"Well, I didn't ask anyone else before coming to this conclusion, just me."

It feels like this shouldn't be happening to him even though it actually is. He's terrible at reading people but he can keep - whatever this is - up a bit longer, and obviously Haru needs to be in a good mood to finish this out? And maybe then-

Nope nope don't get carried away.

"Well... Then you're cute too by the same rule!"

"Oh, I think I'm definitely objectively cute."

"-Um. Hmm. Indeed. ...We lost the bubble. Which is a reference to game dialogue and means I've lost the previous mood and train of thought a bit, like, opportunity passed, and now I'm rambling and now I'm shutting up."

"Ah." He adopts a more platonic snuggling position. "Was it something I said or just - train of thought stuff?"

He will. Nuzzle. Slightly.

"-Maybe a little bit, just, 'oh, of course, everyone likes Haru why am I bothering him then'. Also train of thought and, like, we are still - on duty to a dungeon and I want to be not that before flinging myself against the backlash wall against just... Liking you... More."

"...that's two againsts, what does that mean?"

"The backlash wall is stopping me from just straightforwardly kissing you. I am throwing myself against it as if trying to climb it."

"Well, feel free to kiss me another time then."

........There is a thinking face for a few seconds.

"Is there anything I should be doing to help?"

"-Mm, no, just- Frigging backlash."

Kiss! Somewhat more lipwards than cheekwards this time.

"Backlash is a bitch," chirps Haru cheerily, and he mirrors the kiss.

This is pretty nice actually! Warm guiding snuggle except also more than that. And Haru seems to also be enjoying it for some confusing reason, so it's fine.

Another kiss?

As many as he wants.

This turns out to be about twentyish until-

-He notices a certain pressure on the lower part of the snuggle and shifts his hips away awkwardly. "-Um."

"...you're not gonna bother me that way, just tell me what you want to do."

"Officially finish the dungeon and then. Talk about it?"

"You got it. If you're good to keep for a bit I think I'm all set to go finish out the looting and then they'll just want one last sweep from you before they kill the core, sound like a plan?"

"Yeah, let's do that. Another one down."

"Yup."

Off Haru goes to pull clockwork monsters out of the dungeon. Paula has managed to send over a cage for a live capture, too.

The flyers are really hard to live capture, if you damage them enough to down them they tend to violently crash. The footsloggers can be de-limbed and the remaining parts continue trying to stab people just fine though.

Oh, he wants a flyer. He can sneak up on it while the cage is still covered as something "on his person" and then he just has to close it real quick.

He picks up a sudden burst of backlash in the moment before he deploys the cage.

It really Does Not Like this situation. It throws itself and claws and pecks at the walls.