Mallia wasn't a telepath. In fact, she wasn't an empath, either. But she didn't need to be either of those things, to know that what was needed right now was to simply give Aqua this. And she could absolutely do that. She didn't exactly have the same kinds of needs as humans did; she wasn't going to get hungry or thirsty, or need to get up to change positions, or take care of any other inconvenient biological thing. She wasn't biological.

So if she wanted to simply stay there for minutes, or for hours, it was fine. One of Mallia's hands absently rubbed her back a little, lightly, at some point. And she listened; if Aqua's stomach made a sound during all this, well, that was another thing she could help with... even though she was actually paying attention for sounds she might make on her own. Sometimes people were just very quiet when they were upset, after all, and speaking normally was more difficult....