"I'm not sure there's that much strategizing to do? Blood won't work, I don't think the hospital will do any of the grosser options if you're not in obvious medical danger, we've already covered the sex angle and it's not happening - I could use my powers more, rack up backlash to pull on yours harder, except with paranoia it could possibly be bad if I were going around invisible to you a lot and you weren't keen to fly."

"...Do you have, like, a harness, for flying people around with."

"No, I just carry them in my arms. Espers are stronger than regular people."

"...That's still really scary.  You could go without me?  And lock me up in the meantime, if it seems warranted."

"I can go for a flight with Cricket - doing it alone stops being workable fast, flying is more expensive than being invisible for me so I get too lonely - but I'm not actually sure the interruption in guiding is worth it going faster once I land again? I guess it's worth a try in case the answer is definitively yes."

"I bow to your expertise.  You -" ughhhhhhhh.  "I do not kink on this:  what's the state of the art on espers spitting into each other's mouths."

"Uh, any time that would make sense people usually just kiss instead, it's less overtly gross and also works better because fluid efficacy drops off fast the more time it spends out of the donor body, but it probably works fine. - I can just hover around the house, I guess." He lifts off a centimeter from the bed and his skin becomes more delectably touchable.

"I don't want to kiss you."  Hhhhhhh skin.

"Yeah, I figured, just, that's why I haven't looked into it specifically."

"Mm.  ....Should we try and go back to sleep?  I'm sorry I woke you up so early."  Not in a way where he wouldn't do the same thing again, but he regrets the necessity.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom and then yeah." He escapes the blanket and flies to the bathroom and comes back and snuggles right up.

Being deprived of separated from Haru's skin is so much worse now.  But he doesn't freak out about it or anything.  Snuggle.

Zzz.

It's kind of impossible to get back to sleep, what with how there keep being cars, and house noises that are not the house noises he's used to, and everything's real which means that anything could hurt him, or Haru, and he can't prevent any of it just by fawning at reality.  But he actually is really safe, is the thing.  Safer than normal.  Haru's house is nicer than his and probably less likely to catch on fire because of people in the other apartments getting high and doing some late-night cooking.  Or whatever.  And Haru's an esper and will be advantaged in saving him if something does happen, and will probably want to try.

So really the only danger is himself.  The only real danger.

So he lies there and soaks up the guiding, and tries to rest even though he cannot sleep.

Haru says random nouns, some of them in French, for about an hour and a half, and then wakes up again and stretches.

"Good morning."

"Morning. How're you doing?"

"Uh... bad, in - a good way, I think."

"That is how it is sometimes. Let's go figure out breakfast?"

"Yeah."  It's important to fuel your body, so you can be the minimal amount of insane.  And not think everything is fucking poisoned.

"Do you want to try the making-omelettes-together-in-the-kitchen dance or just have cereal?" Haru asks, maneuvering out of the bed without breaking contact.

"Omelettes sound good."  He should save the lower-effort options for when he really needs them.

They have frozen spinach. Haru is going to also put a slice of deli turkey in his omelet but Julien doesn't need to partake. Cricket's asleep under his folded wings, in his window-seat cat bed.

"- Did I do something wrong?  Do you think I'm being too chipper again?  You look - annoyed.  Or suspicious.  Do you think I'm about to go back to being wrong about everything?"

"No, no, you're fine, I just make faces on autopilot and was thinking about stuff. - it is not remotely going to solve this problem if I turn invisible, is it."