"Listen, I'm only agreeing with you on 'Shoop' 'cause you've got your hand on my spleen," she jokes. Girls, what's her weakness? Other girls. "And I think my body's outdated by the future's terms, but, like, even then it's still stupid futuristic." There's something about ten thousand years giving her such a crick in the neck or whatever, but she doesn't say it out loud. She's not in the mood to chew any scenery right now anyway.

"You that into this?" she asks instead, knowing full well that this is more than just a tune-up for her. "It's therapeutic, reaching around in someone else's guts?" Or maybe it's more than that. Maybe she's something that makes sense to him even if she barely makes sense to herself. Maybe that gets to be good enough for her right now, because she's being handled with care and caution and—dare she fucking says it, there might even be love in the way he's handling all this stuff.

(She's gonna stab something with the cool sword she has stashed away in her room if the answer to one more goddamn thing in her life turns out to be love.)

"Hey," she says, trying to be sincere despite the teasing. It might seem sudden. It almost takes her by surprise when the words come out of her, and it might also be stripping an air of mystique to things, but she doesn't really care much. "You think this is what healing feels like?"