"Then I suppose I shall have to wait."

"I'm afraid so." Lean. "I apologize in advance if I fall asleep on you, by the way."

"You can feel free to do that, my love. I will wake you once the food is ready."

"Mm. It seems like it'd be a letdown, to do all that preparation to see me," yawn, "'nd cook for me and my dad, then to have me collapse on you to sleep. It'd be boring to just watch a flimsy human sleep."

"I think we have had this conversation before. You are a fascinating delight to me even asleep."

"That's weird. Also, why aren't you more comfortable, this is terrible. Vampire design flaw, worse than the teeth."

"On behalf of all vampires, I do apologize."

"S'fine, not your fault. Books're over there if you get bored."

Aaaaaand she's out.

... Yeah she's maybe overworking herself a bit.

Poor thing.

When she is gently woken up, James managed to somehow extricate himself from her at some point and is standing in front of the couch.

"Mmnh?" She stirs, blinking awake. "... Hell, I did fall asleep, didn't I."

"You did. You looked very peaceful."

She snorts. "Thanks. Sorry, I uh. Wasn't expecting to pass out like that the moment I stopped doing things." She doesn't sound surprised, but she does sound annoyed. "Uh, dinner's fine, house didn't burn down?"

Dinner smells splendid.

"It's fine, yes." Pause. "You mentioned your father was eating with us. Did you... tell him...?"

"Yeah, he's just being depressed and antisocial upstairs." Sigh. "He might not be up for eating with us, I'll. See. What his mood's like."

"—I mean, did you tell him I'm a vampire."

"Oh. No. Since it's 'become a vampire, die, or put your loved ones at risk of murder with you,' I, uh. Thought that wasn't a good idea."

"So... I don't eat because of an allergy? Or vegetarianism?"

"My plan had been to have you make soup," she says, wryly. "On the assumption that liquids would be fine. Uh, good excuse... It would be incredibly silly for you to have an allergy to something you made. Also silly for you to be a vegetarian and then make a distinctly not vegetarian meal. Uh." She scrunches up her face. "Fake an emergency or prior engagement, gosh look at how you lost track of the time, make an excuse, get a box to take home, toss box directly into garbage on the way there? But that would rather cut things short, hm."

"Well, I'm vegetarian and I made dinner for you and your father, not for myself, because I am just that good a boyfriend."

"... James, you're dating me. Do you think I wouldn't swat any boyfriend that tried to pull that self sacrificing garbage."

He laughs. "You do have a point. I could just grin and bear it and then regurgitate it later."

"James," she repeats, "you're dating me. I don't want you to have to eat food you're going to have to regurgitate later! That sounds really unpleasant and kind of gross!"

He shrugs. "It's really not that bad. And seems worth it, for a chance to have a normal dinner with your father."

She makes a face.

"Are you, um, sure? You can have a normal dinner with the both of us later, if we pre-plan better next time and you make soup?"

"It's fine, you don't need to worry."