Daff had held it together for so long that Zinnia's question had everything spilling out. "It's been a string of things I should have handled better. I wasn't sleeping after the break in, and I didn't tell Elias how badly I was struggling." Hadn't told anyone. It had gotten better for a little bit since, Ama had forced the sleeping potions on her, which was good. But in the wake of her argument with Elias and the workshop fiasco, her grip on her sleeping habits was slipping again. She was getting some sleep, but still not nearly enough. She regretted not telling him, she really did. She just hated to worry anyone, most of all him.

"That's why I landed in the hospital." Did she bring Noble into this now? Surely she had to, even if he wasn't really a factor, it had been a piece of the puzzle. "Remember when Calla asked if we'd ever kissed somebody before? I wasn't talking about Elias." Not at the time. They'd hardly been friends by then. Merlin, it felt like forever ago at this point. "I'd been seeing someone else, for a while, long before Elias. I broke things off, but he was the one who took me to the hospital." Noble had seen her go through the sleeplessness before, knew what it did to her. It had been awkward certainly and she still hadn't explained that to Elias either. Just one more thing she needed to figure out how to make up for.

Daff felt like she was rambling, a bad habit of hers, but she couldn't stop now. "I went to the workshop to explain myself afterwards, but Elias was having an important conversation with a friend." The oversimplification was astounding her, but she couldn't drag anyone else's name into this. "I didn't want to eavesdrop, so I was just going to leave the flowers I brought, but I dropped them and I cut myself. Naturally they heard, and I don't know what he thinks, but I hadn't wanted to interrupt and I tried to leave, but they kept insisting they help and I finally lost it and said some things I shouldn't have and I fled." She sighed, almost too weary now to fight the tears that welled up in the corners of her eyes.

"Things were bubbling already, but now the cauldron's spilled over and I can't put it all back or clean it up and it's miserable." She rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the threatening tears, but it was no use. "I messed up over and over and he's been so patient with me and I should have done it all so differently." The tone of her voice was pained, putting sound to the ache in her chest. "I don't know what to do. I took some flowers to the workshop two days ago, but he wasn't in. I left them with his colleague, but there hasn't been so much as a whisper and I don't know what to do." What else could she do? She had extended the olive branch, tried to bridge the gap and now she just had to wait, but it was killing her slowly.