Are You Sure, Petal?

“Aw, it sucks that she doesn’t like her housing. That’s life, I guess.”
“It shouldn’t have to be her life, though.”
“… Huh?”
“You can change that,” Bee replies, cheerfully, then calls. “Eve! Good news! Come here!”
“… Bee, don’t you dare,” Petal whispers, stridently. “No! I’m not living with the Astris! We don’t have the space—”
“Fuck you, you’ll do it or destroy her trust in you,” Bee grumbles back, scowling. “You’ve got more than enough space.”
“We don’t!”
“In your heart, no. In your house? You’re an empty nest and I know it. Bigot.”
Petal’s mouth clamps shut, angrily.
Bee smirks, and whispers, “Are you sure you want to be a bigot?”
“Good news?” Eve wanders in to the reception area, confused.
Bee’s bright face has turned back on, cheery as ever. “Petal wishes they’d known sooner; they’d love to adopt you into their home.”
Eve regards Petal up and down, with a mix of disbelief and relief, “Is… is that really ok, Petal? I… Um, don’t want to intrude, or anything.” Her godmother's family wants her? Petal wants her?!
Powerless at the effect it had on Eve, Petal says with a tight smile. "Of course. I'll give my partners a shout, but we've got plenty of space for you. You’ll not be intruding at all.”
Eve leans hard against the door frame and says, as if they’re a hero, “Thank you.”
The next Eve is out of their earshot, Petal says, “That was low, Bee.”
“Open your house to her in Opa’s memory if nothing else, seeing as they died for their own Astris,” Bee replies, determined to dig even lower and see what it does to Dr. Integrity. “Do it in memory of the first and only Astris born in Aravu, in your house. May parent and child rest in peace. At least they’re no longer suffering the scorn of somebody like you.”
The growl in Petal’s throat, a deep noise he hadn’t heard since the war, scares Bee, but they stalk off quickly away from him before they do something they regret.