Ah. There it was. He'd been wondering when he was going to see Freyja's protective side, and she must be furious with him, of course. She'd been the one to nurse Rexus through his heartbreak and she'd never met Atlas. There was no reason for her to have even the slightest sympathy towards him.
He nodded at Rexus, a small smile tugging at the thin line of his mouth. He paused by the doorway as Rexus turned back into an albie, his worried expression softened, an obvious care and affection replacing it. He absent-mindedly reached for the clover-shaped earring in the cartilage of his ear. It took him a moment to realise Frejya had started speaking again.
"Oh. Um. I grew up in the circus with a couple of other kids, if it wasn't nits it was fleas. I'm used to it." He had a few memories of Mort holding him down to drag the nit comb through his hair and rubbing some foul smelling shampoo into him. It was only slightly worse than the time he and Zari, and most of the circus really, ended up covered in flea powder.
He stood there for a moment longer, knowing Freyja probably wanted to speak to Rexus without him there, and knowing that he didn't want to be there until Freyja was finally ready to say whatever she needed to. "Um. I need to go... um. Tune my accordion. I'll be upstairs if you need me for anything."
Running away at the first sign of trouble was probably not what Freyja wanted to see from him, but old habits died hard. He found himself in Rexus' bedroom, tidying up again. He'd already covered it this morning while unpacking, so there was little to funnel his nervous energy into. He caught himself in the reflection of the aged silvered mirror in Rexus' room, and froze. He'd forgotten he was wearing one of Rexus' sweaters, and if he pulled the neckline down a touch, a set of bruises visible on his neck and collarbone. He felt ridiculous even worrying about it. He and Rexus weren't teenagers, this wasn't his father chasing boys out of the circus. (At the beginning he'd assumed they were there for Zari, as if Zari would ever allow herself to get caught sneaking boys into the caravans).
He itched to vanish outside for a moment or two and light a cigarette, but Atlas knew it'd only put him in danger.