"- yeah, you might, but we don't know, so - be careful with her?" Haru kisses his head.

"Yeah...

"...but just how can these people be so selfish, I used to think I was selfish but this just."

"I guess you are not after all the pinnacle of human selfishness. I know that must be disappointing for you." Mwah.

Kiss. "Man it's not even that, it's just, that's a whole group of people? I guess they're not all like her but... I dunno."

"Maybe the altruists die at greater rates. ...or are worse at making wishes?"

"Or maybe there's some more active selection."

"...from whom, the fluff?"

"Yeah. I don't trust him."

"He was happy enough to have me eradicate malaria..."

"...I dunno, maybe I'm overreacting. He's just so weird and alien and he gives me the heebie jeebies, I used to think he was cute but have you noticed he never blinks...?"

"Not needing to blink is not indicative of his character!"

"No it just makes him give me the heebie jeebies."

"Fair enough."

Sigh. "Anyway, rain's starting, huh?" he says, using some light teekay to pull a tiny sliver of the curtains open and reveal the rain frozen midair. "Maybe that'll convince the folks who are still on the fence about whether I'm on the level."

"Hope so." Haru leans on him and sighs.

He kisses the top of Haru's head and pushes some stray hairs off his forehead. "On the bright side you get to go to a fancy rich person party tonight."

"I'm not even going to be able to eat the hors d'oeuvres."

"'Course you are. I can sneak you some."

"All right. Are there other nice things about fancy rich person parties?"

"Oh, not at all, they're absolutely dreadful, there's a reason I was making myself my own entertainment by tormenting everyone else in it."

"—okay that was flippant Yutaka talking. The point of them is to give people an excuse to gossip and do barely-this-side-of-legal insider trading and build alliances and stuff. And if you're trying to get your kid hooked with the kid of someone else important that's where you throw them all into the same melting pot and hope they figure it out."

"The school doesn't do that by itself?"

"Sure but you can't get drunk at school and end up in the wrong person's bed. Or the right person's bed. Not that we should be getting in anyone's bed, of course, how scandalous, but if we did."

"I see. Are you planning to get drunk?"

"Absolutely not. Why would I ever want to spend any time any less than perfectly in control of my senses when my shining star is with me?"