"Huh.  Do you think they might be going for purple?  I guess they're already lighter than my favorite range of those, though.  I don't know, it's kind of freaky..."  Oh what if he were back right up next to Haru.  Doesn't do to let himself obviously panic about this, so yes thank you he'll happily take the complacency drugs this time.

Arm around the shoulders. "Could be purple. My hair didn't change but my partner's got indigo streaks."

Cricket enters the house with a pigeon feather sticking out of his teeth.

Ren's in a minute later. "Hi, Haru! And you must be Julien, I hear you're a vegetarian, I'll pick up some tofu tomorrow."

"Hi Mom."

"Hello!  Thank you!"

"No problem. Cricket, you've got something in your teeth."

"Well, why don't your thumbs make themselves useful, then."

Ren snorts, removes the feather, discards it, washes her hands, and sets about salad assembly.

Julien will continue to droop on Haru, then.  Did he really think it would be fine to have a blindfold on, just a few minutes ago?  The thought of giving up that much situational awareness is pretty scary, now.  Admittedly there wasn't anyone else in the house, then, but he knew they were coming....  And now he's still keeping his eyes closed.  But he could open them at any time, and that's important.

- Oh, right, it's probably the complacency drugs.  Duh.  He makes a mental note to check in a few minutes whether it still sounds scary, but then instead Haru's arm on him puts him - still not all the way to sleep, but definitely more than the 'just resting his eyes' level he was at before.  Someone's going to have to rouse him for dinner; he's not getting up on his own.

"Hey. Salad for espers time."

"Hmmmmmooookay."  Hup?  Hep.  ...Yeah, he'd totally put on a blindfold now, if it felt like the thing to do, socially.  The world is bright.  Blinkblink.

"Caesar dressing has anchovies, we have ranch and vinaigrette if you'd rather," Ren says, putting a bowl of leaves and croutons and chickpeas in front of him.

"I don't think I knew that!"  But he wants it - no, no, ranch, he guesses.  Ranch is fine.

It's a good salad even with ranch, in that it's food that's in front of him that is probably not poisoned because they're doing the esper thing instead, and he's extremely hungry.

He can have seconds if he wants!

Yes thank you thank you.

And Ren handles the dishes because Haru has important awakener-cuddling to do.

Cricket had sashimi on a probably custom-made plate that he could carry around himself, to chase down the pigeon; as the dinner things are cleared away he gets his laptop playing The Wire.

The existence of Cricket as an ambient being is delightful.  It's a nice little treat that gives him the strength he needs for what has to happen next.

"Guest room?"

"If you're tired already. I can lend you some pajamas and get a fresh toothbrush out of the closet and stuff."

"I'm pretty worn out, yeah.  That would be great."  Oh, he should take off his apron.  Could have done that ages ago, really.

Off Haru goes to get those objects. "I did a dungeon today, so I'm going to hit the shower real quick before bed, but I can be out in five, all right?"

"Sure!  - Or, um, actually -"  He lowers his voice a bit.  "I didn't want to say in front of your mom, but I was, uh - do you want to have sex?  Is what I mean."

"I promised I was not going to be weird about this. You have psychological backlash and I don't think you're leveling with me about it. Try again in a week."

It is CRUEL that the showrunners are NOT ONLY making him ask for this and NOT ONLY making him be chipper about it BUT ALSO making him do actual acting.  Fine.  He will do actual acting.  And can; he was Kenickie in Grease senior year.

"It's not that big a deal for me?" false "It's not my first time having sex" true "or my first time with a guy I'm not dating," true "or anything like that" unrateable.  "And like, you've saved me twice," half true "and you're really hot" true "and I want to be sane," true "and... this seems by far the best way of getting that" extremely false.