immense downplay.
There was also mild discomfort in being watched haphazardly climbing down into a sewer with a sports bag slung over your back, but while she floundered at socializing, she excelled at ignoring.
"Hey, Claud," She started, forgoing the last few steps of the ladder and jumping down with a small grunt. It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for, regarding Claudius with a half-smile that conveyed only a small fraction of her enthusiasm.
"Hope you haven't been waitin' too long."