As it turned out, Kaede talked even more during movies when there was someone there to listen. The first few times, she'd tried to pause it, but that just meant it took them five minutes to see a minute of action. Finally she shook her head. "This isn't working," she said. "I'll let you watch the movie."

Shuichi shrugged. "I don't mind," he said. "If I wanted to watch it in silence, I could watch it by myself. And I'm pretty sure I can keep up with the plot."

"If you're sure. I mean, this is pretty sophisticated stuff." Kaede gestured to the screen, where puppets were singing about kidnapping children.

"You're right, but I think I can handle it. I'll let you know if it's a problem," Shuichi said.

Kaede still looked a little dubious, but that didn't stop her from commenting on everything that caught her eye. Shuichi was pretty sure he was missing a third of the movie. He couldn't say he minded, though. By the end he was making tentative observations of his own.

After that, he started getting more comfortable manifesting when Kaede was around. She'd started calling a greeting when she got home, and Shuichi managed to stop instinctively vanishing when he heard it. It felt almost domestic. Admittedly, about half the time Kaede went straight to her room after that, but that suited Shuichi fine. It wasn't like he had anything interesting to talk about. Just having someone acknowledge his presence was enough.

He did hear a lot about Kaede's life. He'd already gathered bits and pieces of it from sharing the apartment, but hearing it straight from her gave it new meaning. He learned why she went to that one coffee shop so frequently and which of her professors was her favorite. He got to hear her petty complaints after long days and funny anecdotes over meals. It made Kaede seem so real, so alive.

Shuichi tried to reciprocate, but it only made him more painfully aware that he was dead. His stories were limited to the same few rooms. He couldn't even come up with something to complain about, because nothing ever changed. Thinking about it made him feel cold.

But it was fine. Things were good. Better than they had been before, definitely.

It didn't take him long to come up with a way to prove it to himself. All he needed was a break in the routine, and if it made Kaede smile, so much the better.

He waited until he knew Kaede had a particularly stressful exam. Once she was out the door, he grabbed a bag of chocolate chips that he'd noticed in the back of a cupboard. As he'd hoped, there was a recipe on the back. Reading it filled him with determination.

He was going to make cookies from scratch.

It was possible this wasn't the big deal he was making it out to be, but to be fair, he had no memories of so much as microwaving leftovers. He would be pleased as long as he could produce something vaguely edible.

Things went fine at first. The microwave flickered ominously as Shuichi melted the butter, but nothing seemed broken, and the butter itself was fine. He added sugar and eggs with no trouble. The mixture began to resemble cookie dough.

Then he moved on to the next ingredient, at which point he realized that he had a problem. Kaede didn't have any flour.

He went through the cupboards again to be sure. Flour did not magically appear for him. Neither did anything that looked like a flour substitute, and it wasn't like he knew enough about baking to risk making substitutions anyway.

Which left him with a dilemma. He didn't want to waste the ingredients he'd used so far, or to have created a mess for no reason. He didn't know how well half-finished cookie dough would keep. And he'd really wanted this to be a surprise, which wouldn't be possible if he had to ask Kaede to buy flour.

A thought occurred to him. As much as he hated the idea, it seemed like there was only one thing to do. He was going to have to steal from a neighbor.

He rubbed the handle of the measuring cup nervously. It would be fine. Flour probably wasn't very expensive, and he wouldn't be taking very much anyway. He could split it between several people so they wouldn't notice. And even if they did, what would they do? It wasn't like they'd think to blame a ghost, or that they could track him down.

Shuichi kept running through reassurances the entire time he was in the other apartments. It didn't help that he had to search each kitchen, even if he was invisible the whole time. He nearly died for a second time when one of the cats made a noise behind him.

But he succeeded in getting the flour he needed, and was able to move on. By that point, he was just as glad to have something to do with his leftover nervous energy. These cookies were going to be ridiculously well mixed.

The cookies made it into the oven without any more major mishaps. The smell of them baking was almost worth the stress.

Kaede came back not much later. "I'm home!" she called. She sounded tired.

"Welcome back," Shuichi said, looking up from the book he'd been attempting to read. He tried to act casual.

He was gratified when Kaede's face lit up. "Something smells amazing. Shuichi, did you…?"

Shuichi laughed awkwardly. "I knew you had an exam today, so I thought it might be nice."

"You are wonderful and I appreciate you deeply." Kaede set down her bag so she could take a cookie. "They're still warm! This just made my day a million times better, thank you so much."

"It was no problem." Shuichi looked away, a little embarrassed. He didn't even know if they were any good. Still, he enjoyed Kaede's hyperbolic praise. The way she smiled after biting into one was even better.

He waited until she'd finished her cookie to confess. "You do need to buy flour, though."

Kaede's brow furrowed. "Wait. Did I have flour in the first place?"

"Um." Shuichi swallowed. "I may have borrowed some from the neighbors."

Kaede burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," she said, fighting for breath. "You just looked so guilty about it. No one is going to care about a cup of flour."

"I know." Shuichi sighed. "It's dumb, I'm sorry."

"Nah, you're fine. I'll just add it to the shopping list." Kaede did so, taking another cookie in the process. "Have you had one of these yet? Or…" she trailed off.

"I don't think I can." Shuichi shuffled his feet. "I'm glad you like them, though."

"That's weird. I mean, you can touch things, so you should be able to put one in your mouth, right?"

"I guess?" He thought for a moment. "I don't know, I've never tried it. It wasn't the sort of thing I'd think to test."

Kaede shrugged. "Fair enough. That just means I get them all to myself."

She changed the subject after that, and Shuichi went with it. There was no point in dwelling on all the things he couldn't do. Sitting here listening to Kaede was enough. It had to be.