“Okay! Thank you for indulging my curiosity.”

"It is terribly tragic that humans cannot purr properly," Cricket says, draping himself across Haru's shoulders languidly. "You have to warn me if you are going to make out with him about it though."

“Understood. Not planning to do that imminently but if it becomes relevant I’ll keep it in mind.”

Wow that is so much less awkward as a thing to say than anything Haru was coming up with.

Purrrrrr.

And Lucy reaches out and—

“Oh!” So that’s what it’s like! That makes sense! How lovely.

Purrrr "yup" it feels kind of weird when he purrs and talks at the same time, not a bad weird but sort of like if you could gargle and sing while you were doing it.

Oh that does feel weird. Lucy plates Cricket’s sashimi and puts it on the table for him.

He takes a literally-flying leap from Haru to the table and tucks in. Om nom nom.

And Lucy releases her sensory hold. “Amazing.”

"Are you getting the cat-eating-fish taste experience too?"

"Yeah! Or, I was, but I stopped eavesdropping because the purring was what I had permission for."

"Tedious," mutters Cricket. Omnomnomnom.

"She's being ethical, kitty."

“I’m trying to get really tedious about consent because of the control aspect.”

"Anyone who is not enthusiastic will get fed up and tell you to go away. I guess that is one way to go about it."

“With the control aspect I could stop them from telling me to go away. Once I’ve had more practice controlling things that aren’t bugs I might relax a bit if it turns out that I and the person I’m controlling can definitely always tell exactly what I’m making them do, but right now I don’t know that for sure.”

"Well I don't want you to do that one."

“I sure won’t!”

She will, however, leave soon, before Cricket’s opinion of her drops even lower.

A few days later she texts Haru:

Hi! I have some bugs to try to sense a dungeon with. And some backlash accrued while obtaining them.

I'll tell Paula to find a dungeon, do you want to come hang out here while she's looking?

That would be great!

Do you want like any help covering all these Ubers till you're making esper money btw

tbh yes but ALSO I was planning to bike this time

Bike this time works too but tell me where to send it

She sends him her Venmo.

When she shows up at his house, it’s with someone’s discarded fish tank bungee corded shut, tied behind her on the bike, and full of cockroaches.