“Oh, okay. Did you know they make swimsuit t-shirts?”

Awww. "Mags has those! She has pretty bad allodynia, so bikini strings get painful for her." 

"What's allodynia?" Haru asks, having delivered swimsuit retrieval instructions. "- Cara, where can the gofer get the keys to your place for swim trunk retrieval?"

"Umbrella term for a variety of nerve conditions that make ordinary ass stimuli painful. Mags' make continuous pressure hurt, so she can't wear watches or necklaces or rings, always uses sports bras with wide bands, that kind of thing." She sighs. Poor Mags... 

"My house key is inside the wallet case on the back of my phone, which I think you still have, Haru?" 

He fishes it out. "Got it. And you would rather give an agency gofer your key and have him go get your bathing suit than just borrow mine?"

Lucy holds up her phone to show a picture of herself wearing a black one-piece with stylized red roses and a short swimsuit-skirt-frill thing.

He texts a description of this swimsuit to the gofer.

Hmm no that sounds like making extra work and not necessary at all. "I'm fine with just using yours." 

Then she looks at Lucy's phone. Cute! 

"Cute!" 

“Yes.”

Haru puts the key away again and updates the gofer's instructions.

Ehehe yes good.

She boops Lucy on the nose. "And the swimsuit looks nice, too." 

Nosewrinkle. “You’re one to talk.”

hjmffhbnv...

"Well, I do love talking!" she says, blushing. 

“Oh, fair. Hey, Haru, you’re also cute.”

"Thank you."

Cara nods enthusiastically. "True and real." 

"Esper glowup: it will happen to you."

“I mean it, though! You’re not, like, backlash-silly like me’n Cara are, but you’re really great and, also, separately, physically attractive.”

She - decides not to point out that her silliness is not very related to her backlash, and instead keeps nodding.

"If there were only one of you I'd be getting backlashed some to help out but I think with the two of you my role here is to remain completely sane."

She reaches out an arm to try and pull him into the snuggle pile. "We really appreciate it!" 

“That’s got to be wise, yeah. But seriously—yelling about basic research!”

And then, because backlash-related silliness, she is going to twist around to put her hands on Haru’s face while still maintaining as much skin contact with Cara as possible, and share the analytic deep-dive on his blog and what it implies about what a cool and thoughtful person he is that’s been percolating since she first found it.

(oh this is great)

eheheheh

“…Anyway,” she concludes once she winds down, “if the word for that isn’t ‘cute,’ then it’s something that’s better than cute.”