"Hi," says Pigeon. Her voice is so quiet it's a little hard to hear her, even in the half-empty café. "Audrey - sorry, I mean Aurica - has told me about meeting you, and about... how you were her first... and how you inspired her to start looking for people she had shared interests with." She squeezes Aurica's hand under the table and smiles that little half smile again. "And it's been a real blessing, having her, so... I wanted to thank you."

"Oh. Well, gosh, I'm not so wonderful as that..."

Pigeon gathers Aurica a little closer to her with her wing. "Well, if Aurica is any example, you must be wonderful too."

Aurica smiles and leans her head on Pigeon's shoulder. She doesn't say anything.

Why does it feel like Aurica is gloating. 

...well, she's not going to do anything stupid and ruin Pigeon's first impression of her. 

"You said you met over a shared interest?"

Aurica flushes a little. "Yes, well, ah..."

"... you could say that."

Tabs pauses for a moment, and takes in Pigeon's dress. Purple, simple, cozy, kind of shapeless... 

"Do you mean we all share the same shared interest?"

Aurica reaches for the console in the center of the table, and a semitransparent screen flickers into place across the open side of the booth. 

She looks at Pigeon.

Pigeon nods.

"... I met Pigeon at a discussion group for littles, actually."

"So I guessed right!"

"Keep your voice down!"

Pigeon squeezes Aurica's hand again. "It's okay, you can trust the privacy screen."

She relaxes a little. "Yeah, I... guess I can..." 

"What was the meeting like?"

"It was weird. Really really weird. Um. Can I ask you a kind of sensitive question?"

"... Go ahead."

"When you're being a little, what age are you?"

"That... doesn't feel super coherent to me."

"But if you had to guess."

"I don't know, twelve or fourteen?"

Pigeon nods. "It's the same with us."