She sits next to him, leaf-bowl arranged similarly, and leans against him. Another dumpling get popped into her mouth. "These are really good," she says after swallowing it.

Now that he has his hands free, he snugs an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, they're great! Sorry I was weird about it when you fed me one. It was really cute, I was just afraid trying to do complicated things while carrying a big bowl of dumplings that's not super steady might be a bad plan."

She blushes, smiles, and nods, then tries feeding him one again: picking it up from the bowl and holding it up to his lips with a smile.

Giggly nom!

She blushes and smiles a bit wider, giggling herself. She eats another dumpling herself, and shakes her head.

"You're unreasonably adorable, you know that?"

"I did not know that. It's not really a common complaint." He picks up one of his own dumplings and offers it to her.

She noms it with a giggly grin.

He gives her shoulders a squeeze and takes the next dumpling for himself. "You're real sweet."

She stretches a free hand around Torok's shoulders and snuggles in, feeding herself another dumpling. "Pot, kettle," she retorts.

He just giggles, leaning on her a little (though he's careful not to put too much weight on her or squish too hard with his chitinous surfaces).

She smiles softly and shakes her head, giggling a bit herself. "I keep having an urge to call you various coupley things. I get attached absurdly easily, it's ridiculous." She rests her head on his chitin-armored shoulder and feeds herself another dumpling.

"I'm—really glad we're friends." Nom. "I'm glad you like me and I'm glad... that we can help each other, I guess?"

She nods. "Me too! It's really great how smoothly we're teaming up like this. Also, I just really enjoy you. It doesn't hurt that you're distractingly handsome, but mostly it's just that you're really sweet and fascinating."

"I don't know what to do with all these compliments. I'm not used to compliments. Are you sure you've got the right guy?"

She giggles quietly, shakes her head, presses a soft kiss to Torok's lips, and then looks him firmly in the eye and says, "Thoroughly."

... he might be blushing a little.

"Oh. Okay."

"You, Torok," she pokes his chest firmly enough that he can maybe feel it just a bit through the armor, "are generous, kind, continually protective of us, constantly sweet and thoughtful, and generally a delight to be around. We like you. Some of us in more coupley ways than others, but we're pretty damned fond of you at this point."

"...oh," he says, with dawning realization, "yeah, that's a question, how—I mean I guess you wouldn't—but like, if you're all there but you feel differently about things, then—sorry, I'm not making any sense, am I. —I'm glad you like me. That's the important part, I just got distracted."

"All of us like you. I've got the most romance-flavored feelings about it, followed by Maya and Ruby — for all that she's a sweet little innocent cinnamon roll, she's gotten kind of attached. Neo and Hailey are the slowest to develop coupley feelings, but they're definitely pretty intent on keeping you around. Hailey's even considering working on slowly getting used to your touch. And no one minds that some of us are having pretty coupley feelings about you." She shrugs. "Yes, we have different opinions, but we all agree that you're pretty damned enjoyable to have around."

"Sorry, I was trying to ask about something slightly different than that. Probably would've helped if I'd managed to finish any sentences. But like—I guess what it comes down to is, normally when somebody kisses me I can tell if they're upset about it. But with you, I can only see one of you at a time? So... I have to trust you, that nobody's upset about it. And it's not that I don't, I definitely do, it's just, weird, to realize?"

"There's an easier solution to that problem: ask us to rapid-swap and each tell you how we feel." She reaches up and strokes his cheek softly.

"That seems like it would get really inconvenient if you kissed me a lot!"

She giggles and shakes her head. "Yeah, it would if you asked every time, but you could check in with each of us periodically. Believe me when I say that if we got annoyed enough that any of us wanted to put a stop to our kissing you overall, you would know."

"Okay. Like I said, I trust you. I just, felt weird when I realized I couldn't tell. Normally I can tell without having to think about it! And it's—different, right, like—the things I have to think about if I want to be good to you. Important to know that, even though I really don't think you're going to be doing things that would make the rest of you upset."

She nods and smiles. "We try to put a lot of effort into avoiding pissing each other off. We're going to have to live with each other for the rest of our lives, y'know?"