Charlie squints into the warmth, blinking away afterimages of snow under the sun, not visibly tense but certainly still when he sees Arthur there. The look he gives him is subtly anxious.

He closes the door behind him so that all the good from the fire won't fly straight out of the opening.

"Ain't it past your bedtime, kid?" he says, sotto voce. There's no hostility here either, only a sense that Charlie doesn't know what the hell to say and is falling back on his jokey bullshit. "Look, the sun's almost up."