Sam was laughing now, he tried to get a word out, and failed.

Bemused, she watched him. “What?”

“Why all these dildos?” he managed, face crinkling up as he continued laughing.

“Because they absolutely are,” Hunter said, amused at how funny Sam seemed to find it.

“I didn’t expect that from someone like you,” he said.

“Well I’m pleased I messed with your expectations, Sam,” she told him.

Eleni paused her game, a big pause sign appearing in the middle of the screen, and pulled one of the headphone speakers away from her ear. Hunter reached over and put the speaker back, and when Eleni fought her in trying to listen in, Hunter reached down and hit the pause button, resuming the game. Eleni made a small noise of alarm, stuck out her tongue at Hunter, and resumed playing, headphones in place.

“I don’t hate them,” she said. “I actually love them. They’ve been so kind to me since my parents… were in New York when Scion attacked it.”

The sentence didn’t make sense, but Sam nodded.

“I just wish they’d listen. I wish they’d realize I’m not Eleni’s age.”

“I don’t get much choice either,” Sam said. “It’s not because my parents are dildos, it’s because my dad doesn’t get much choice. He has to live close to a hospital, and he can’t do a lot of work.”

She nodded.

Eleni perked up. Hunter looked, and saw her aunt and uncle approaching, her uncle smiling.

“Don’t say anything,” she warned.

“My lips are sealed,” Sam said.

“Success,” Uncle said. “They might have an administration post open. Goes to show you, you just have to know how systems like this work.”

She nodded. “We’re going to get a house then?”

“Tent,” he said, making a face. “But we’ll have a house before you know it.”

“Okay,” she said. She took her phone back from Eleni, along with the headphones. She turned to Sam, phone in her hand. “Want to exchange numbers?”

“My phone’s dead.”

“Do you have a pen?” she asked, as she picked up her bag.

He reached for his stuff, and in his initial searches, didn’t turn up anything. She might have thought he was trying to find an excuse to let her down easy, but there was a frustration evident in his actions that made it pretty obvious he really wanted a pen.

Auntie looked impatient, arms folded, dildo clearly firmly in place.

Eleni tapped her on the elbow. She looked over, and saw Eleni holding a pen with a plastic figure on the end. She took Sam’s hand, and wrote the number down.

“We need all the friends we can get at times like this,” she said.

“Totally,” he said. And he smiled, clenching the fist she’d just written the number in. “Keep each other’s heads on straight.”

It was a weird thing. An awkward conversation where they hadn’t said much at all, she’d given him a laugh, and he’d given her a much needed ‘you’re right’, and that was pretty much it.