Gideon always tells herself, when she journeys down to the kitchen at late hours like these, that she's not here because she can't sleep. She's just taking advantage of the ability to have a midnight snack, something that was never possible on the Ninth, due to its lack of snacks and also its lack of midnight.

(She waited for all of them, for as long as Harrow let her. She told the sea that she thought libraries were stupid, in the hopes that it might have brought back both Paul and Palamedes, and then apologized when it occurred to her that it might make them stay away.)

Paul doesn't need to face the door for Gideon to recognize him, nor does he need to say anything. She's from the Ninth House; she sees well in the dark. That's Paul's tall-ish, slender frame, his long hair. Even if the voice is wrong, it's still him.

(She does not think about how he got here, or who brought him.)

"I know." Gideon makes a sound, something like a wet, choked half-laugh. "I'm not afraid of shiny lights, genius." She is not afraid of the voice that is a hundred voices. Harrowhark is two hundred souls, and Paul has always reminded Gideon of Harrowhark.

Then, to prove just how not-afraid she is, Gideon crosses the distance and gives Paul's hair a good ruffle, as embarrassing as she can make it. It's horrible. One for the ages.

She's missed him so much.