Joan opens his mouth when he returns, closes it. She takes the comb first, so she won't steal it, and begins vigorously brushing my hair.

"I wanna ask you something. Don't get mad? I just wanna know."

He's given her to absurdly kind boons in the last hour. She wants to test how far this goes, and some of that involves niceties. She's not sure she's up to the task-- the other foot is going to fall any second now-- but she has to try, or there's no point to anything.