"Yeah. It's your tradeoff to make. I have plain t-shirts, more plain t-shirts, plain long-sleeved t-shirts, a blood drive one, one Tim Horton's gave me for agreeing to be photographed with my morning coffee, and exactly one buttondown, take your pick." The relevant dresser drawers are open for Julien's inspection.

"Thank you."  Plain purple shortsleeve.

Haru grabs a gray one for himself but does not put it on immediately, presuming Julien's mother will knock or something.

Back down they go. Ren's got garlic and green onions in the frying pan and is pressing the tofu.

She actually texts Julien that she's outside instead, but yeah, there's warning.

"Hello!"

"Hi! Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes, sit anywhere you like - I'm Ren Swan, Haru over there a.k.a. Traceless is my son -" Ren waves distractedly and runs back to stir the tofu in the pan.

"Thank you kindly."

Hug?

Hug!

"Your eyes are lighter already," she notes.  "Have you been taking pictures?"

"No."

"You should, you'll want them later."

"Yeah."  This has actually occurred to him once already, but he was crying at the time.  And then he forgot.  "I know."  He unhugs and hands her his phone.

She leads him over to a spot with good light, fixes his hair, and snaps a round of shots.  And a few on her phone for good measure.

...Haru notes the clock time but does not overtly object to non-guiding time elapsing. He pets Cricket. He's low enough backlash to Read The Comments instead of talking constantly and goes through what's been said on his blog.

No, no, Julien comes right back next to him afterwards.  Though he doesn't initiate contact; he puts his hand kind of up and vaguely towards Haru and then leaves it there.

Haru links arms and clasps hands.

That's fine, then.

"Where'd I set down your bags... - there they are.  Guitar's still in the car, I'll go and get it."

"Thank you."

He gets more lean-y on Haru after she steps out.

"Do I need to be watching the, uh, level of contact or whatever around her, is she touchy?"

"I don't knooooow.  She doesn't - " want to know things about his sex life (and - this situation aspirationally has absolutely nothing to do with his sex life) but also in the context of that conversation, a few years ago, that was probably code for 'she doesn't want to be presented with solid evidence that he's definitely gay' because then she would have to - hate him?  Beat him?  Disown him?  ...He didn't think those things were likely a week ago but he thinks them now.  That means they're almost certainly false but it makes it hard to guess what actually will happen.  She will..... have to stop imagining him getting married to a nice girl and settling down and having a bunch of kids.  She will..... be awkward in some way.  Haru might be better at guessing but he doesn't know her and also he can't mention this to Haru because this situation has nothing to do with his sex life but mentioning this concern would make that not true.  But ALSO what if this whole line of thought is his brain trying to get him guided less so that other fucking guy can come back.  Or a new one.  AaaaaaaaAAAA.  "I'm more the uncomfortable one.  I think."

"Okay, well, for your comfort, what should I be doing guidingwise."

"I don't know," he despairs.  "- I guess the arm and hand level was pretty fine."  Unlean back to that.

"Got it. I can eat left handed if you need your right."

"Thank you.  ...'Roll up a pant sleeve, keep lower legs touching' also seems workable if that's easier."

(Guitar!  She leans it against the wall over there.)