Rue slept late. It was still summer vacation, and the S.P.A. didn't expect her to start working yet, so there was no reason to get up early. She would've slept longer, honestly, but since the room had an east-facing window and no blackout curtains, the sun woke her before ten.

She lay in bed for a while, thinking about how the only food in the house was leftover pizza in the fridge, and she should've gotten some groceries last night. Now she was going to have to go out for some breakfast, or, really more like brunch, and try to pick up some things on the way home.

Rue dragged herself out of bed with a sigh and made her way to the bathroom to relieve herself and brush her teeth and hair. While she finished up brushing her hair, she examined her eyes in the mirror and wondered if she should glamour them, or if just masking the slight points to her ears was enough. Sometimes humans noticed her eyes, sometimes they didn't seem to. Maybe they thought they were contacts, or otherwise just wrote off what they were seeing because they weren't trying to look for a supernatural reason for the way things were, Rue didn't really know. She thought about Claude's unusual cyan eyes and his comment on humans not seeming to notice, and figured she could probably do without the glamour. She could always change her mind later.

The doorbell rang, and Rue jumped slightly. She cursed her decision not to put on clothes first, but at least the plaid shorts and soft knit tank top weren't exactly obscene clothes.

Rue hurried downstairs and opened the door, not really thinking to check the peephole first. She was surprised, but also somehow not really that surprised, to find Lucas at her door with a paper bag and a drink caddy with two cups.

"Oh, uh, good morning Lucas?" she said, voice lilting up at the end to make the greeting a question.

"Morning! Sorry if I'm intruding, I just figured you probably wouldn't have made it into town yet and probably didn't have breakfast," he said cheerfully.

"Oh, well, that's true, but you didn't have to-"

"I know," he grinned. "I'm getting the sense you don't really like people doing things for you? But it's really no trouble!"

Rue sighed and shook her head as she moved aside and let him in. He made his way straight to the dining room and set the bag and drinks down.

"It's... not that I don't like people doing things for me, exactly," she mumbled hesitantly as she followed him. "I just don't like to accumulate debts."

"Oh, don't worry about that! I'm not doing these things with the expectation of getting repaid, you know! I'm just being nice," he said, waving her off.

"I want to pay you back, though," Rue protested. She left off the part about feeling the scales of balance between them being unequal. Even her mother had really struggled with the concept.

"Well, I won't say you don't have to, because I'd feel like a hypocrite," Lucas said with a smile.

"Ok, good!" Rue felt relieved. "So, what's in the bag?"

"Oh, you can't tell, fairy dog?" Lucas teased.

Rue pulled a face. "I guess you talked to Claude last night."

"Yeah, but don't worry, he's not really a gossip. I just asked him to catch me up on what happened after I left. And you did say it's not a secret, so..."

"Don't worry, I'm not mad at him. But don't call me a 'dog', please. 'Hound' is fine if you must refer to me that way. I have more in common with a werewolf like you than I do with a dog. I'm probably even bigger than you in that form," Rue said, smirking at Lucas.

"You think so? Well, the full moon is in a few days, so maybe you can come run with me and we'll see?" Lucas suggested.

"Sure, why not? But anyway... it smells like bread, but sweet. Not as sweet as donuts though, so... is it bagels?" she asked.

"Ding, ding, you got it!" Lucas opened the bag and pulled out four paper-wrapped bagels. "I wasn't sure what you like, or what you can actually eat. There's a chocolate swirl bagel, a blueberry bagel, this one is cinnamon, and this one is onion and cheddar. I thought maybe you wouldn't be able to eat the first or last one, actually."

"Can you eat chocolate and cheese?" Rue asked archly, raising a brow at him.

"I mean... yes? Being a werewolf didn't give me the dietary restrictions of a wolf or dog," Lucas admitted, "it just makes me crave meat more, and I prefer it rarer than I used to."

"Well, I'm not a dog or a wolf any more than you are," Rue said, snagging the chocolate swirl bagel and a packet of cream cheese spread.

"Fair enough," Lucas chuckled.

"So what can I do to pay you back? Not just for breakfast, but for your help yesterday?" Rue asked after a few bites.

"Hmm..." Lucas pondered while he chewed. "I don't know, it feels weird to ask for something when I didn't set out to get anything from you," he admitted.

"You probably don't want to leave it up to me. We probably have different ideas of what would be equitable," Rue warned. While true, it wasn't really the reason she wanted him to suggest something. She honestly didn't have ideas of her own how to pay the debt.

"Uh, well... maybe, um, dinner? Would cooking be enough effort to count as paying me back? Cuz, I mean, you'd be buying the ingredients and also taking the time and effort to cook," Lucas suggested. He looked almost sheepish, a bit of color on his cheeks.

Rue let out a startled laugh, dropping the last third of her bagel. Lucas' flush deepened and he gave her a bewildered look.

"Oh, uh, sorry, was that too much? Too forward?"

Rue shook her head emphatically.
"That's not it! It's just... you just asked a faerie to cook for you, with the intention to eat that food! I'm... really taken aback! I was not at all expecting that to be what you asked for, because, well I mean... I guess I just didn't figure anyone who worked closely with the S.P.A. would ask that."

"Ah, um," Lucas rubbed the back of his head and looked away, feeling flustered. "I can tell I made a mistake, but I admit I'm not sure why."

"Never eat food given to you by a faerie, Lucas, especially if they cooked it or grew it themselves," Rue warned with a shake of her head. "It's dangerous. You may be a werewolf, but you are still a mortal. Faerie food is addictive at best, and poisonous at worst."