She knew Cullen was busy. There was no way for him not to be. In honesty, Lucy had found herself exceedingly busy as well. There was a lot to be done with the inclusion of the Redcliff mages. Lucy wondered at time if there would be any end to it. She was a good healer, a strong one, but magic couldn't heal the mind. She needed a moment, she'd decided Cullen needed on as well.

That was why she'd come to his room, set a hot cup of stiff tea next to the paper work before him, and then in one easy motion, sat herself on a crate, undoubtedly of supplies. She said nothing as she sipped from her own cuppa. She didn't even look smug, or irritated, or sad, just, maybe wistful, far off. The past few days had be stressful, and murky, and she missed the sun, missed clarity of working in the burgeoning garden, even if she did so while avoiding Mother Giselle, that woman scared her.

At least here, even if Cullen picked a fight or acted obtuse to her attempts to call to his better senses, it would be familiar. Easy in a way. Easy like it was to forget in small moments that he hated her at all.

Cullen lived in a near-constant state of discomfort and exhaustion these days. If he didn't have a headache due to the restless nights (when he was able to actually drag himself up to bed), then it was a wretched pain in his neck because of the sheer amount of paperwork and plans he spent hours pouring over. Granted, the work had become an excellent excuse of late to avoid leaving his office for anything except meetings the last few days.

There were so many more mages around and it made his skin crawl; a cold sweat persisting no matter what he did, and it was driving him closer to madness than Lucy's barrier spell ever had.

Thus, to have the woman herself enter his office made Cullen want to flee. He didn't even have to look up to know it was her to intrude on his space, always so aware of her presence was he.

"Why are you here, Lucille?" Cullen eventually asked after a prolonged moment of silence, voice quiet and tired as his gaze remaining steadfastly on the requisition report he'd been reading upon her arrival.

Lina moves closer to him as he makes way for them at the control panel. She leans in to look at the information it's displaying, it was better to distract herself with the mission than to let herself be distracted by the way her insides flutter at the idea of making him proud. 15 minutes simply wasn't enough time for where that road would lead.

Where the smirk had started to feel borderline uncomfortable, the small smile that came to his face at her question was outright foreign and...unfamiliar. When was the last time he'd smiled? Had cause to? It took every single bit of control he managed to retain not to let the expression fall into a scowl and throw Magdalina out. He was exhausted.