Pepper raised her head and managed a half-smile. "Thanks. That-- that means a lot." This was, after all, still Bakura's home, and the open-ended invitation that he'd given her before and now again to just show up when she needed to was actually quite touching.

She looked a little embarrassed then, returning to the subject of yelling. "Being loud is sort of my default setting," she said. "I was really startled. At least I stopped before I threw a book at you? I did that to Gene once in class."

And got detention and an extra history project for it. That she had apologized for; this she's not so sure she has to, although she can see apologizing for how she said things and how it had impacted Bakura, if necessary.

After a careful sip of her drink, she continued. "We look at things really differently on a lot of subjects and that's fine, that's okay, but obviously we need to be a little more clear about it all so we're on the same page. I'm totally willing to bend, too, or at least to try, I just need the time to be able to do it."