"You should probably arrange to not have visited more of them," he comments. "Even with shifting the timing, it's a pattern, and it's not like there's a crowd of other ships visiting these systems that you can get lost in. There's the problem of refueling history, but I'm sure we can figure out a way around that if we try."

"All right," says Isabella. "I'll turn off logging for more places. Money would be tighter, if I turned in fewer logs - but I have you along to mitigate that, now, don't I."

"Yes you do!" he says, grinning.

"Aren't you convenient!"

"I'm so convenient," he agrees. "And now I think I'm going to go make convenient dinner."

"Mmm, dinner. What's for dinner?"

"I don't know yet!" he says serenely. "I'll think of something. Any preferences?"

"It's a special occasion," she says, referring to the warp drop. "Let's un-vacuum-seal a steak. I'm sure you'll do something marvelous with it."

"I absolutely will," he says, and kisses her, and wanders off to the kitchen.

Isabella puts on a Klingon opera soundtrack and reads along in the libretto as best she can. She's getting better!

From the kitchen, Lalita is singing along.

This is cute and he is cute!

And soon he is also bringing her steak!

Mmmmm steak. "Oh my. What did you do to it, this is really good - did you break into the bayleaves...? Mmmm."

"Magic," he says whimsically, and kisses her forehead, and sits down to eat.

She laughs. "Oh, would that it existed."

"I've been a magician!" he says.

"I just bet you have!" she laughs. "I'll be polite and not ask you the tricks of your trade."

"Good for you," he giggles.

"Did you have any particularly interesting tricks, though?"

"Lots!" he says, nodding. "I was a stage pickpocket for a while - that was lots of fun. And when I quit that, I tried card tricks next. Came in handy for cheating at poker."

"Why would you need to cheat at poker when you could just steal large amounts of money from yourself?"

He shrugs. "I had to get the large amounts of money from somewhere, didn't I?"

"You've had all those careers. They didn't suffice?"

"I've had all those careers and... that was one of them?" he says, puzzled.