Mila was just too nice, Roy thought, as he picked up more of the medicine she was being asked to take for her poison ivy rash.
Anyone else would have gotten mad at Shane by now. Indeed, Roy had been in the same position, more than once even, and he had made it very clear that Shane needed to do better at remembering that not everyone was immune to the dangers of the forest. But Mila kept saying that it was her fault for not knowing there was poison ivy in the area, or her fault for not using her shields, or whatever else she could come up with at that moment to avoid hurting anyone else's feelings.
For the last week, much of Mila's arms and face had been wrapped in poultices to attempt to treat the blisters. Even now, salve-coated bandages still covered angry red rashes, and mittens had been tied onto her hands in an attempt to prevent her from unconsciously scratching everything off. Between the mittens and her unsightly face-bandages, there was little work she could do.
(And besides, everyone had come to the unspoken conclusion that Mila needed to rest, and that this was a good excuse to force her to do so.)
When Roy came in to see her, then, he said, "Hey. Got you your medicine."
Mila looked up from where she was watching birds pecking at seeds scattered across the ground. "Sorry for being trouble," she said in a quiet, miserable voice.
"You have nothing to apologize for, and frankly, even if you did, you've done so much apologizing already that you can stop now."
Mila looked like she was going to argue, but then she sighed. "You said there was medicine?"
"As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, yes." He placed a tray on the table, a tiny ceramic dish next to a large glass of water.
Mila offered her mittened hands, and he untied them so she could take the medicine properly herself. She downed the contents of the small dish of medicine in one gulp, made a face at the taste, then drank several mouthfuls of water.
Then she poured a bit of water into the dish, swirled it around to dissolve most of the remaining medicine, and drank that too.
"You don't have to do that," Roy said.
"I don't want to waste anything," Mila said, before downing the rest of the glass.
"Are you hungry? I think I can find you some more of those lemon bars."
"I think I'm just going to go back to... feeding the birds," Mila said, pulling the mittens back on so that they could be retied.
"Didn't know you liked birdwatching."
Mila remembered a smiling dual-traited girl. "I didn't know I liked birdwatching either."
