"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."

"Okay."

They get some frozen yogurt. It's very aesthetically pleasing, and it tastes nice. Ari gets a big fluffy concoction with loads of toppings.

Chantal gets the Gummy Sea Creatures Special because she wants to find out what is in a Gummy Sea Creatures Special.

"I don't know what I expected," she says, gazing contemplatively at the sea-blue contents of her cup, and the gummy sea creatures piled thereon. There's a little plastic trident stuck in the shark at the top of the heap, possibly to assist her in eating the gummy sea creatures.

Ari stares in delight. "That's wonderful," he says.

She lifts her shark on its trident and delicately nibbles its translucent tail.

"Squishy," she pronounces.

"That's the best way for a gummy shark to be!"

Ari tries some of his ridiculous concoction. "Kinda blends together into sugarslop," he diagnoses. "But I like sugarslop."

"I like gummy sharks, I think. I don't know that I've ever had one before."

Nomf. She spears a wiggly tentacular gummy next, considers it for a moment, then holds it out to Ari. "Jellyfish?"

Ari delicately bites it off the trident. "Thank you kindly."

Oh good. (Tiny wiggle.)

What good wiggles. What a good soulmate he has except for all the part that he's not thinking about.

What a good soulmate she has except for all the part she's not thinking about! They have so much in common.

She notices that she's wiggling, blushes, stops, and eats a bright yellow tropical fish gummy instead. "Oh! Lemon! I don't know why I didn't expect that."

Aw, no more wiggles? But the wiggles were good. Ari has some more undifferentiated sugarstuff. "I think I could get used to this place," he says thoughtfully. "Just - a little more of this, a little less of. The rest of it."