I'm glad.

Sigh.

Hey Alex? I'm gonna need some rags or something. For the, uh, blood. Also if anybody has a bunch of clean underwear around. Or other clothes.

Oh. Yeah, of course, I'll bring stuff over.

Thanks.

She marks something on her calendar.

Fourteen days. Ish.

The outfits Elves find for her are handsewn and extremely pretty.

Yay! She will.... try not to get blood on them.

Over the course of the next fourteen days she builds houses and talks to Ryan and suggests that mayyyybe they should not move in together until she's pregnant and has any idea how she feels about that. Eventually they achieve snuggles that do not make Karen feel sick.

"Yeah, that makes sense. I think I'll be happier in a space that's not built for Quendi space needs but you shouldn't move if you're comfortable.

If you feel like we're making some progress but aren't there yet, we can take another month, we're probably going to be trying a while anyway and it seems like the extra time might help."

"We can.... probably try now? We - don't have to actually, uh, do this, entirely, if I panic or something, but - I think it might plausibly be OK, and we can maybe at least see where we are?"

"Okay."

"I don't, uh, super know how people do this. I mean I know the theory, but, uh, the - practice."

"Uh, you pack a picnic and go out and watch the sunset and keep...touching each other, until you're very conscious of how the other person is shaped and that they're there, and you might kiss though I've been assuming that you'll say if you want to do that, and then you head back in the dark holding hands and your clothes get kind of muddy and you get back and take them off and get a shower and climb into bed in towels and say nice things about each other, or tell scary stories - I don't actually know if any of that part'd do any work for you but -"

"I'm... willing to try it? None of it sounds - definitely bad, so..." 

"Okay. We don't have to, we can absolutely just skip to the end, but -" shrug - "I don't know, I usually feel more secure when there's more there."

"No, that sounds - potentially nice. I am not opposed to picnics. And - uh - kissing is fine, I might not be good at - knowing when to do it, really, but - it's fine. If you want to."

"We can wait and see."

So they get bread and cheese and waterskins and odd Quendi fried things and venture out into the hills looking for places with a nice view of the sunset.  

Sunsets are nice. Bread and cheese are nice. Ryan is..... kind of nice. Actually.

Her stomach is maybe knotting up a little (is it supposed to do that? people do talk about feeling weird and getting butterflies around people they like? these don't really feel like butterflies so much but maybe other people are just bad at similes). She's repeatedly reminding herself that it's OK, it's OK, Ryan's not going to hurt her, she's fine, she's fine, it's safe here. And that mostly keeps it so her stomach is only knotting up a little bit.

It gets dark. They head back. "Can Slayers see in the dark? If I were designing a vampire-killing powerset that'd absolutely be on there."

"Right? We totally should be able to, but we can't. Quendi can. It's deeply unfair."

"Quendi are kind of bullshit. If this were a comic book I'd be really annoyed at whoever introduced them."

"They really are. I think DC Martians beat them, but honestly not by much. Although DC Martians aren't literally immortal, they just live for centuries. And I think there aren't very many of them, it's like Krypton except that the planet didn't actually blow up. Or something."

"They're telepaths! They're as strong as the Slayer! They're immortal! They can't be turned into vampires! They have healing powers! They see in the dark. They sing - magically. Their greatest weakness is things being ugly. They're all ridiculously wealthy!"

"We need to get some better writers, stat." 

He squeezes her hand. "I liked the ones who did the bit about Sunnydale being peaceful and not having any murders. Except I guess that was probably an intro panel."

Squeeze. "Sunnydale's writers thought they could get away with anything, honestly. No regard for common sense.

"I, uh - I don't a hundred percent know how the shower part of this plan works without running water?"

"- good point, it really doesn't. 

Man, I miss running water."