"Aw, FUDGE yeah!" Lynne exclaimed as she ran up to a Valentine's Day display. "They've got fudge!"

"What's the big deal about this stuff?" Sissel said, walking up with his hands in his pockets. "It smells like raw sugar. Ugh."

"It's this AMAZING new form of chocolate. We're getting some," Lynne said, picking up a box. "Now which way is the meat, again…? I have to pick up a few more steaks for Jowd's crew."

"Now, MEAT, I can understand." Sissel grinned and followed Lynne as they walked down the aisles. "Meat smells like juicy tenderness and all things good in the world."

A moment later, Lynne felt something bumping her.

"Sissel, what are you doing?" It was a rhetorical question; he was rubbing his hair against her shoulder. Lowering her voice, Lynne added, "I thought cats scratched themselves with their feet, like dogs."

Sissel looked offended, for some reason. "We do. I wasn't scr—"

"Oh! There it is!" Lynne ran over to the meat case, and Sissel followed, licking his lips. "Let's see, we don't need ribs, we don't need pork— here we are. This steak looks good. And this one, or maybe this one…"

Lynne took her choice of food very seriously, as she'd been taught to do by her mentor. Jowd was the best griller in the country, as far as she was concerned, and he'd always stressed the importance of selecting the right meats at the best quality.

"Well, whooooo do we have here?"

Lynne spun around from her careful meat selecting to see a familiar man in a white coat, brandishing a bouquet of roses.

"Inspector Cabenala!" her face lit up. "It's good to see you!"

"Happy Valentine's Day, baby!" he exclaimed, holding out the bouquet. Lynne giggled.

"Did you pay for those yet?" she asked, noting the small tag on the bottom. He paused, then whipped the bouquet behind his back.

"Well, I didn't expect to run into you here before I did, now did IIIIII?" he asked. Then he noticed the other man standing beside Lynne. "And Sissel! Is that you? You look absolutely dapper!"

Sissel mocked the Inspector's signature bow. "Merely keeping an eye on the lady."

Cabenala laughed loudly. "And boy, how she needs it! Have you even noticed how many men here have been looking in your direction, Lynne?"

Lynne actually hadn't noticed, being too caught up in her thoughts about food, but now that she looked around she could spy the familiar jealous faces of several men who were wandering the store without partners.

"They're just jealous of my radiant beauty," Lynne said, shrugging it off. "Cabenala, did you have some more shopping to do or did you come all the way to the store just to pick some flowers for me?"

"I'm offended," Cabenala said, the smile on his face unbreakable. "Some of these are for the host of the party." With the skill of a magician, he produced a single yellow rose from behind Sissel's ear. Sissel made a loud hissing sound in alarm.

"Well, we'd better head to the checkout," Lynne said. "Meet you at the party in a few?"

"Until we meet again, baaaaby!" Cabenala laughed, and strutted out of sight while throwing out random dance moves at strangers. Lynne noticed that the stares of the other men in the store had grown thoroughly confused. She wondered if they were gawking at the whole party, or just at Cabenala. Probably just at Cabenala.

"That reminds me," Sissel suddenly said. "People usually give gifts today, don't they? I mean, other than Mr. White Coat?"

Lynne nodded. "It's traditional to give gifts on Valentine's Day, yeah. Why? Did you want to get a gift for someone?"

"I already did," Sissel replied, frowning. "But he didn't seem to like it very much. I brought Jowd a mouse this morning, still alive and everything, and he went and released it into the backyard!" He shuffled his feet.

"Well… you know humans have different ideas of good gifts, right?" Lynne said.

"He's a scientist! You said scientists did tests on mice!"

"He's a detective," Lynne corrected. Sissel raised an eyebrow.

"What's the difference? You're a detective, and you were doing a test yesterday."

Lynne laughed wearily. "I'll explain it to you in the car. For now, let's go get some potatoes and checkout."

Sissel followed silently as Lynne finished her shopping and headed to the checkout counter. He was silent a lot, so she almost forgot he was with her until she noted her reflection in a heart-shaped bauble and commented, "Yikes, look at my hair. Forgetting my radiant beauty, I look like a mess today."

And then Sissel licked her hand.

"ACK!" Lynne jumped back, startling Sissel and several other people around her. Quickly regaining her composure so the onlookers wouldn't be suspicious, she lowered her voice and hissed, "What was that for?!"

A flicker of hurt flashed in Sissel's eyes. "You— you said you looked like a mess. I was offering to groom you."

It took Lynne a moment to put together that thought process, but when she finally did she started to laugh.

"Oh, Sissel— oh, boy. Okay, forget about the scientist thing, we're going to have a different talk in the car. There's some stuff I need to explain to you. But until then, no more licking me, or anyone else, got it?"

Sissel looked confused, but nodded as the line for checkout moved forward.

"Aw, look at you two!" the old lady at the register exclaimed. "We have a special discount for lovebirds today, you know." Her eyes twinkled, and Lynne's practical mind sprang into action. She quickly took Sissel's hand in her own.

"Yup, this is Sissel! My boyfriend. Friend who is a boy. Whom I like. Romantically."

"Lynne, what are you doing?" Sissel hissed, motioning with his head towards Lynne's hand. "You're always complaining about—"

"Later," Lynne mouthed to Sissel. He rolled his eyes as Lynne paid for the food. On the way out, she fist-pumped with her free hand and grinned up at him.

"Haha! Did you see that? We got a discount!"

A blank stare.

"It means we saved money," she explained.

"Still don't know what money is. Can you let go of my hand now?"

"If you insist," Lynne said, dropping the smooth pale hand. (She vaguely wondered why he'd chosen that skin tone, but perhaps he was just modeling himself off the people he was most familiar with.) "But hand-holding is a sign of affection, you know."

Sissel paused outside the car and cocked his head. "Affection?"

"Yeah. You know, love. Missile called today 'love day,' right? That's because today is a day we humans express our love for each other. How we care for the people in our lives." She paused as she got inside. "Well, I guess some humans only show love to one other person, but that's kind of dumb."

"Is that because of the romance thing?" Sissel asked. Lynne laughed. Apparently he'd been paying attention when she rambled about this before.

"Yes, because of the romance thing. But get in the car, we've got to get these steaks back to the party so Jowd can prepare them."

Sissel did as he was told and Lynne revved up the engine.

This boy needed some serious tutoring.

(A/N: I never even considered aroace Lynne until I wrote this fic but here we are)