“We’re both doing our best. And I’m really glad part of my best was contacting Haru.”

"I am too! Feel like I ran into a crazy bogo event on very cool people who are also compatible espers, somehow."

She kisses Lucy's forehead.

Reciprocal forehead kiss!

“Thank you Haru for being incredibly cool!”

"You're welcome!"

She wiggles happily.

Hmmm... "Do you want more scritches?" She was enjoying giving those.

“Yeah.”

Cara resumes scritching! She does her best to match the Optimal Lucy Scritch Intensity from earlier.

Oh good! Happy purring snuggles.

A little less than an hour later, she starts giving Cara a Speculative look.

Inquisitive headtilt. "What's up?" 

“Hmm. Where did the non-blue body art markers get to?”

She looks around, spots them on the nearby table, and points. 

Okay! Lucy goes and fetches a magenta one.

She eyes the extremely nonblue color with curiosity. "Want me to draw on you?" 

“Oh—probably.” She grabs the red one too. “But that’s not what this one is for. Lie down?”

(She lies down.) Hmmm. Suspicious...

These wash off, though. She'll allow it.

She starts drawing tiny circles around Cara’s bellybutton.

It quickly becomes apparent that she is drawing a raspberry.

huh! cute, but... 

She tilts her head in confusion. "...Why a raspberry?" 

She raises an eyebrow and then ducks down to plant her face directly over Cara’s bellybutton and blow.

Um,,

“—Wait, no, I’m an idiot. I didn’t need to use pink; blue raspberry is a thing.”

OH WAIT SHE GETS IT NOW 

She bursts out laughing, her whole body shaking. "Ohhhh, that kind of raspberry!" she eventually manages to say between giggles. 

“It was on your bellybutton! Was it not obvious?”

"-I don't even remember the last time I saw the word used to mean that! And, uh, you're the first person to do that to me", she admits. 

“I think I found another thing wrong with your parents besides the gender thing.”

...Huh. She shrugs. "They might have done it when I was really young and I just don't remember? They did plenty of physical affection and stuff, just not that." 

But also - "... I'm not saying they were perfect about the gender stuff, though, I know they weren't. Just - that's the obviously bad thing, the reason I don't let them talk to me anymore."