[After the initial few days of Don being missing, Robert gave up.
He didn't just give up on the possibility that Don wasn't dead - merely just, perhaps, missing; or perhaps taken on an impromptu mission. The evidence seemed to point, however esoterically or oddly, at Don's having expired - but he gave up on almost everything else, too. He's been drifting, quiet and withdrawn in a way that probably hasn't happened since he witnessed Giles' death first-hand.
And something happened to Helios too. And others. He still remembers the deaths he saw during the draft in pristine detail. They all have served to press down on him like a weight, keeping even his normally-obsessive motivations from pushing him to do much more than repetitively organize the house.
All of this is ignoring the practical repository of empty alcohol bottles. Luckily Leo intervened before that got too horrendous, but Robert has gotten drunk more than once this week, and it shows - more than anything, he looks empty and tired.
He probably doesn't immediately notice Don's approach. After all, it's been longer than the usual time spent away - long enough that, if it weren't for Don's belongings remaining, he would've thought perhaps that he went home.]
[After any other threads probably]
He didn't just give up on the possibility that Don wasn't dead - merely just, perhaps, missing; or perhaps taken on an impromptu mission. The evidence seemed to point, however esoterically or oddly, at Don's having expired - but he gave up on almost everything else, too. He's been drifting, quiet and withdrawn in a way that probably hasn't happened since he witnessed Giles' death first-hand.
And something happened to Helios too. And others. He still remembers the deaths he saw during the draft in pristine detail. They all have served to press down on him like a weight, keeping even his normally-obsessive motivations from pushing him to do much more than repetitively organize the house.
All of this is ignoring the practical repository of empty alcohol bottles. Luckily Leo intervened before that got too horrendous, but Robert has gotten drunk more than once this week, and it shows - more than anything, he looks empty and tired.
He probably doesn't immediately notice Don's approach. After all, it's been longer than the usual time spent away - long enough that, if it weren't for Don's belongings remaining, he would've thought perhaps that he went home.]