"No one is going in the shame box, promise."

Can't talk, too much giggle.

"Thinking of vampires in terms of Pokemon is -" Nope more giggle. "It's a visual, certainly."

"It is that!"

"Would I be your vampire Pokemon starter, in this scenario? Is Sunnydale Pallet Town?"

"I don't know enough about Pokemon to keep riffing but I am now battling an urge to start calling you Pikachu and never stop."

"Please do not call me Pikachu. I would like to be Charmander, if I am to be called by a Pokemon's name. I will be a dragon one day."

She laughs.

"And now we should probably stop talking about this because wow I am a nerd."

"Nerds are highly valuable!"

"Yes, we are, just." She shakes her head, amused. "Anyway. Speaking of valuable nerds, I should work on the ensouling spell some more - I'm almost to the point where I can chat to your aunt about it, do you know when she'll be free?"

"I can go ask. How much longer do you think you'll be, approximately?"

"A few more hours to get everything all set up to integrate with her magic, I'd estimate. Longer if she'd like me to make sure everything can integrate well with Serafin's magic, too."

"In a few hours, Serafin will presumably be here and then all three of you can talk about integration."

"Yeah. It'll be fun."

"Sounds like it!"

Smile.

"I'm tempted to talk about it, but that can be later, after my sister has her soul back. Until then, I'm banished to the basement."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

To the basement!

Laptop: ready. Miles: cuddled. Time to nerd.

... With some brief distraction for important relationship talks. She can multitask. And also it's about to be relevant.

"Um, any thoughts on Serafin - being in love with me, or...?"

"...He seemed like he wasn't going to make an issue of it, so... I don't know? If you wanted to, uh, keep him like I'm keeping Zeke, I don't think I'd object, but it is also entirely understandable if you don't want to do that..."

"I - don't know. I'd want him to just stop torturing innocent people before I'd be willing to - keep him." Hesitant pause. "... I'm sort of worried that if I'm near him for too long I'll just sort of. Accidentally fall into his arms without meaning to?"

...Miles hugs her.

"Do you want to - do something to try to prevent that...?"

"I - don't know." Lean. "My life is confusing and complicated and I want to hide under the covers for a while until it stops being those things."

"Yeah, I hear you." Hug.