It wasn’t until she tried to separate out some things specifically to keep at Roy’s that Lisa realized just how many of her things had already found their way over. About a third of her dresser seemed to be gone. So were her spare cleaning kit, her favorite boots, the extra bag of dog food, her small frying pan and her cheese grater, of all things.

Actually, she remembered taking over the cheese grater, after one attempt to make a decent omelette with cheese chopped into bits. How she had wound up with her spare toothbrush at home, she was less sure of.

She sat down on the floor of her bedroom, tossing her more ragged slippers into the corner in exasperation, and laughed helplessly as Black Hayate promptly retrieved them for her. “I bet you’d like to move, wouldn’t you?” she asked him, rubbing his ears. He panted happily at her. “Yeah, you’re just as hopeless as I am.”

A knock at the door pulled her away from her attempts to locate all her belongings, which was probably just as well.

“Gracia!”

The sweet-faced woman at her door smiled and leaned against the frame. “Since you had to call Maas in on Roy I thought perhaps I should stop by and see how you’re doing, yourself.”

Lisa snorted and led the way to the kitchen to light the stove under her teakettle. “It’s not like I’m going to be heartbroken over losing my job,” she pointed out, waving Gracia to the table. At least her kitchen table and chairs had stayed where they were supposed to be.

Gracia leaned her chin in her hands, smile turning just a touch wicked. “It wasn’t you job I expected you to be heartbroken over.”

Lisa set down the teacups with a bit more force than necessary. “I’m not heartbroken over anything.”

“And that would be why your home looks like Black Hayate just finished chasing something through it?” Gracia took the tea set away from Lisa and measured tea into the pot with a gentler touch. Lisa sat down with a small thump and sighed.

“That’s… well, you know about the new house?” Gracia nodded and Lisa folded her hands on the table and looked down at them. “Roy. I think he wants me to move in.”

Gracia tipped her head to the side. “You’re not happy about this?”

Lisa’s eyes narrowed. “Happy that he looks at me like I’m just another one of those fluff-heads who flutter over him because he smiles at them and then ignores them? Not especially.”

Gracia blinked. “Does he look at you like he does at them?” she asked, slowly.

“He’s been flirting with me! For months!” The kettle began to whistle and Lisa got up to fetch it. “That was one of the reasons I was so ready to let him move back to his place, even though it meant going there to make sure he was doing his exercises and not straining that shoulder or forgetting to eat or anything idiotic like that.”

Gracia’s chin was in her hand again as she watched Lisa. “And when he does flirt, what do you do?”

“Act like a professional.” Lisa brooded over the rising steam. “I’ve always had his respect as a professional, and I’m not giving that respect up.”

“If you keep acting like nothing but his second, he won’t look at you the way you want him to,” Gracia reminded her softly.

Lisa shrugged and poured the tea with a steady hand. “It doesn’t seem that he’s ever going to look at me the way I want him to.”

Gracia sighed. “The two of you.” She blew across her tea and took a sip. “You’re probably confusing the life out of the poor man.” Her lips crimped. “Which is good for him. But I don’t think you should give up, just yet.”

Lisa tried not to feel too much hope, but Gracia had known Roy longer than any of the rest of them. Surely she would know? She nibbled on her lip and looked the question at Gracia.

“He isn’t very likely to figure it out on his own,” Gracia allowed, “but neither of you has really had a chance to give it a decent try. His injury and recovery, and now the discharge… he hasn’t been thinking clearly too often, I expect.” She gave Lisa a stern look. “And I’ll bet you haven’t either, as wound up in him as you are.”

Lisa studied her teacup with great attention.

Gracia sat back and shook her head. “Let him get back to himself. When he is… you’ve already seen what will work, haven’t you?”

Lisa blinked. “I have?”

“You’re missing the obvious. He treats you as whatever you act like.” Gracia gave her a bright, mischievous smile. “So act like what you want him to treat you as.”

Lisa turned that over in her head. So. If she wanted Roy to not treat her as either another light conquest or as only his second… “When he’s back to himself, hm?” Slowly, she smiled back. “Thank you, Gracia.”

Gracia patted her hand. “No problem. Now, why don’t you tell me about the new house.”

Lisa shuddered faintly. “For starters, it is not purple and green…”

TBC