Chii awaited Hideki's return home from the university. It was late November; the building's heater was scheduled to be fixed the next day, but for now, it was still busted. She was preparing a nice cold-weather dinner – she'd connected online and found a recipe for oden that seemed easy enough. But as she sliced through the radishes and potatoes, she felt her mood decline, and she couldn't figure out why. She wasn't sad, but rather… cranky. Were persocoms prone to moods without any sort of trigger? She put it in the back of her mind for the time being, and went to knock on Hibiya-san's door for missing ingredients.

"Mama?" She called quietly from behind the door.

Hibiya-san was sitting on her couch reading an electronics magazine. "Hi, hon, I'll be right there." She wondered what Chii's apathetic tone was all about, and opened the door. "Hi, Chii. Is anything wrong?"

"No. Does Mama have sake? Chii is making oden and forgot to buy it."

"Oh, of course. Come on in, I'll get it for you," Hibiya answered. She reached into a cabinet and found an unopened bottle for her. "You sound sad, you're sure nothing's wrong?"

Chii frowned. "Chii's not sad. But Chii doesn't feel happy, either. Chii doesn't know what's wrong."

Hibiya-san put her hand on Chii's shoulder. "That will happen sometimes. Nothing to worry about, it will pass." She paused. "Chii, you should start to say 'I' and 'you' instead of actual names. Some people might see that as childish, and you really are beginning to experience complex feelings. How do I put this… Well, you and Hideki are in love, right?"

"Yes."

"I know how much he loves you. But I think sometimes he thinks of you as a child because you're so pure, and it may be affecting him in such a way that he is still distancing himself."

"Oh… why does saying 'I' matter?"

"Let's see… I think it puts you on the same level with him. Saying 'Chii is this, Chii is that' somehow makes you sound like an object. You're not human, but you're much more than a simple object. You experience things that are so close to human emotions, and that is why Hideki and you are able to be together. People usually say 'I,' so if you do too, Hideki might connect with you better."

Chii smiled weakly. "Okay. I understand now, I think. I will try. Thank you for the sake," she said with some effort.

Hibiya-san's eyes twinkled as Chii walked away. "She sounds so grown up…"

--

"Hideki! Okaeri!" Chii welcomed Hideki home from school. "I started fixing you oden because it's cold out. You're home, so now I'll go boil it."

Hideki's mouth watered. "Oh wow, Chii, that sounds great! I haven't had oden since I moved here."

Chii smiled, a little less weakly that before. At least Hideki was there. He was a comfort. She was happier, but her irritating feeling of boredom had turned itself into a feeling of slight restlessness the instant Hideki walked into the room. Instead of jumping on him to give him a hug like she usually did, she walked up to him and took him in her arms sincerely.

Hideki sensed her unrest and put his hand on her head. "Chii. You seem sad."

"Restless," Chii sighed. "I can't figure out what's wrong. I stopped by Mama's apartment to get sake for the oden and she noticed it too. She said it would pass."

Hideki noticed that her words sounded much more mature. "I guess you haven't had this kind of mood before. Hibiya-san is right, it will pass." He tipped up her chin with his index finger, and gave her a soft, quick kiss. Somehow it aggravated what she was feeling a bit.

Chii nodded, trying to hide the fact that the kiss probably wasn't the right thing to do at that moment. "I'm going to cook the oden."

--

"Chii, this is great!" Hideki gushed. "It's different than my mom makes it back home, but it's so good!"

Chii frowned. "Is your mom's better? How does your mom make it?"

Hideki chuckled. "Chii, there's no way to compare. It's just different. Everyone's oden is different. You're not my mom, you're Chii. I like Chii's oden a lot." He slurped away, and Chii was convinced.

"What does it taste like?"

He raised his eyebrows. "I can't really describe it if you haven't had food before. Do you even have taste buds?"

"I'm not sure. I can smell it, though. I think I will try some broth." Without giving Hideki a chance to warn her that liquids may hurt her system, she took a spoon from the drawer and tried it. Bright lines ran across her eyes as she processed all the molecular information in the food, analyzing the balances of flavors. "Oden… it's very good! I'm proud."

Hideki smiled, surprised she was able to taste it. "As you should be."

After they finished eating, Hideki sat down and watched some TV. Chii sat next to him, leaning on his shoulder, making him blush. He looked down at her, and she still seemed despondent. "Your mood still hasn't passed?" She shook her head. "How exactly do you feel?"

Chii thought for a moment about how to describe it. "I don't know… I feel restless, like I want to do something. But I don't want to do anything. Little things are annoying me. Warm and cold. And cranky."

Hideki pondered. "Warm and cold…" He froze, then shook his head. "…Nah."

"Do you feel like that sometimes too?"

He paused, trying to think of all this scientifically. "Um, do you feel it in any specific place? Is it mind clutter?"

She frowned again, trying to locate the source of her distress. "No. It's here. And here." Chii pointed to her chest and lower abdomen. "I'd feel mind clutter here." She pointed to her forehead. "If my CPU was working too hard. That is where it is. But there is nothing anywhere else that would do that. I don't know."

Hideki was speechless. He couldn't even move, because he knew exactly what was wrong. He couldn't figure out how it was happening to her, and he obviously couldn't do anything about it. But he still wanted to help her. "Um… I feel like that sometimes too. Exactly like that."

"What do you do?"

His face twitched. How was he supposed to answer that? "I… um…"

Chii tried to remember him being cranky. She remembered a time he was moping without reason, and she remembered leaving the apartment and coming back soon after at a rather inopportune moment, not to mention what she saw him doing the night before when he was watching that video…

"I think I'll go in the other room…" Chii remembered how he reacted and deduced that it was something that was supposed to be a secret. "…I think I need some quiet, and you can still watch TV. I just need to lie down and rest by myself."

"Okay," he sighed, assuming she hadn't figured it out yet. "I hope you feel better."

"Thank you, Hideki." She trotted into the bathroom.

--

"Konban wa, Hideki!" Chii finally emerged a couple of hours later, stretching her arms.

"Hello, Chii, long time no see. Are you feeling better?" Hideki asked.

"Yes. I figured it out."

"What is it?"

"Hook me up to the TV," Chii requested happily.

Hideki raised an eyebrow. "Okay."

Chii giggled, a sound completely new to Hideki's ears. "I finally understand it, Hideki. I knew it made you happy, but not why. I know now," she said as a progress bar indicated that she was loading something onto the TV screen.

"Understand what?"

At the instant Chii opened her mouth to answer, a rather suggestive picture of a half-naked Hideki appeared on the screen, causing him to make an odd, loud noise of shock and jump back a few feet. Chii smiled in amusement. "Okazu. Chii's okazu."

Hideki seemed to be propelled onto his back from the violent nosebleed that resulted from her answer. "Ch… CHII!? You…!?" He couldn't articulate what he was visualizing at that moment. "And… who the hell doctored that picture??"

"It's not doctored. I created it. It's an image file captured straight from Chii's mind."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His mind was buzzing all over the place. The fact that she imagined that picture into existence, the fact that she was discovering new physical emotions, the fact that she was in that room for two hours… He had not gotten back up yet and his eyes had not yet come back into focus. He sported a very stupid, vague grin, as if his IQ had just dropped fifty points. "Chii… that… you… haaaaaaa?" The sound that came out of his mouth wasn't even intelligible; it was a laugh, sigh, and a high moan all combined into one sound. He stopped for a moment and thought. "Chii, how did you even… without shutting your system down…?"

"Not inside, silly, just outside and around. I had wondered that myself at first, so I downloaded a diagram, if you're wondering how that works…"

"NO."

He lay down in shock, still trying to process all of this confusion. Chii looked down at him and grinned. "Hideki. You're full of energy. I know why now."

Hideki's face turned beet red and he bolted upright and turned around, covering himself. "Chii! That's embarrassing!"

"Why? Mama said everyone feels like this sometimes. Hideki is my okazu, and Hideki's okazu is…"

Hideki turned to face her again. "CHII! Please stop talking about that. People keep that to themselves."

Chii again recalled the time she walked in on him. "Oh, I remember, you were mad when I saw you with your okazu. But I'm glad I saw, because then I was able to figure out how to be happy again! You made me happy, Hideki!" She jumped on him and gave him a hug. She was definitely back to normal.

Hideki fell onto his back underneath her, dizzy from the images flying in and out of his head, and from the amount of blood that he lost from his nose. Chii, on the other hand, discovered another new feeling. It was like the bad mood before, except for the fact that it wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was nice. Really nice. She was incredibly aware of his body against her, and she opened her eyes and blushed. It started to really sink in. She wanted to make love to him, but she couldn't. Paralyzed, she felt his heart race and his breathing quicken, both fascinated and excited by his human reactions. She looked up at him and blinked, her mouth small and half-open. It took a while for him to come out of the wince that indicated his diligent effort to control himself. But eventually he looked back up at her with the same confused, look – blank, but still pregnant with every emotion.

"Chii…" Hideki sighed, troubled, but his expression didn't waver. Neither did Chii's.

"Chii…?" She replied. She appeared a little frightened. "Chii… needs sleep."

Hideki snorted and his mouth twitched into a smirk. She said that last time, and she sure didn't rest. But Chii headed towards the futon that they had previously so innocently shared, wide-eyed and confused. "Oyasumi, Hideki." She got under the covers, distraught again and facing away from him.

Hideki sat up and looked over at the lump under the covers that was Chii. He had never been so overwhelmed or confused, even when he almost lost her forever. She was discovering sexuality, and that her love was more than just admiration, but still she couldn't do anything about it, lest she die. Without words, they agreed that they shouldn't sleep in the same futon that night, and Hideki slept leaning against the wall. But neither of them was able to sleep much after that, anyway.