( wow she's so cute when she's flustered. oddly, her being caught off guard is what lets mako find his equilibrium. he was prepared to just... sink into the floor and die a slow, torturous death, but. he's gotten better about setting aside his own emotions when someone else's distress is worse. he takes a deep breath, and his shoulders settle back down to where they'd been before they tried to crawl up around his ears in embarrassment. )

It's fine. Here, sit down. ( he gestures for the nearby table, small as it may be. ) There's no reason we can't have something to eat anyway.

( sharing food isn't exclusive to dating, so. it's fine, right? right. )

My, uh, my arm's been doing really well. No complaints. You do good work.