You, Luda, and Monty had been patiently waiting at the table when Hoyt and Thomas had finally come back in. Luda crossed her arms and glared at Hoyt.

"Where have you been?! Your late for dinner!"

Hoyt crossed the room and sat down in his chair, Thomas however, hung back in the doorway.

"We were out in the barn, mama."

"Doing what, may I ask?"

"Manning him up."

Luda gave him a confused look as she narrowed her eyes at him. She then sighed and shook her head.

"Whatever then. Let's start dinner, shall we? Charlie, say grace."

Hoyt sighed.

"Mama, I told you. Charlie's dead. It's Hoyt now."

She remained silent and Hoyt looked up across the table before saying grace. When he was done he looked into the hallway.

"Tommy, come in here and join us for supper..."

Thomas hesitated.

"Come on now."

He slowly walked in being careful not to catch your eye. He pulled out his chair before stopping. You stared at him, confused. Thomas wouldn't look at you. You began to reach for his arm when he came to life again and quickly sat down.

"Thomas? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. Not even a small movement. You studied him for a moment before glaring across the table to Hoyt.

"What did you do to him?"

Hoyt smirked which annoyed you a lot.

"I manned him up."

"What are you talking about?"

He sneered and gave a loud snort.

"Oh you'll see."

Your eyes widened a little as you raised your eyebrows. You slowly turned your head to looks at Thomas. He had already been looking but upon being caught he quickly looked down. You looked back to Hoyt, opening your mouth to say something.

"If you think I'm going to-"

"Honey, let it go."

Luda interrupted, giving you a somewhat sad look. You nodded and looked down at the table. 'I'm gonna find out what he meant. I want to know.'

"Thank you."

You nodded again, still looking at the table. Luda tapped the table, causing you to look up.

"Y/n?"

"Yes?"

"Can you help me with clean up?"

"Yeah."

You knew that was just an excuse for her to talk to you in private but you went along with it, pretending you were just gonna help her do the dishes or something. She gave a single nod and began eating again. You also began eating, pretending nothing had happened.

Thomas played with his food somewhat, not really eating much. Once in a while you would catch him making quick glances at you but he would barely look at you for more than a few seconds. There was something wrong but you weren't really sure what. Had you done something?

After dinner Thomas quickly left, probably to go do something down in his basement. Or...was it because if you? You walked into the kitchen with a stack if plates. Luda stood there, leaning against the counter. You sat the dishes down by the sink before turning to her.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell when something's wrong, y/n."

"It's nothing."

"It's Thomas, isn't it?"

"No...yes...I don't know..."

"If your worried about him, you don't have to be. He ain't gonna hurt you none."

"I'm not worried about that...its just...he always gives me these looks."

"He's trying to figure you out."

You gave Luda a confused look at first but nodded. You had to consider that you were probably the first girl thomad had been around apart from Luda but that didn't really count.

"Look, y/n. Thomas has never been around many people...especially girls. He doesn't really understand them, if you get what I mean."

"Yeah. I get it...I guess."

Luda gave you a sideways look.

"I don't know how to really explain it but he doesn't really know what to do about you. He has taken a liking to you...otherwise he woulda killed you on the spot."

"I figured he would've."

Luda nodded and turned to leave the kitchen. She stopped short in the doorway.

"And y/n?"

"Yeah?"

"Try to get to know Thomas more. He ain't as bad as he seems, and it'll make it easier on your end."

"...okay."

She left without another word. You turned back to the sink and started cleaning up, doing the dishes and wiping down the counters. When you had finished you headed out, planning to go to your room. As you passed through the hallway you stopped by the basement door.

"Try to get to know Thomas more...He ain't as bad as he seems."

You paused before reaching for the doorknob. Did you really want to go down there? Maybe? You shrugged to yourself and opened the door, making your way down the stairs.

When you reached the bottom you looked around. Thomas wasn't anywhere to be seen. You walked the rest of the way down the stairs and into the main room.

"Thomas?"

There was no sound. Not even the gentle creaking of the chains and meat hooks that hung from the ceiling, gently swinging from the draft coming from the stairwell.

You looked around again. Where had he gone to?

"Thomas, you here?"

Nothing. You turned back to the stairwell only to run face first into Thomas. You took a quick step backward slapping the area where you had rammed your forehead into his chest.

"Shit! Ugh. Sorry, Thomas."

He grunted and turned his head sideways.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. It's okay."

Thomas raised his eyebrows at you, surprised that you had actually understood what he meant. He gave you a confused look, grunted and pointed upstairs. Why had she come down here in the first place?

You looked overhead at the floor above you and shrugged.

"I don't know. I just wanted to see what was wrong earlier."

He slowly nodded, his gaze drifting over from you to the floor.

"You are okay, aren't you?"

He shrugged and nodded.

"How come you wouldn't look at me?"

Thomas shrugged again.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Thomas's eyes shot up to you and he shook his head quickly. He didn't want you to think it was anything you had done that was bothering him.

"No? Okay. Well, your okay now, right?"

Thomas nodded. He honestly felt better than before. Being down in his own space alone calmed him. It was his safe go-to place.

"So...what you doing down here?"