[ It's not due to any personal grudge that Claude has left Jim unanswered. It's just that he hasn't felt quite up to it, even with the kindness of supplying a few supplies. He has affairs to put in order, locals to touch base with, people he needs to check up on, and a solid four hours a day he has allocated to staring moodily at his ceiling. It is his gods-given right, he's decided, to allow himself a little time to brood and complain, if not only to an empty room.

But he does want to get in contact with Jim eventually, and so he makes time to accept his invitation, showing up with a pack of goods at his side (some tea he'd liberated from the explosion), his trademark easy smile resting comfortably on his face now that he's gotten himself together again.

It takes a little more than death to put down Claude von Riegan, he's decided. He's grinned his way through worse. He can do it through this too. ]

Jim, [ he says with a nod. ] Good to see you.

[ It would be a lie to say that his nerves aren't fried, that there isn't a part of him that still believes that Jim's just going to try to beat the shit out of him again, poison his drink, that there aren't people waiting to kill him in every dark shadow -- but that's how he's lived his entire life. This is no different, aside from the fact that for the briefest of times, he'd actually let his guard down. ]

I hope you two are recovering well enough from that whole mess. All of your brains are back in order, I hope?