"I did not bring any Haimata with me since none of you are Sanguine. With a Lykos in the apartment, you will want lots of meat, so that is these cartons," she pushed four with happy looking cows on them toward the counter edge nearest the refrigerator. "Don't worry! It's all fresh and good cuts! There is some more meat for everyone else here, as well as plenty of vegetables. Grains can be iffy for each person, so I did not bring much,just some bread. And for dinner, we have Souvlaki! There are plenty of sides as well, so don't worry about there being enough to share!" Slender hands with manicured nails in an eye popping yellow came up with a flourish again.

"Thank you," Zaria replied with a polite smile. "This is all far more than any of us expected when we arrived here. I don't know how we can repay you, even if we had money it would not be good here..."

"Why would you repay me?"

Zaria watched the pink eyelashes flutter innocently against pale cheeks and felt the need to apologize. "I am sorry. In my world, favors are meant to be repaid, in general. Gifts are different, but usually you wouldn't give so much to someone you don't know..."

"I see. We do not consider something like this favors or gifts. It is just taking care of our guests. You are under no obligation to do anything at all in return." Cathy tentatively smiled again. "Is that alright? If it would make you unhappy to stay here, we would never force you..."

"I..." Zaria looked around her group. The others looked nervous or stoic, but nobody spoke up. "I think we would like to stay here, but please understand that if we say or do something that you feel is odd, or even offensive, that we might not know you see it differently than we do. I don't mean to offend you..."

"Oh, no! Of course not! I would not get offended if you did something unknowingly!"

The pregnant woman seemed flustered, so Zaria smiled at her comfortingly. "We will learn more about each other's ways each day, I think. We accept your offers as your guests, and I look forward to trying out some of this new food!"

The others quickly chimed in their agreement, although Yamada looked very confused and frustrated. Zaria cringed inwardly as she realized that he was the only one who had not understood anything the woman had said. He might not have understood anything that she said, either. She had assumed that the tattoo worked the same as the pendant did, but she hadn't actually asked. It worked, and she accepted it.

After needing everything translated for her in his world, she could understand how it felt to have to wait for someone else to explain what was happening. After they said their farewells, and the door was locked once more, Yamashita quickly explained to the other boy what was going on. Gu Cheng explored the kitchen cabinets and found one that was insulated and blowing out cold air like a refrigerator. All the items that seemed as though they would perish if left out on the counter went inside the cold cabinet.

Meanwhile, Rika found five bright orange plates and began to separate out the hot food. There was an enormous amount of meat skewers, so she only put a few on each plate and left the rest in their original containers. "What is a Lykos? You and Mr. Gu used another word, too, but I don't understand. Why would they need more meat?"

"Did your world not have stories about werewolves? People that turn into wolves every full moon?"

Sleek black hair swayed as her head shook from side to side. A delicate grimace crossed Rika's face as she pushed her hair behind her ears in exasperation. "No, I don't remember ever hearing any stories like that. But maybe another country had them? I only knew a little english, and not enough to read stories or watch movies without subtitles."

Zaria nodded, understanding. "There were many stories in almost every culture on my Earth of people who could turn into animals. Sometimes, it was determined by the moon, and it was almost always wolves, or terrifying wolf/human hybrids that resulted. In other stories, people could take on whatever animal shape they liked by wearing the skin of that animal. Most of these stories were horror stories, cautionary tales meant to scare people into their homes at night."

She wrapped her hands uncertainly around each other. "But if I am understanding Speaker Vlachos, our stories of werewolves and vampires come from this world. It is very obvious to me now that the stories from my world inspired by the other worlds we were unknowingly connected to are often going to be different than reality. In this world, Lykos must use their magic to turn into wolves. Or maybe they are magic. I don't know. He mentioned that others would think Gu Cheng is a Lykos because only they have that much magic. So it seems like the speaker is trying to make others think that Gu Cheng is a Lykos to keep anyone from guessing that there are other types of magic or that we are not from here. And if the truth is the same as the stories, then they would eat a lot of meat, so Gu Cheng will likely be plied with a lot of the stuff. And I am betting the haimata Cathy mentioned is something involving blood..."

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"One of them drinks blood?" Yamashita spoke up in a high-pitched voice.

"This is so interesting, what passes through between our universes. Did your world not have vampire stories either? Tales of creatures that sucked blood to survive?" Mute and frightened looking head shakes between the three of them. "I doubt we can go off of the stories from my world, not as cheerful and helpful as the only two vamp...Sanguine we met were. You may feel gross thinking about someone drinking blood, but plenty of people feel the same way about humans that eat meat. They are just ingesting a different part of the animal."

"Miss Joseph is right," Rika nodded her head firmly. "I find it hard to believe I am saying this, but we are in a different world, and we can't judge them by our past experiences."

There was a lot to think about, and dinner passed by in silence. Except for the occasionally murmur of 'how delicious' or 'oh this is so good', of course. There was easily enough meat left over for another meal when they were done, which went into the cold cabinet as well. Afterward, they discussed how the bedrooms would be divided. Three of the five thought that Gu Cheng and Zaria should get the largest bedroom, and after a brief argument about it, they acceded. The other two bedrooms both had full size beds, at least it looked that way to Zaria, so the boys agreed to share the next largest, which had more room to set up a second bed in. Gu Cheng helped them to move the existing bed to one side so that the other bed could be set up against the opposite wall.

Rika and Zaria took the chance to look through the bags that they were given. Inside were clothes of different types, one bag bearing sizes smaller than the other. Despite Zaria being overall smaller, both women looked at her backside and agreed she was intended to get the larger size. Rika sighed in envy, and Zaria shrugged with acceptance. "You know," she said, with fake grumpiness, "My butt is not that big where I am from..."

The two women shared a giggle, covering their mouths with their hands at almost the same time. It felt strange to be able to enjoy the luxury of laughter.

Gu Cheng walked in a moment later, trailing the two teenagers like little ducks in his wake. The boys took the bags they were given and ran off to their room, talking in whispers about everything they had seen so far as they disappeared around the doorframe and the door closed behind them. The feeling that they needed to whisper would fade in time, Zaria hoped.

"I look at those two, and I feel so old sometimes," she said wistfully, smiling as Gu Cheng nudged her lightly with his elbow.

"So, does that make me too old?" he asked her as he picked up his bag and held onto her hand. They said goodnight to Rika and walked together to the bedroom the others had assigned to them.

"I don't think so?" Zaria asked as they placed their bags on the bed. "No? I mean, no, you are not too old. You are perfect." She flushed as he turned his face toward her, an intense look in his eyes. "I mean that you are not old! I didn't mean anything else by it!"

Zaria squealed as she dodged the hand reaching out for her, but she didn't make it past the bed before she was pulled backward onto it. "I'm sorry! You are definitely not old! I promise!"

Giggles escaped out of their open door, and she patted his shoulder with a smile. "Go close the door, young man."

Gu Cheng raised his lips up in a slight smile as he did what he was told. By the time he returned, both were serious once more. "What do you think about the people we have met so far?"

"I don't know," she replied honestly. "Cathy didn't seem like she was trying to deceive us. Neither did the speaker. Was she saying he was her father? But he didn't tell her everything, like about how you have magic but aren't a Lykos. Does that mean he doesn't trust her, or is it a ploy to see what we will do if we think she doesn't know?"

"Mm. People in my world will lie if they think that they can get away with it. I have seen some continue to lie long after they have been caught, as well. I don't get that feeling from the people we have met so far. Are they people? I know you said they just have different diets, but..."

"Pfft," Zaria let the air out rudely between her lips. "I said that because I didn't want them freaking out. This is their first world. Everything different is going to be cause for panic. Were you perfectly willing to accept things when you saw someone use magic?"

"No, but I didn't have much of a choice," he said, sitting down heavily next to her. The bed bounced a little with the action. "I thought it was all some kind of trick at first, but by the time we got to the next world, I was able to accept it."

"Right, and we can't wait for the next world for them to accept that things can be much different than they are used to." She sighed and pushed him back against a pillow, then curled up beside him. "Each world I have been to, I have just done what I need to in order to survive until the pendant was ready to take me away. I took the job at Auntie Wang's shop and stayed in her apartment because I figured it would help me earn some money to help in my next world. I took the job with the infuriating CEO for the same reason."

She craned her neck to kiss his cheek before settling against his shoulder again. "I was very lucky there, but I didn't know it. When I entered the next world and someone offered to help me, I thought 'Well okay, it's only for a little bit, and if it goes bad, I just run away'. But it did go bad, and I tried to run away, but I couldn't. And then things got worse. The world after that, the water, and literally everything else alive besides the few humans in that house wanted to kill me. But I couldn't just run away there, either. There was nowhere to run."

A hand rubbed up and down her arm, not pressuring her to speak more, but letting her know that he was there and listening.

"I want to believe that everything is okay in this world. But it is so hard to get past the assumption that it will live up to the tropes I know based off of it."