"Oh. I mean. - yes." She supposes that the fact that he likes her in the general sense of the word is not really new information; you don't really invite people's kids to stay with you indefinitely if you dislike them. "I just - I mean I don't want to assume things? And I don't want it to be - unclear, or anything, at any point, which things are yours, or whether I owe you any money or anything if - I mean I don't want to assume stuff about what's going to happen, either."

Haha, yes Karen, hasten discussion of you getting kicked out of the house when he gets bored, that'll help things.

An emotion flashes across Lev's face too quickly for Karen to see what it is. 

"You don't have to pay me back for anything. If it's in your rooms it's yours, if it's in an account with your name on it it's yours, and if you want something that usually stays in a different room ask me about it?"

"...OK. If you're sure. I will... try to ask for things that make sense and try not to be too paranoid about the skills of your lawyers, then."

"I gave you some credit cards but I can transfer some money into an account of yours regularly if that's easier and makes it less likely that you feel like you're overspending?"

" - I mean it's up to you, really, it's not like it's been a problem?" It's sort of a problem. "Credit cards are - typically more useful for people who have any income, but I'm not really sure how you meant for - I'll just ask Shelly to buy some tickets."

"Uh, sorry, I probably should have clarified? They're set up so I can pay them off?"

"Ah. OK. That's - nice of you."

"It was what was agreed on, I thought? I'd cover your expenses?"

" - well I think I was mostly really clear on the 'you will not at any point get any more money than this' part and much less clear on which things are typically considered living expenses. Which is really nobody's fault."

"I think if we got married and then six months later you divorced me and took half my stuff I would be pretty irritated but that does not mean that I'm going to be like 'no, Karen, you can't go to a restaurant' or whatever."

"Yeah, those - really make sense as completely different things." Haha right this whole thing is happening under the assumption that they're figuring out whether they're going to get married in six months. Right. Totally. "I mean - I know, obviously, that anything I might buy is, like, much less than a rounding error for you? I just - I don't want to make any unwarranted assumptions about stuff like this because if I get it wrong then I actually cannot pay for any of this, at all, in any way."

"I promise that if you buy something thinking that I'm going to pay for it I will not make you pay for it."

"OK. If you promise. Then - thanks."

Hug?

Hug! Hugs are nice. They probably logically shouldn't make her feel better but in practice they totally do.

"So. I should probably leave you to go - save babies and stuff."

"If you want to, but if you want to hang out and be distracted from your parents being awful, I don't actually have anything urgent happening today."

"My parents are not awful. They are, like, moderately justifiably concerned that their daughter is making what appear to be terrible decisions."

"I am very far from an expert on parents but I feel like they should probably give you the benefit of the doubt since you're generally a reasonable person."

"Maybe. I feel like my reasonableness quotient is honestly pretty debatable."

"Well, you seem reasonable to me! Other than the part about hanging out with me, that seems less reasonable."

This would probably make her feel better if hanging out with Lev were not the main thing harming her reasonableness credentials at this time.

"I try. And I hear some people think that watching Pixar movies and talking to your friends about comics are, like, totally sane things to do with your free time."

"...I think they mean with your actual friends though and not with weird lonely rich people."

She thinks of several flippant responses to that and then discards them.

" - you know, I would in fact not be here if there were no money in it, for the same reason that if a country doesn't pay its legislature then the entire legislature will by necessity consist of independently wealthy people? But in an alternate universe where you somehow failed to found Yenta and never got out of fast food, where we are both sad people who happen to live in the same city for some reason, and who occasionally distract ourselves from our sad lives by hanging out at the same comic shop and looking at the clearance rack while I wait for the rest of the D&D club to show up? I think we're friends. Or - I give us fifty-fifty odds, anyway, conditional on us managing to have a solid twenty minutes of conversation at some point."

His smile is grateful, grateful and surprised and a little sad.

"I'm not entirely sure about Fast Food Me's ability to hold a conversation for twenty minutes."

"It's possible that our alternate universe selves have different problems. I believe in them, though."