Danika asked, "Do you want me to make something else?"

"No," he replied quickly. "You made enough."

She eyed him doubtfully. "It's ok for you to tell me if you're still hungry."

"If I'm not still hungry I've probably eaten too much," he replied wryly.

"That sounds like an awful way to live?" she questioned even more doubtfully. She scooted over to her counter, opened a cupboard, and stretched to reach one of the highest shelves that she rarely used.

s.h.i.+nichi crawled over and asked, "What are you trying to reach?"

"That bag of chips," Danika said and pointed.

"And I really shouldn't eat chips," he added ruefully as he got them down for her.

"Wouldn't crisps be worse?" she questioned.

"Aren't they the same thing?" he retorted.

"No, these are freeze dried apple chips, they're like 20 calories a serving," she explained. She didn't add that she'd gotten them with s.h.i.+nichi in mind.

"Oh, nice, are they any good?" he questioned.

"I don't know, I haven't tried them yet," she answered laughingly.

He opened the bag and ate one, and then announced, "They're pretty good."

"Don't you want a bowl to put them in," she asked as he fished out a few more.

"I don't want to make you have to wash even more dishes, unless you don't like me eating them out of the bag?" he replied.

"I don't mind, it's just that I'd be tempted to eat the whole bag without one." She hesitated before adding, "I don't know how to treat you."

s.h.i.+nichi hurriedly finished chewing the dried apple piece he'd been eating and swallowed before asking, "What do you mean?"

"If you're worried about making me wash dishes, should I point out that you can wash them if you want? Or should I treat you like a guest and tell you it's fine and ask if you want to watch a movie while I clean up after our dinner?" she explained.

"You even gave me a key, so don't treat me like a guest," he replied seriously. "And sure, I'll wash dishes for you, you cooked. I just wasn't thinking." He handed her the bag of chips and collected their supper dishes.

"I didn't mean that you have to," she said a little worriedly. "Besides, is it really ok to have a pop star wash dishes?"

He laughed. It was a sound of pure amus.e.m.e.nt. "I'm a lousy musician compared to the others, that's why I usually only sing. I don't have to take any special care with my hands or anything. We probably shouldn't go drinking or sing karaoke for hours at a time though," he said teasingly.

"I think I'll manage to contain my disappointment," she replied seriously as she tried one of the crunchy little apple pieces. She decided that they were pretty good as an after dinner sweet, but would probably be really disappointing if you'd been expecting potato crisps.

s.h.i.+nichi grinned at her and filled her little washtub with hot soapy water like he did the dishes at her counter everyday. "So, aren't you going to watch a movie while I wash," he teased.

"Are you going to take so long that I could watch an entire movie?" she questioned in return.

He grinned and shook his head. Her counter looked awkward for him to work at. It was too low if he knelt, but he didn't seem inclined to sit down with his legs tucked underneath it and folded back the way she sat at it. She thought that maybe sitting like that was uncomfortable if you could feel it, although she'd been pretty flexible and could have easily sat like that a decade ago.

"Will I get to see where you live eventually?" she asked suddenly.

s.h.i.+nichi finished rinsing the dish he was holding before stopping and crawling over to kiss her. "Of course. Want to come over for dinner there next weekend? Or anytime you want? We could go there next, but I'd be a little pressed for time getting you there and back again, and then going home to sleep before we leave at 5am."

"You wouldn't have to bring me home, but dinner next weekend would be fine," she replied quickly.

He reached out and poked her cheeks. "For a second when you started with 'you wouldn't have to bring me home'..." he shook his head and crawled back to the sink.

"What?" she asked blankly. She scooted over so that she was sitting beside him with her back against the counter.

He gave her a half smile and asked, "You weren't offering to sleep over were you?" He chuckled when she immediately blushed.

"I just meant that I can bring myself home!" she objected.

"I know," he agreed with amus.e.m.e.nt. She frowned and considered it. He looked at her worried face and reached out and cupped her cheek with soapy fingers and kissed her again. "It's fine," he said cheerfully.

--

After s.h.i.+nichi finished the dishes, they sat against the wall where he was most comfortable and played on their phones. While they searched for another animal, Danika said a bit diffidently, "You know even after I learn it, I'll only be able to use moonlight weaving once a week?"

"I know," s.h.i.+nichi replied calmly. "I asked Kit how she levels it up when she hardly ever gets to use it, and she said it levels up even without her using it sometimes, when she does a druid quest."

"I won't have druid quests," Danika commented with a frown.

"I know, so if you want to choose something besides human for your first form after all, it's ok," he told her quietly.

"I'll ask my a.s.sistant if it will level normally for me during my s.h.i.+ft tomorrow," she said hopefully.

"Okay," he agreed laughingly.

She didn't see what made him laugh this time, so she asked, "Why is that funny?"

"Don't you think it's funny that the game developer gets a personal a.s.sistant, but the pop star doesn't?" he questioned with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"It's just an AI," she pointed out.

"I know, but the way you talk about it makes it sound better than any commercially available system," he said enviously.

"Well, I don't know, it's still more limited than the traveling merchant," she replied seriously.

That made s.h.i.+nichi laugh harder.