"Yeah. Not everybody's thing. Or, not almost anyone's thing."

Scritch scritch. "Maybe sometime. I could see it being appealing if I were really mentally exhausted maybe."

"Mmhm," she says, leaning into the scritches.

Kiss.

"See, that's what I thought you were getting at early when I went all severe and said 'excuse me', it's not a 'shame' that he's not on the market."

Blink. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"What did you mean it like?"

"Well, like, it's a nice thing! I like belonging to you, it's nice to date and stuff. It's a shame in the same way, I don't know, lactose intolerance is a shame, because cheese tastes nice? It's one less nice thing he has. Which, I mean, granted, he doesn't particularly care that he doesn't have it, I suppose, but. I dunno."

"Alex would probably say that it's not particularly a shame that there are people who can't abide watching Nascars go round and round in circles, however much fun the fans have in the process."

"I suppose," she sighs. "Though it's not quite the same, relationships are kinda... a bigger deal? Than hobbies. But, yeah, I mean, you're right."

"He views the entire enterprise with enough revulsion that I don't think he believes he's missing out, let alone that he's missing out on anything important. I suppose he might feel differently about how much harder it makes it to find especially close relationships but he has a twin."

"Who basically lives in his head, I don't think you can get significantly closer than that."

"It's verbal voluntary telepathy, I don't think that quite qualifies as living in his head, but yes."

"Must be nice, anyway, being that close to someone."

"It's nice."

"...what did he think of me, in the end? I think I picked on him too much there for the first couple of days."

"...yeah, he wasn't thrilled. I don't think you're best friends or anything but you didn't permanently sabotage anything."

Sigh. "I didn't mean to hurt him, I was just... joking around." She shakes her head. "Guess I'll have to make a better impression next time."

"You have to gauge how your jokes land and recalibrate from there, pet."

"Yeah. For what it's worth, I do like him."

"That's good."

"Y—yeah," she says, her eyes widening in something that could dramatically be described as 'dawning horror.' "What is he gonna tell your parents about me."

"...Uh, what do you want him to say? I can coach him."

"I don't know, I hadn't expected to mishandle it that much, I had hoped to just. Get him to like me."