She grins sunnily back at him. And nibbles her bird.

John finishes his, (there wasn't much of them in the first place, and he's had the tiny drumsticks and the last bite of the paste), and wonders what else to talk about while waiting for her to finish. Hmmm.... "did you find anything else interesting when exploring the house earlier today, before I got here?" he asks. "Besides the mattress and such? Were there any more, um, secret passages or anything like that?" 

"Yeah! There's one from right by that double office that goes down to the basement level."

"Huh, I wonder why it does that," he says. "Is there anything special down there that they'd want to get to in a secret? I um, understand why the bedroom secret passageway," he blushes a little, "but I assume there's an explanation for that one." 

"It lets out right by the vaults, so probably that has something to do with it."

"Oh, that makes sense." Apparently he's slightly disappointed it's not something, um, racy or interesting, but a reasonable explanation is a reasonable explanation. "Well, I look forward to seeing it, and the rest of this place. Especially now that it's so well lit and we don't have to go around with flashlights." He smiles a little at his (kinda mediocre) attempt at humor. 

"It looks so much nicer with real lighting!" she agrees, and finally gets around to her last bite of bird paste. As soon as she puts down her fork, the cart trundles out to whisk away their dishes.

The cart is delightful, and so is the house. (And so is the food the house made, which he can't say anything to the house about except through Rosy. Well, he'll learn to cook with Rosy and the house will get to know him better and then he'll stop stressing about this for no reason.) "It does!" John agrees, wishing he could say that more directly to the house. "I look forward to, um, taking another look at all the places we previously visited, with more light." (He's thinking about the stripper pole now, isn't he. He totally is. Fuck, they're going to have such fun together.)

"Oh, me too, believe me."

The cart trundles back out with the next course: adorable little pies!

Pies is all John can see from a distance, one for each of them. They're smaller than regular pies (they couldn't eat a normal sized pie on their own, even if they were splitting one, especially not after all John has eaten already), and their tops are glossy and well-browned and... decorated? There's something on top of the pies, at least. But John can't get a clear view, at least not until the plate and dish with pie inside settle in front of him, and the house starts pouring Rosy more wine (red this time, not that it matters, he's not having any), but he isn't really paying attention to that because he's staring at the work of art in front of him. 

The pie is just as glossy and well-browned as he saw from a distance, but on top is a decoration of what is clearly a the head of a deer, from the side, antlers and all, as though cut out from an impossibly detailed cookie cutter and placed on top before it was baked. But it couldn't have been just a cookie cutter, because somehow this deer head has depth, not just width. It's not as though the entire head is 3D, that would be impossible (potentially, he wouldn't have thought this possible until he saw it), but it has enough depth to convey the size and shape it's trying to convey: the antler nearer to him is slightly thicker and thus appears closer to him than the other one, the ear lifts gently to a point, the neck itself has a subtle curve to it... and all of it is done by varying the thickness of the pie crust, or... something, John has no idea how it could possibly have been done. And there are other cutouts, as well, all with their own depth: a ring of leaves around the outer edge of the pie, arranged artfully, partly overlapping the crust.  

John stares. "I... I'm not sure I can bring myself to cut into this," he says. "I almost want to take a picture of it." He squints. Would that be allowed? Would it be ok? If a picture was found, would it break the veil laws? (Technically he has other important veil-law breaking pictures on his phone, but... still.) He should probably ask. "Can... could I, actually?" 

Rosy considers the magnificent pies.

"It doesn't look like anything an insanely dedicated and talented human chef couldn't do. I say go for it. Though obviously don't show all your friends and tell them it was made by a magic house."

"I will definitely not do that!" John says. He's much more worried about breaking the veil laws on accident, rather than on purpose. (He's not going to break them on purpose.) He pulls out his phone, and takes a few pictures (which don't manage to fully capture how incredible it is, though maybe that's for the best, veil-law-wise), puts it away, stares at it for a moment longer, sighs... and uses his fork to pull the top crust aside. 

The crust is audibly crispy on top, but soft and flaky underneath, and moves aside easily, revealing the pie contents underneath. Inside are chunks of meat (probably deer if the picture on the pie is anything to go by), potato, greens that he can't identify, and bits of onion and smaller green flecks of something, all together in a pale brownish sauce. John spears a piece of meat, and puts it in his mouth to try it. 

The meat is definitely different from what he's had before. Like beef, but with different and stronger flavors. Whatever the creamy sauce its in is delicious, though, especially along with the meat. It's rich and savory and makes him want to eat more. "Well, this is good," John says after swallowing in a clear understatement, and goes for another bite. The soft potato and... (earthy? bitter?) flavorful greens and buttery, flaky crust turn out to also be delicious. "Mmmf," he makes in satisfaction, still chewing. He wishes he could compliment the house, but there's no good way of doing that. Yet. Hopefully there will be plenty of reasons to compliment it later, when it can actually understand him. 

"Oh, wow, this is just as spectacular as it looks and that's saying something."

John nods and swallows. "It looks very spectacular!" he agrees. Hopefully the 'and it tastes just as good' was understood (he's reasonably sure it was, though), because he's chewing again. The meat is a little tougher than he's used to, and takes a bit of effort, but it's very full of flavor, and worth every chew.  

"I knew the house was going to be a fantastic cook, but nobody warned me it was going to be an artist!"

Although the lights didn't react to her last compliment, this one gets a bit of a blush out of them.

Well, that was a straightforward reaction to interpret. (And cute.) He's glad the house gets to feel appreciated for its excellent, excellent work. (Even if he wants to also give it compliments too, so it can know how he feels... but that will come with time. Supposedly.) "I'm glad it knows we think it's doing a good job," John says with a smile, and takes another delicious bite. 

Emphatic nodding. Om nom pie.

The pie is delicious! 

But if Rosy isn't saying anything then (despite the fact that he's mostly distracted by eating) he should probably come up with something to talk about. Right? (Right??) 

Unfortunately, he's... not entirely sure what to talk about. Bringing up all the fun stuff they've been talking about over the past few weeks seems a lot harder now (it's so much easier when she brings it up) (and also might be a lot easier without... someone... listening... in... fuck. Fuck!!) 

"I realize this sounds silly, but um, how much does... the house see and hear about what's happening in it?" John asks, with a note of concern in his voice. 

"I mean, everything? —is this about the sex?"

"Iiiiit might be about the sex, yes," John says, blushing. (Maybe the house doesn't care, and it'll all be ok? He has no idea but he feels a lot more uncomfortable about it now than he did a few minutes ago.)

"That makes sense. I personally don't mind at all, but I can see how it would be weird for you. I promise the house doesn't think about things the way people do and it's not weird to the house or to me?"

(...so maybe it doesn't care actually, then? (But what if he cares. (But why does he care? If Rosy doesn't care then he probably shouldn't, right?))) "How... does it think about it, exactly, then?" Maybe it just doesn't care or understand what the people inside it or up to, or something? Maybe that would help? 

"How do I put this... houses are for living in? Houses are for doing all the things you do in a house, and sex is one of those things, just like eating and sleeping and going to the bathroom and doing your homework and playing video games? It's normal and unremarkable, if you're a house, for people to live in you and do all the things people do when they're living."

"That.... make sense." John says. He still feels a little uncomfortable about it, but well, he can understand what she's saying, and... plus there's not much to be done about it. "So it just, isn't going to think about it as... wait, does it watch us going to the bathroom also?" That one might be weirder. 

"I mean, not in a weird way! But—if you fell over in the bathroom and hit your head, it would notice and help you?"