Lisa's answering chuckle was dark. "I sure feel like burning something down right about now. But hey, even if your search is long, you might learn something useful along the way, right?" She doesn't bother to take offense at her own words, not for something so small and something that could likely become true if this went on much longer.

She'd started to relax just a tiny bit when she felt his hand on her shoulder, and she froze, hating that she did it but knowing that the way she was feeling, only doing that much was probably a minor miracle. She didn't trust her words, and settled for a low whimper that would be hard-ish to hear and likely easy to understand: don't. She hated feeling like this. Afraid to relax, afraid to trust others, afraid to open her mouth. What the hell was she supposed to do...?

...go for dessert, apparently. It was enough of a non-sequitur that she looked up at him slowly, blinking, face slack and eyes still wet. Then she giggled, proud she only sounded a little unhinged, managing a small smile. "Research is for squares. Let's do it." It wasn't like she was going to get any work done like this anyway. LOUDER would wait another day. Or two. Or a week.