"I can't think of a single duet I know but if I recognize something on the list, sure!"

"A lot of songs can be structured as duets despite not obviously sounding like it! Did you know Linkin Park has always two vocalists for the different kinds of singing in their songs? In their early stuff it was two guys, so it was easier to miss" ...okay that's probably not super relevant to his musical interests "there's lots of little things like that." 

She opens her calendar again and adds "duet hunting" as a task for tomorrow at 10 AM.

"I did not know that."

"I know lots of facts! Some of them interesting or useful, even." Smile. 

and because she's been being very silly and doesn't want her genuine feelings to get hidden behind that, she leans her forehead against his and says "Haru - thank you. I was really looking forward to karaoke, and I'm so happy I not only don't have to miss it, but get to go with you." 

"Awww, I'm looking forward to it too."

!!!

She - doesn't hide her face. It's good, actually, that he sees how much he makes her blush sometimes.

And then they can work on filling out the spreadsheet of things to try until dinnertime?

Yup. "Do you want to try to keep guiding while we make dinner?"

Instinctive little squeeze. "Hmmm. Is esper strength and kitchen clearance space sufficient for me to I just cling to your back while you're working?" She giggles. "Like Yoda, but less green and cryptic and also much prettier."

"I think that works fine."

Then they can head kitchenwards and it will be piggyback time!

Sheeeee tries not to pay too much sensory attention to how nice it feels to have her boobs squished up against his back like this. (Her backlash makes that easier, at least.) 

If Haru wants to start a conversation, she'll happily join in, but she knows some people prefer to focus while they're cooking, so if he doesn't say anything, she'll close her eyes and relax.

He is not backlashed so he does not particularly chat while he is fixing box mac and cheese and locating a hotsauce for her.

If there's options, she'll point at a few that look interesting! He said they weren't very spicy, so she is probably going to want to see which one has the largest container / most remaining...

There are options! The interesting ones come in pretty small bottles but there's a decent sized container of Frank's Red Hot.

She'll sample the interesting ones, but end up using mostly Frank's Red Hot by volume.

Probably Haru could have guessed this by the fact that she had habanero powder at her place, but she really does use quite a lot of hot sauce!

"Noticing any tastebud differences yet?"

She chews thoughtfully, trying to actually pay attention to what she's tasting. Tragically, this is definitely not a class skill for her, even without the backlash. "Not especially? But it's only been like 18 hours, and I think that even without my backlash this is the kind of thing I'm not very good at noticing. Are the body changes about linear, frontloaded, backloaded, a secret fourth thing..."

"It's hard to tell because there might be individual variation and a lot of it's swamped by backlash. They did a study once where they tested some people's vision twice a day during awakening when they found awakeners with cooperative backlashes for that, and that seemed linear for people who started with normal vision, a little frontloaded for the ones who started out worse, but the sample size was pretty small."

"So in theory I should expect to maybe start smelling / tasting things soonish, but it's hard to know..." she nods thoughtfully. Makes sense that it would be hard to study, because hell week is so bad...

Wait. "...oh, gosh, should we be seeing if there's any studies I could usefully participate in? Surveys I could be taking, and whatnot?"

"If I already knew of any that you're supposed to do during instead of after I'd've told you, but I can call some people and ask!"

Ooooh a chance to observe her Haru networking! She nods vigorously. "If you don't mind!" 

"Maybe after the sunset flight? I tend to time my phone call related plans for when I'm backlashed."

"Sounds good to me!" Omnomnomnom food goes into the Cara.

Haru takes his KD with ketchup, not hotsauce, but enjoys it anyway.

And when the sun's dropping in the sky, he can again scoop up Cara and fly away with her.

Flight! Sunset! She sighs dreamily at the view, and searches for something to say about it.

"I read something once that claimed one of the measurable differences between men and women was that women tended to appreciate natural beauty more. Probably it was bogus, I'm told most of those things are."

"It sounds pretty bogus and even if someone turned up a real effect it could be an effect of how effusively women answer surveys, or something."