The movie was as funny as it had been before, satirizing the racism of the Lasablican western expansion as the payatin—sorry, Slenderkin—hero Burt made fools of the racist, incompetent villains trying drive people out of the town of Stonecliff so they could grab the land. It was so funny that Harmony took the whole movie to cut up the ingredients for the menudo… which was perfectly fair, he'd probably have done the same.

  Loren didn't know what the plamo squad thought of the movie, though they did turn around to watch it, but Sara really enjoyed it. She was laughing all through the film's absurdities, even as she held his hand and leaned against her shoulder, her legs passing through the mattress as she kicked in hilarity. He had to spread his Flame down his side so she wouldn't keep moving her arm through his torso, but she didn't seem to mind, and he was enjoying the fact she was glad to see him.

  Once Harmony finishing cutting up the ingredients, it was his turn to get up and cook. They'd gotten a cut of pork with fat on it, because he still needed to replenish his fat stores, but that was really just going back to the original recipe of menudo. He carefully added each ingredient, keeping the heat low and simmering as Harmony and Sara—the former had changed into the shorts she wore whenever she slept over, since she didn't want to get whatever had been on public transportation benches on his bedsheets—started watching another movie, this one about a boss coercing one of her employees to propose marriage to her so she wouldn't be deported. The girls seemed to like it for some reason, despite the really unethical premise that probably would have been considered disgusting if it was the other way around.

  Of course, you could say that about the premise of most so-called romantic comedies, which were either comedic but not really romantic, or romantic but not really comedic. So he stayed out of the way, wasn't distracted by the zany hijinx that would have landed one in jail in real life, and just cooked.

  Then he also had to fill up the rice cooker, because both of them had forgotten that coming in, but it turned out all right because there had still been plenty of movie to go when he remembered. By the time the credits rolled, with the hapless employee somehow falling in love with his abuser and said abuser reciprocally falling into Eken Syndrome, both the rice and the menudo was ready, and Loren had brightened at realizing he had the perfect excuse to not wash the dishes himself… then immediately found himself wondering how he was supposed to wash the dishes without her the rest of the week. Fire-cleaning really wasn't as effective on food residue. He really hoped this didn't mean he needed to buy paper plates and plastic utensils.

  Once everything was soft enough, it was time to eat. Eating with only one had had become frustrating over the week, but he managed given enough patience, even if Sara's foodgasm was a lot more distracting than usual because…

  Loren studiously concentrated on his food, deactivating the ghostlight Flame for a moment to cut out Sara's audio and mid-air writhing.

  "Huh… can I have what she's having?" Harmony said, a grin on her face.

  "You are having what she's having," Loren said. "Don't be rude."

  Harmony stared at him before a look of realization came over her face, which quickly shifted to guilty regret. "Ah… I'll just eat now. Uh… do you need help with that?"

  "I'll manage," he said, using his spoon to mix the menudo into the rice. That way, all he needed to do was just put mouthfuls into his mouth. No needing to get fancy with a fork!

  Loren activated the ghostlight Flame again, and Sara snapped back into view, now much more composed and feeding the plamo little bits of imbuement as she took little nibbles for herself. "…here you are Hiker, Azurewhite, Chainsaw… "

  He was probably going to need to remember which names meant which plamo, though 'Chainsaw' seemed self-explanatory.

  "Wait, which one is Azurewhite?" Harmony asked.

  Sara pointed at a black plamo with blue lines and accent parts.

  "…why Azurewhite?" she asked, confused.

  "He seems to enjoy it when their music comes on the radio."

  Harmony sagged. "How come he likes it? When I play it for Lucy, Marina and Anemone, they always switch it to Lasablican rock music!"

  "Sounds like they have good taste then," Loren commented.

  "Oh, hush, you. You don't even follow music."

  "Nope, I just know what I like and play it when I can."

  "Loren?" Sara said.

  He paused in his eating, which admittedly hadn't been that fast anyway. "Yes?"

  "Could you name three of the others? And then we pick a name for the last one together?"

  Across from him, Harmony suddenly got a too-innocent look on her face, her attention suddenly intent on her food. As subtly as he could, Lorne kicked her under the table. Naturally, she kicked back. "Uh, sure…? Which ones don't have names yet?"

  Deep inside, a part of him was glad he was getting a chance to name some of the plamo. While the three names he'd heard Sara say were… serviceable… they didn't seem at all suited for a giant robot! Even if it was technically only the assembled plastic model of a giant robot.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  With Army Man (green and giving off an military infantry vibe), High-Ex (the plamo clearly had a lot of missiles) and Linda (which had clearly been some special edition collaboration with the Linda's Hamburger chain, since it even had the mascot's twintails and distinctive socks) named, and Loren and Sara both agreeing to name the last one Gray (because it was in shades of gray, and was one of the mass produced cannon fodder robots), the three of them settled down to a lazy afternoon of watching movies.

  Loren had mixed together a powdered orange juice mix with cooking vene—despite the fact the latter had some salt and MSG mixed in—to make a drink for Sara, something that the ghost had been very happy about. That still left the actual physical drink for him and Harmony to drink, and while the slight taste of salt was a little weird, the orange juice wasn't actually bad. And while making her a drink with alcohol would work as well, cooking vene was cheaper!

  Beverages in hand, they just relaxed and watched some old favorites as Loren ran Life Flame through his arm, a bottle of strawberry-flavored cooking oil in hand to feed his magic. Sara hadn't seen a lot of movies from before the 90's, so she'd missed a lot of old comedy classics like Starspheres, The Dread Pirate, and Murder At Tudor Close.

  When late afternoon came, Harmony got up. "All right, I should probably be getting home soon," she said. "Got work tomorrow and all that. Loren, I'll tell Steve you'll be in Wednesday?"

  Loren reluctantly nodded. While he'd like to not go to work… well, while he didn't work, he wasn't paid, and he kinda needed to be paid. And if he was being honest, besides his arm all of his body's aches and pains were mostly gone, leaving him functional enough. "Yeah, I'll be there, although I'm not sure how well I'll be able to work with my right arm in a sling."

  "Oh, we'll find something. Malory broke her arm once and she was able to work just fine."

  "Malory has tentacles," he pointed out. "Having five other limbs sort of helps."

  "Well, yeah, that's true," she said. "But I'm sure Steve will find some work for you to do. Now, what do you want me to cut up so you can cook something tomorrow?"

  He tilted his head. "The beef for the curry?"

  Harmony grinned. "Beef curry it is! Save me some, all right? You make great curry."

  "It's literally from a packet, though…?"

  "Well, you still cook it better than I do, so save me some."

  "I literally just add it to the pot…" Well, if she wanted some, he'd save her some, but really, it wasn't that hard to make Amatsushiman curry from a packet!

  Speaking of which… Loren turned towards Sara. "How do you feel about curry?"

  "I've had it before…. It's all right, I guess…"

  "The greenish-yellow kind?"

  Sara nodded.

  "Oh, then you've never tasted this kind of curry before…"

  Once beef had been cut up into cubes for curry tomorrow—"Remember, save me some!"—and stowed in the cooler for tomorrow, Harmony took her leave, promising to come back after work the next day to help him with any further cooking. He walked her downstairs, and kept her company until she managed to hitch a ride. And then she was off, and he was alone again…

  He took a moment to reflect how lucky he was to have a friend like her. Honestly, he could understand why people thought the two of them were dating or would be good marrying each other, but it would just be weird. Sure, in a few years that might change, but they'd both agreed that until that hypothetical event happened there was no point thinking about it and just go on as they had before.

  Taking a deep breath, he turned and headed back upstairs, suddenly realizing he'd be alone in the apartment with Sara again. The thought didn't fill him with fear or terror, thank goodness, so permanent psychological scars about ghosts didn't seem to be one of the injuries he was carrying from his encounter in Galugod. No, all he felt was the usual nervousness and worry about awkwardness from having left Sara alone for so long. It seemed a shitty thing for a roommate to do, especially since she was stuck inside the apartment.

  The door to the apartment opened by itself as he reached it, and he was glad the gesture made him smile instead of pause. "Thanks, Sara," he said, stepping inside and awkwardly turning to close the door before remembering he needed to do it with his left hand. He flicked the ghostflame on again, and she snapped back into view in front of him.

  "Are you cooking now?" she said.

  "Not yet. It's still a bit too early… although yeah, I should start cooking soon since the curry will need to simmer," he said as he recalled how low the sun had been outside. "Let me take a shower first, all right?"

  Sara nodded, but looked over at the TV. "Can you put up a new movie before you do?"

  After he'd put in another romantic comedy—an adaptation of the play The Virtue of Being Honest—he undid his sling so he wouldn't have to try and take off in the cramped confines of the bathroom, his change of clothes in hand and glad he didn't need to have his dad scrub his back anymore. With regret, he turned on the shower.

  Ugh, he'd forgotten how cold the water in the building was. Theoretically, there was supposed to be hot water also available, but if there was, he'd never gotten to use it. On top of that, scrubbing himself was awkward. As well-secured as his right arm was in its cast, he still had to wield his washcloth with his left hand, since his right would twinge uncomfortably when he did anything that might put any force on his forearm. Usually he could power through by running Life through it, but with his body wet… well, that wasn't an option. Still, he managed well enough, although there was a patch of skin on his left shoulder blade that he hadn't been able to reach, and trying to rub it against the bathroom tiles probably wasn't very effective.

  It was around that time complacency set in.

  Soaping and scrubbing his right foot had been a little awkward, with him having to carefully lean against the wall on his shoulder and elbow while crossing his left over his knee so he could reach it. Washing off his foot, he ignored how it still felt a little slick before he put his weight on it, raising up his other foot—

  The floor slipped out from under him.

  For a seemingly timeless moment, Loren felt like he was hanging in midair as he fell backwards, already cursing himself for being careless even as he tried to lower his other foot far too late. This was going to hurt. He could probably keep from hitting his head on the tiles, but his legs and back would be taking the brunt of the impact…

  And then he realized that the timeless moment was lasting far too long, and that there was something cold touching his back. as his right foot slid forward into the wall and his left managed to rest firmly on the wet floor, Loren managed to get his balance back, even as he continued to lean on something cold. Then the cold on his back pushed, and he found himself going with the movement, adjusting his footing as he managed to stand upright once more.

  For a moment he just stood there, staring at the tiles on the wall, before he slowly turned around. Rubbing his right thumb against a dry stretch of tile, just enough to get water off his fingertip, and had Flame flicker out of his skin. The ghostlight bathed the little bathroom, but there were no white shapes in the room with him.

  He looked down at himself, still wet and with soap on the lower part of one leg. Then he walked to the door and carefully opened it a crack, the soundtrack of the movie that he'd been hearing through it growing louder through the opening. "Sara? Could you give me a hand? There's a spot on my back I can't reach…"