Byron's gaze flicked down to the cookies and blinked, before returning to the girl, "No, I don't have a girlfriend,"<br/><br/>Though he couldn't tell the little girl who the flower seeds where for, a man who lived outside of the wall. A mutant at that. If it got back to anyone, especially the higher ups...even if it didn't he'd be lucky to get away with lashes. At least then he wouldn't have broken bones. Russel often taunted him about the fact that he couldn't get a girlfriend, or rather couldn't get laid, and Byron had never been interested. Sure it'd be nice to have someone to spend time with but a friend would do that just as well. And he had that in Octavian...or maybe what he was feeling for the other man was different than simply being friends. He didn't know if it was normal to want to be able touch someone the way he wanted to touch Octavian. The desire wasn't sexual in the least but he couldn't say that it was more than platonic. He'd never understood how someone was able to tell. Perhaps it didn't matter. He had Octavian and so long as no one found out about them then there wasn't anything to worry about.<br/><br/>How nice would it be for them to just be able to spend time together during the day. For Byron to show Octavian the gardens and the park. For him not to have to hide who he was getting gifts for, though most people probably didn't care. Which made him even more surprised that the little girl before him did. She'd wanted to know if he had a girlfriend.<br/><br/>And she'd baked him cookies. No one had ever made him cookies. He couldn't remember the last time he'd even had a cookie. They did look good though. Of course the sight of the plate made his stomach drop. Was that...real gold? From the sound of her voice and the cut of her clothes he wouldn't be surprised if it was. Which would make it worse if he took it. He doubted the little girl had a malicious bone in her body and probably didn't realize how expensive the plate was. If Byron took it well lashings would be the least of his worries. That being said he didn't want to turn down the cookies, the little girl had gone through the trouble of making them for him and Byron wasn't going to reject them.<br/><br/>He glanced around and saw one of the nearby market stalls was selling little baskets. It'd be perfect. He could take the cookies and make the little girl happy and she could take the plate home...but the idea of her running about by herself made him nervous. He should have enough time to walk her back home and still make it to his post on time...<br/><br/>Without a word Byron bought one of the baskets and knelt down in front of the girl. He wanted to smile, but like always his face stayed fixed in a neutral position. So instead he began taking the cookies off the plate and putting them in the basket, "Thank you, I'm glad to be able to protect you, princess,"<br/><br/>That was right wasn't it? The endearment felt odd on his tongue and sounded odder with his flat voice but there was little he could do about that. With the cookies in the basket he stood before carefully placing the wooden box inside as well. His mind going back to her earlier question, "It's seeds...the box has seeds. My...friend grows flowers and wanted some different ones. I don't know what kind he grows but maybe he doesn't have some of these,"<br/><br/>Byron wasn't sure if that was too much information or not but, surely there had to be some men in the walls that grew flowers. Though Byron couldn't name any. He'd been told it was a "feminine" thing, but Byron didn't see it. He looked down at the little girl again, "Are your parents around? It's dangerous to be running around here,"