After a long, blissful moment of silence and relaxation together, Audrey, lovely Audrey lifted her head slightly, looking into Seymour's eyes with warmth and contemplation for a moment before speaking. "What does my mom think happened to Mr. Mushnik?" Sadness briefly flashed across her face as she spoke of him, made subtle by her efforts to hide it from him but still noticeable to him after the time they had spent together, and he looked away from her and at the floor guiltily before responding. "...I kinda panicked and told her he had left to visit his sister in Czechoslovakia and wouldn't be coming back for a while… she seemed excited, actually…" Audrey nodded, unsurprised by this. "They've been giving her a hard time at the diner since, well, since forever. I don't think she'll have a problem with running the shop full-time instead, even with how busy it's been lately." Seymour reflected on this and on the last time he, Audrey, and Ms. Greene had been in the same room together, hesitating to ask her a question that he was scared the answer to was still 'yes.' "Does she… does she still have a problem with me?"
He had not been expecting Audrey's initial reaction to that question to be one of amusement tinged with embarrassment. "...Well… no, not anymore. Not since I told her you're the understudy for the lead role of the school play… she stopped thinking you might end up treating me like how Orin did after that…" …Why had she only started trusting him to not be a sadistic creep like him after she found out he was studying and practicing the same role as him? Seymour tilted his head at Audrey confusedly, and she clarified after a moment. "...She thinks you play for the other team…" Ohhhhh… that wasn't really a problem, at least for now; he certainly never would've had the nerve to try to play for the same team with her daughter in front of her, and he wasn't offended or anything. Seymour gathered up his courage for a moment before responding. "...Well, she's half right." Seymour held his breath, releasing it in relief as Audrey's face lit up with recognition and kinship. He hadn't really been afraid that she would react badly to that revelation, but it was still nice now that she hadn't. "Same! We can talk about girls and guys now."
He had suspected that she played for both teams too, and it was so cool that they shared this and she was willing to be that open about it with him… he didn't really want to talk about the girls and guys besides him she found attractive, he just knew it would make his insecurities and fear that he was going to lose her flare up worse than anything, but this newfound connection and openness between them was still amazing beyond words. "...Uh, yeah, sure." Her expression softened in a way that told him he had failed at hiding his anxiety from her again, and she gently cupped his cheek in an elegant hand, kissing him before responding. "I love you, Seymour, and I want to be with you." He stared at her in shock, not speaking for a hopefully not too long moment as he desperately tried to get his mouth to form any response better than "Thanks" and eventually returning her kiss to buy more time. When they had pulled back apart, his thoughts were more scattered than ever, and what he ended up saying was "Same," which he didn't have much time to feel embarrassed about before she laughed slightly, tracing her angelic fingers down his chest.
"...So… Seymour, do you think you can apply those acting skills you've learned to keeping her convinced you play for the other team? I might be able to get her to let you stay with us if you can." After a pause in which Seymour struggled to process this, simultaneously exhilarated by the wondrous possibility of staying with Audrey and terrified of what would happen if Ms. Greene discovered his true status in the metaphorical teams, she continued. "She'd probably end up taking you in anyway; she's very kind, and you are in a really bad situation…" Once again, sadness flickered across her face at this reminder of Mr. Mushnik, and the guilt and horror of his demise seared through him, threatening to drag him down, until it was… mostly… temporarily… quelched by her continuing to speak. "...but you'd probably be sleeping on the couch. …It's a two bedroom apartment." Seymour was left unable to respond or think of anything besides the apparently real possibility of being in the same bed as Audrey for a long moment, and his voice was embarrassingly awkward when he did respond. "...Yeah, I can do that." Audrey smiled warmly at him before standing up, and he managed to join her after a delay. "Well then, break a leg."