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“Are there sweets?”
She wasn’t sure, but she thought he was smirking. “There may be. We will see what is available. There should be fruit if nothing else.”
She nodded. “Okay. I am sorry to be such a bother.”
“No bother. It is an interesting disruption to my attention. My life is rather routine.”
“So really nowhere to call home?”
“No.”
Aya paused and then said, “Would you like one?”
“It might be pleasant to have a place to rest without all the protocol that accompanies my walking a world.”
“Protocol?”
“My presence is... heavy on the psychic elements of a world. It ripples and upsets the locals.”
“I see. Well, that sucks.”
He chuckled. “It does indeed. One becomes used to it. I have had a lot of time to adapt.”
She frowned. “Right.”
Aya blinked when she realized they were walking toward the commissary. “Wait. Didn’t we need to go into a lift?”
“We did, while we were conversing.”
“I don’t remember that.”
He nodded. “It is a common side effect of proximity.”
“Right. I suppose I will get used to it.”
He nodded again. “I suppose you will.”
They walked into the room, and the volume lowered but didn’t stop. He went to the tea station, and she went in search of more food. There was a roasted potato-sort-of thing with a number of toppings.
Devran came by and said, “That is sweet, and the toppings make it creamy or spicy or sweeter.”
“Okay. Experimenting it is.”
He chuckled and continued at the tea station.
There was some fruit that looked like fruit, and she went over to the chef to get a half serving of shredded meat.
It was weird, but it was what she wanted.
She cruised over to a normal table, but Devran said, “Aya, when you are with me, you sit at my table.”
“Fine. At least I have company.”
She diverted to his table and settled in with her current choices, and he followed with the tea and two glasses of water. “Why do you take over beverages when you don’t drink them?”
“Because you need them, and if you had a full tray and were upset this morning, you would not have gotten them. I read the human manual.” His eyes crinkled in amusement.
She was spacing out the additives on what seemed to be a sweet potato. Aya looked at him. “Human manual?”
