The room was dark when Starry took the first few steps into it. She glanced around nervously, she had not expected the stallion to invite her to his couch, but she was not going to complain about something softer to sleep on than the floor. The stallion followed, closing the door behind him as he trotted towards each apartment's small kitchen.

It was just as dusty as the rest of the place before Starry had started working. She stood, a little awkwardly next to the couch, the pillows and blankets draped over on the foreleg that she held tightly close to her chest.

"Well?" The stallion said as he put a kettle on the stove and turned it on ", Get comfortable."

Starry hesitated, then tossed the blankets and pillows onto the couch, stepping onto it and resting her body against the soft cushions. She wanted to sigh, curl up into a ball under her blanket, and fall asleep then and there.

But there was a stallion standing across from her.

A stallion that she didn't trust or know anything about who had given her his couch despite giving no good reason to do so. Of course, Jester had done the same thing, but he seemed like the kind of pony to do that.

"Why are you making tea so late in the evening?" Starry asked after a few moments of silence. She dragged the tip of her hoof across the couch cushions, drawing faint circles into the soft fabric.

The stallion shot her a look that might as well have told her to shut up, "Cause my head is killin' me."

"Oh-" Starry tipped her head down, staring at her little patterns on the couch. Sleep suddenly had every reason to evade her, and she wasn't quite a fan of that. She slipped off of the couch and the carpeted floorboards screeched under her light weight, she flinched at the sound, her ears pinned back against the back of her head.

"Sit down-" The stallion commanded with a voice as cold as arctic wind and Starry couldn't help but think of her father at that moment. She flinched slightly and she stepped back towards the couch, but then she stopped.

She would not let this stallion bully her.

Starry had not been the mare to shy away from bullies in school or the fillies that bullied her younger sister. She had been the mare to stand up to them and stamp them away from those she loved, and she was not the kind of mare to let a stallion intimidate her. Even her father held some respect for his daughter before...

Starry pushed the thought out of her mind.

She tipped her head up and started into the kitchen after the stallion, flicking her long tail and tipping her head up.

"There's no need to speak to me like that-" She snapped back at him ", You told me to make myself comfortable and I intend to do so. So- Move so I can make the tea that can nurse that hangover of yours."

Stone River scoffed and edged out of the kitchen, starting towards a seat that she hadn't noticed next to the couch. She turned up the heat on the stove and ignited her horn, opening cabinets until she found a set of mugs. They were older, black, and one had a large crack on its handle that she couldn't help but notice.

She left the one with the crack in the cabinet and levitated two of them onto the counter.

"How do you take your tea?" She asked the grey stallion, turning to look at him in the dark room.

His large head rested on the arm of his chair and his wing was spread over the back as if keeping it close to his body was painful. He grumbled slightly, eyes closed and his head lulled towards the back of the chair. One brown eye slipped open and stared at her from across the room. Starry had felt the feeling that struck her in the chest once before, with Hoverstep, and she wanted to run and hid. She steeled her hooves against the ground and tipped her head towards him, forcing a stern look on her face.

"Well? How do you take your tea?" She would have snapped if her voice had not broken on the word 'tea'. 

It felt like Deja Vu-

She had asked Hoverstep that same question the first time he had come to her own home, his eyes full of wonder at the size and grandeur of the home Starry had lived her life in. Hoverstep took his tea with only milk and a teaspoon of honey.

"Splash of milk-" The stallion grumbled.

Starry turned towards the refrigerator in the small kitchen, opening the door and peering into the cold, near-empty, space. She saw the milk carton in the near front of the fridge and she lifted that in her magic, pouring it into the stallion's cup and then returning it to its place. She took her tea without sugar or mild. The mare glanced around the space and shuffled to look for the tea bags, the stallion no help to her feeble cause.

Finally, the teapot rang and she found the bags of leaves, seeping them into the hot water and stirring the milk into Stone Rivers'. She lifted the cups and started back into the darker room, pausing to turn the lights of the kitchen off.

The stallion let out a slight sigh when the lights went off, and Starry couldn't help but wonder how drunk this pony was. She could smell the liquor on his coat, and it was nothing like she used to smell on her father when he was having a nightcap.

"Here," She spoke softly, setting the cup down and then turning to the couch, "Sip. It's very warm."

The stallion grumbled once more, reaching a hoof out and taking the cup carefully, and sniffing the tea leaves. He took a sip and set the cup down once more, resting his head on the arm and letting out a sigh.

Starry took her own seat, sipping at her tea and closing her eyes at the warm feeling in her body as she drank. The two ponies sat in silence until Starry could hear the soft snoring of the stallion on the couch next to her. 

His aggressive kindness was something that she could understand less than she understood Jester's open kindness. Jester was bright and bubbly, friendly and wild in a way. This stallion was cold, harsh, and even downright scary at times she had seen him yelling at other ponies.

Stone River, from the little that Starry could read off of him, was alone.

And he didn't like being alone as often as he was.