His acceptance of her answer, though she knew he wasn't completely mollified and his offer of food seemed so familiar that she almost answered in the affirmative out of habit.  Somehow, when they had been together, he could always get her to talk out whatever was going on with her over food.  Now, however, that couldn't happen.  "No....no thanks, I, uh, I ate before I came over."  It wasn't completely false, she had eaten, just, not what he would have expected.<br/><br/>She watched him in the falsely warm glow of the kitchen light as he moved to the refrigerator, admiring him for how well he was taking her arrival, how seamlessly he'd accepted her existence back into his life, and her affections back into his arms.  She hated to break the dream so quickly, to dash his reality so soon.  Maybe she could just let him figure it out on his own?  She had pondered that, too.  Making up excuses about working a night shift job, moving back in with him while he was none the wiser...but she couldn't risk it.  She refused to entertain the fact that she might one day go to far and harm him physically, or that he should discover her secret without her knowledge and end her new existence with hatred in his eyes, not for what she was, but for lying to him about it.  As it was, she didn't know how he'd react to her 'condition'.  They had joked about it, of course, drunk during late night horror films before they scared themselves into each others arms and lost track of the movie.<br/><br/>Her eyes wandered over the still taped boxes and various sundries indicating he hadn't settled in yet.  "Did you just move<em>today</em>?  That must have been rough.  I hope you had help."  Maybe she could side rail the discussion towards his current activities, find out if he'd changed, if her absence had increased the distance so much she could let him go.  Part of her doubted it, knowing how loyal Alfred was and how committed she herself had been to him, but she wanted to see, just in case.