Grant had his orders, which was to say he hadn't had any! Then again going in to Dresmond he'd had only vague orders that were passed from the King to the Captain Commander and the King's Witch to him, so.

Get intel.

They'd managed to wander around in that shitty place for a long while and then made friends with two whole tanks full of intel regarding the Dresmondi situation which Grant was still a little fuzzy on, truth be told, despite having been basically having sleepovers with Kezia for a few weeks now. Something about having your soul be apart from your body and an animal that you could talk to was just, way above Grant's paygrade. It did give the grim part of him easy ideas on how to disable a Dresmondi, should they have ever encountered any Eldouir-aligned ones, but things had been smooth sailing, albeit misty.

And last night he slept in a bed! After eating food he didn't have to kill or fish or throw things at until it fell out of the sky! What a time to be alive. For a little while Grant had wondered if he could even sleep in a bed after spending almost the entirety of Aestas sleeping on the ground, and then all of a sudden he'd woken up by someone knocking at his door.

Instead of opening the door right away Grant shot out of bed and grabbed at his sword which was not there and also he was not at a firepit in Dresmond. Instead Regan was bursting in his room and looking all sheepish and not-murderous. Grant's heartrate went from 'kill or be killed' to 'immense relief' in no time flat and he slumped his shoulders from combat mode.

"Regan!" he said, walking over to her and throwing his arms around her unless stopped.

When Grant went for his sword, her wolf form lurched forward before Regan reined it back in again. She raised her hands in a ‘don’t hurt me’ gesture before she was swallowed by Grant’s arms.

She hugged him back, burying her face into his chest and breathing deeply. “I’m sorry,” Regan whispered, “I’m so sorry…”

Grant had not expected this, so he resisted his base urge to give her a smack and just hugged her tightly, lifting her off her feet for a moment before realizing that was probably slightly improper. Instead of letting go he just lowered her a bit, however, still hugging her.

"It's okay, it's okay," he said, not sure what she was apologizing for or what he was forgiving her for. She was okay! He was okay. It, whatever it was, was okay.

Regan would have accepted a smack, but that was beside the point. She melted, holding onto him for as long as he allowed before he returned her to the floor. When he did, Regan would tip her chin up to look at him, clinging to him as if he might bolt. It would be a moment before words would stumble awkwardly out of her mouth:

"I, uh, missed you."

Grant looked down after what was definitely a wholly inappropriate amount of time. Fortunately there were no witnesses! Especially since Ranger training had rather shed the notion of 'proper'. And, well, the two of them had never exactly been close in the way commoners weren't supposed to look into the eyes of nobles.

Anyway.

"I missed you, too," he said. He then raised a hand and gave her a bap on the back of her head. "You attacked the *King*."

Regan snarled in surprise as he smacked the back of her head. She shoved him back, probably a little harder than she intended, rubbing the spot.

“Didn’t seem to mind too much, did he?” She retorted with a grumble and a sheepish smile. “Besides, it was an accident.”

Grant scoffed and got pushed back a little, surprised but not upset. He grinned. "Apparently not, I didn't know that got you a promotion around here. Last time you accidentally attacked someone got... weird," he said, making a face. Alys. "Or, last time I was there for it."

"I guess you gotta get the timing right," Regan smirked, rubbing the back of her neck, "I think Cassian considered it more of an audition in the end." Her eyes drifted for a moment, clearly thinking about something else before she refocused on the conversation at hand.

"So, uh, Dresmond, eh?"

Well that was right up Cassian's alley, which was to say Grant didn't understand it and would probably hold a grudge over it. So, nothing new, all things considered. He nodded. "Yeah, I wasn't supposed to tell you, but. Well. I think you have more clearance than I do, now, huh?" he asked, grinning. "Hadrian was kinda mad last time I saw him. Told me I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about the mission the Rangers were being deployed on."

"Well, at least you came back in one piece," Regan countered, cheeks about to pop off her face she was smiling so much, "So I'll forgive him...this time." After a moment of indecision, Regan sighed. "Get dressed. Then we gotta get rolling."

She'd go sit on the bed, leaning back against the headboard with her feet up as if it were hers.

"So these Dresmondi...what are they like?"

Grant blinked. "We?" he asked. "I'm not a royal guard, I'm really hoping," he said, though he was too used to her waking him up to get something done by now to do much save start getting properly dressed. "Kinda liking this Ranger thing," he added as he found some pants.

"They're the nice ones," Grant said, slowly. Luka and Ermir, should he remember their names right, were a bit less friendly. "Lot of whacky magic. Again. Almost got hit by lightning and burnt to shreds and all that, but fortunately the nice ones wanted to come talk to the King. And Alys and me figured that'd be more useful than anything either of us could say."

He fitted new pants on, tucking things in places and finding comfort in the familiarity of their 'normal' routine.

"I'm not a royal guard. Not anymore," Regan said with a little more smugness than she should. She pushed up into a sitting position, crossing her legs. "The King's Huntsman. Alys doesn't know yet, but...yeah, I guess he won't outrank me anymore either." By the time Regan reached the end of the sentence, any excitement that had been bubbling under her words died. She coughed a little, tugging at her jacket sleeve.

"Kennet told you? About..."

Grant cocked his eyebrow, looking over at her. Huntsman? What the fuck did that mean--whatever. He sighed a little at the change in mood.

"Yeah, Kennet told me," said Grant, buttoning up his shirt. "It, uh. Yeah." He wasn't sure how he felt about it, really, but. "Not too long after we left, yeah?" he said.