"Oh, if I'm going down, you're going down with me."

She sighs.

"But it's not like I'm opposed to learning how to fake it better. And if getting it down well enough actually makes everything stop sucking that would be nice. So sure, we'll try it your way. Let's My Fair Lady the shirt out of me."

"Excellent!"

Meanwhile, earlier:

Ari enters the house. "Chantal?" he calls. "I'm home."

snfl

Ari sits within cuddling distance but outside of Chantal's personal space. "So, our neighbors are interesting," he says. "Seems like they're also having a time of it."

"it was really nice of you to try to make me waffles."

"Oh! I, um, do try. That was the intent. Thank you. - maybe in future I'll just ask Janet for some, though."

"'msorry I burst into tears about it." She hugs her knees. "That was probably not the outcome you intended."

"I mean, no? But also I'm pretty sure burnt waffle mess wasn't what either of us wanted, either, so I'm pretty much counting that as my bad."

"...okay. I guess. You didn't—do anything wrong though—"

"...not, like, morally? But I wanted to do something nice for you more than I wanted you to have something nice. I don't know if that makes sense."

"...I guess. But. ...don't want you to feel bad for trying to do something nice for me."

"I don't. I feel kind of bad that I sucked at it but - I can practice, probably somebody around here knows how to cook, and in the meantime I'll try to actually help instead of trying to make myself feel better."

"Well. Okay."

Ari lets his head clonk against the wall gently. "What a forking day. Um, I might take a walk through downtown, see what kind of stuff's on offer - you wanna come with me?"

She contemplates this prospect, and the prospect of sitting at the bottom of the stairs being miserable for the next several hours. Going for a walk with her soulmate seems... Probably better?

"Okay."

So they go for a walk. Ari considers taking her hand, and decides against it.

The downtown is kitschy in a vaguely delightful way. There are more frozen yogurt establishments than can be credited. There are also little antique shops.

"Ooh, can we go antiquing?" Ari asks, bouncing slightly on his heels.

...she smiles. (They're just very good bounces, you see.)

"Sure, if you want."

The antique shop is named The Extraordinary Find. Ari immediately discovers a cedar jewelry box inlaid with mother-of-pearl and small gemstones. He's delighted by it.

"How much for this one?" he asks the proprietor.

     "Oh, we don't use currency here!" she chuckles.

"Oh! Then I can just - take it?"

     "Well, no - the real pleasure of antiquing is in finding something, not having it cluttering up your house. It's an antiquing store, not an antique store."

"...then..."

     "Put it back so someone else can find it!"

"...okay."

He puts the box back where he found it and leaves the store, trying not to look too obviously sad.

"...it was really pretty," she says.

"It was, wasn't it," he sighs. "I guess they're right, though - we've got eternity, the house would get pretty cluttered."

"You could put things back. When you got tired of them."

"Yeah, but - mm."

He doesn't really have an answer to that, actually.

"Wanna get some frozen yogurt? I don't see anywhere for ice cream, but I like frozen yogurt okay too."