Sage watched the girl grab a book and then went back to just staring at the drawing he'd done of Silas before looking back to the sleeping baby. He eventually decided to draw Amber, who had curled up in his lap. After a while, he determined he was tired enough to go crawl into the bed, setting a sleeping Amber down in her bed before crawling in beside Mari. "You wanna read aloud," he eventually asked shyly. He was sort of hoping to do something that was just...normal. To sort of med the gap between them. Apologize without apologizing, since he wasn't quite sure what to apologize for. And if she wanted to cuddle, she could make that move, but he was terrified of messing up again.

The girl read for a fair while... and she was pretty into the book when she heard a voice and admittedly jumped. Her head whipped around to look at him for a few moments before her gaze softened a little bit... she could try and read to him. She was still kind of bad a reading out loud but... she could try. "Yeah," she whispered quietly to him... she didn't need to tell him how awful her reading was... he'd asked himself for her to do so. She flipped a few pages back before starting to read pretty slowly.... she was going on for about maybe half an hour, when she got stuck on a certain word and just gave up. "I'm sorry, I can't do it," she whispered before shuffling down a little bit and into bed.

Sage have the girl an apologetic murmur when she jumped at his voice, and he sort of leaned his head against her shoulder and closed his eyes while she read. It didn't really matter that she wasn't incredibly good at it...he just liked the sound of her voice and cuddling up. Not that they were very cuddled up. He opened his eyes with a light chuckle and shook his head when she stopped. "It's alright," he murmured. "You're better at it than I am."

The girl cast him an apologetic look and placed the book on the side. She could read in her head just fine... it was only when she was reading out loud it got hard. She still felt awful for earlier... but it seemed like he wanted to cuddle up a little bit, which was certainly comforting. She hadn't completely messed up, for once. She pulled the covers up and over herself before sighing and turning to him, shuffling in a little bit. "I'm sorry, for earlier... I wasn't mad, not at all, I just frightened myself a little bit, I think," she murmured quietly as her head finally hit the pillow and a heavy breath escaped her.

Sage felt his heart speed up a bit in relief when the girl turned to him and then cocked his head slightly. She hadn't been mad? She'd certainly seemed mad ...but he supposed he was just scared because of his past. "That's alright," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her gently. "I just scared myself thinking I'd messed up somehow." He shrugged slightly and chuckled.

Mari felt her shoulder relax a little bit when he wrapped his arms around her... she certainly felt a little bit better about things. She still felt awful for making him thing he'd done something, but she just kind of struggled to talk to him about things she was scared about. He already had so much going on... it kind of felt like whatever she had going on didn't matter when you compared it to him. So she'd never said anything when she was scared, not since she'd met him. Whatever had happened in her past, she'd kept it to herself, because Sage had enough on his shoulders. She was scared that telling him about things like that now would drive him off... and she didn't want to lose him. She shook her head a little bit and rested her head on his collar. "You'll never mess up," she told him gently. "And if you do, I'm honest enough to tell you," she mused softly.

Sage felt his shoulders relax when the girl reassured him that he didn't mess up. He chuckled slightly at her comment and hummed lightly. "Well, I suppose you are pretty honest," he noted with a slight twinge of amusement. "you're stuck withe for life now," he chuckled lightly.

(Short I'm out lol)

Mari smiled softly at the boy before shaking her head. "Hmm... I can't wait," she mused lightly. She couldn't wait... she wanted to spend her life with him, all of it until the end... she knew life was never going to be easy for Sage, and it still wasn't, and she didn't know if she'd ever really be able to make him happy... but she could sure as hell try... he just had to be a little bit forgiving of her from time to time. She just didn't want to make him regret anything at all.

Sage chuckled softly and reached up to press a kiss to Mari's temple. "Me either," he hummed. "And we don't have to do anything you don't feel up to," he assured her. he could talk to the doctor, maybe take a pill or something, so he didn't get so... excited..about that sort of thing of Mari wasn't up to it, or just didn't want to risk getting pregnant again. He really didn't mind ...he just might need some help to not get excited at certain times, that's all. He wouldn't tell her about it though ....he didn't want her to feel guilty, about how hard not having those moments could be for him. But he'd much rather her be happy.

Mari couldn't help her small smile when he went to press a kiss to her temple... at least he wasn't too upset with her for being so... cryptic. But he was being kind, and that was all she could ask for. She shuffled in a bit to wrap her arms around him again before sighing softly. "I might just need a while, is all," she told him quietly. It wasn't just the pregnancy or the birth... and it wasn't because she didn't love him, because she sure as hell did, but she'd never been very good with intimacy anyway. And she did enjoy it when she was comfortable, but bits and pieces in her past did make it difficult. But Sage was sweet with her... and he was never pushy, which was of course wonderful.