"Cool!  Wow.  Hi.  How are you??"

"I'm doing good. KD for you?"

"Yeah sure.  Thanks."

"Blue eyes," Haru remarks, plopping some onto a plate. "Hotsauce?"

"Hm.  Maybe a little."  He gets out his phone and checks himself out in the selfie cam from a bunch of different angles.

"D'you like 'em?" Hotsauce bottle is proffered.

"They're - green?"  Hotsauce accept.

"...if you say so. Looks blue to me."

"Maybe it's a lighting thing...  They kind of match my shard.  Of dungeon wall."

"Huh! I wonder if that's a coincidence or not."

"Yeah, I don't know."  Dab of hot sauce, munch munch.  Stare at phone.  "Man, whatever hue they are, they sure are - turn around bright eyes..."

"That a reference to something?"

"What!"  Youtube youtube total ec - yes there it is.  Preemptive mute for the ad.  "Y'know, if I were still awakening this would make me self-conscious again about the extent to which you're really like, just a guy, who happens to be gay, and I am - not quite that.  That happened a couple times."  Skip ad pause volume back up piano intro.

"Oh, I think I've heard this song, I just don't know all the lyrics. There is nothing wrong with being more than coincidentally gay, that's just how I am is all!"

Music off.  "Yes, yes, it's very easy to comprehend not only this but also the fact that you might believe it in the absence of mind control."  Noodles bite.  "Although - to ward off any Bug-alikes who might feel the need to arise in defense if I poke too much fun at myself from last week - I could comprehend that; I just had to spend a lot of thought particles on reminding myself."

"Mood. I mean, not the exact presentation, but mental backlash is a helluva drug."

"I think lack of mental backlash might be a, not even a heck of a drug but maybe a darn.  I feel - not high but - light.  It's so relieving -"

"I wasn't actually sure it'd be that dramatic when you'd already had any guiding - I thought not being backlashed any more after I was done awakening was absolutely amazing but I didn't have the comparison."

"The handholding was really nice but it's just kind of apples-and-oranges with not constantly being afraid of everything."

Nod nod. Haru finishes his macaroni and busses his dish.

"So, current plan is I go do my thinking, take a break, we find out what I can do, and then I get out of your house and your hair for a while?"

"Sure - over what timescale?"

"A few hours?  - Or did you mean the going away part."

"The whole thing."

"...Those are two sufficiently different things that I don't know how to answer that.  I think the actual things will take a couple hours, like, one to maybe - four?  If we get caught up in powers testing a lot?  And then I will pack up my things and go home and not come back until you have introverted enough to be like, 'Hey Julien.'  However long that is."