[Xander – 12 years]

"…and that's when the muffin smashed the pumpkin by jumping onto it," I inform Mr. Thompson. "Which is why I think my brain was including Greyson's influence in the dream for some reason. Because he loves muffins and hates pumpkins. And apparently, I was wrong with him disliking watermelons, he loves them. Why would he like blowing them up if he loves them so much?"

"I don't know," Mr. Thompson answers. "Maybe you could ask him?"

"He just exclaimed 'explosions' when I did, which isn't very helpful."

That's his answer to a lot of odd questions and it doesn't really answer my question. I understand that he likes blowing things up, but why would he blow up food he enjoys instead of just eating it?

"I guess it wouldn't be," Mr. Thompson responds.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?"

Dad and Mom and Ms. Rachel are all fine with me telling them about my dreams in the mornings, but I don't know if Mr. Thompson was. He asked if I slept well and asked me about my dreams when I said I had some interesting ones. People are confusing and I answered honestly, but what if he's one of those people who asks and doesn't actually want the answer?

"Not at all," he answers. "Are you sure you don't want bacon?"

He's pulling stuff out to make breakfast for the two of us. Sig and the others likely won't be up for another hour or three, he said. They were up pretty late, even if I went to bed at ten-thirty. They were all still taking turns playing a first-person demon shooter.

"Alright," he says. "I have bacon, eggs, and stuff for pancakes as that was the plan."

"I don't like bacon and eggs," I tell him. "So I'll have pancakes, as long as mine are done before the ones with chocolate chips, since I know others like that and I don't know if you do. If not, I have cereal in my backpack. And milk. Oh, and is it alright if I have a parfait with breakfast? I do breakfast parfaits. I have yogurt, nuts, berries, and granola for it."

Mom made sure I had some of all of those for parfaits before I left yesterday, just in case I did spend the night. Parfaits are a part of breakfast so it's important to make sure I can have them.

"You can," Mr. Thompson tells me. "We've got apples and oranges to go with breakfast as well."

"I'd like an orange, please," I tell him.

"Okay," he says. "What kind of pancakes do you like? In addition to the chocolate chips I know you don't want, I've got gummy bears and bananas."

"Do you have sprinkles, too?" I ask.

"I do," he answers. "I don't normally allow that in breakfast, though."

"Mom makes me blueberry-banana-sprinkle-gummy bear pancakes," I tell him. "I've got blueberries in my backpack."

"She makes you all of that?" He asks. "That's one pancake flavor? Not in four different ones?"

"Yeah," I answer. "When I first moved in with her and Dad, she asked me if I wanted any of those, and I said yes. I think she misunderstood and thought I wanted them all at once. It was weird… but I like it now."

"Alright," he says. "Well, I won't do all four of those, but I can do two, if one of them is either banana or blueberry."

"Um… banana, please," I answer. "And sprinkles, please."

"Banana-and-sprinkle pancakes, coming up!" He says.

After we eat breakfast, I help do the dishes, then go out back and sit at the table on the deck while I wait for the others to wake. Mr. Thompson plays Go Fish with me for a little bit, then I pull out some of my magitech engineering stuff and begin building a new puzzle. I really want to make this one a sphere because it's nice and round, but Greyson likes a variety of things so making them all spheres is only for my benefit.

Cubes aren't bad, it's when getting into sides that have other polygonal faces that makes me uncomfortable. As long as they're all the same shape (unlike soccer balls), and those faces have an odd number of sides, it should be fine.

This should keep him distracted for awhile and it'll be a good present for him for making it through his first month of time at the academy without sneaking out. He'll only receive it if he answers me honestly, though, so I'm not going to let him try to avoid answering properly and with his words, face-to-face.

There are still a couple of weeks left, which means I have a lot of time to work on this and make it better. I will definitely have to make several versions of it before it's the proper level of challenging for Greyson. Enough that he enjoys the difficulty but not so much that he needs to know there are nine dragons in the area.

How I even managed that when believing dragons were real while they were believed to not be, I'm not sure. There was literally no information for me to use to figure out how to make those puzzle spheres detect them yet I managed it.

"What do you think?" I ask Trenton as I show him part of the cube. "Hm… you're right, that'd be a bad idea. Okay, I'll adjust it a little."

Just as I'm finishing the puzzle cube, Sig comes outside with a plate filled with bacon and eggs, three chocolate-chip pancakes, and an orange. He's holding a glass of milk in his other hand, and a napkin is pressed between the plate and the hand holding it.

"Morning, Xander," he yawns.

"Morning, Sig," I inspect the cube.

"Another training device?" He sets his breakfast down on the table, sitting across from me. The smell is already really strong, it'd be even stronger right beside me.

Thank you for not putting your chocolate chip pancakes and bacon right beside me.

"Another puzzle," I tell him. "A cube ain't bad because they fit together nicely, but spheres are better. This one's a cube because Greyson likes a variety in his puzzles. Making them all spheres would just make him bored of them. So I went with a cube for this one."

"Oh, cool," he seems really curious.

"Do you want to give it a try after breakfast?"

"Isn't that for Greyson?"

"Not this one," I tell him. "This is just me experimenting with making puzzle cubes. I'll probably make a few different ones before I make the one for Greyson. And I was planning on making three of the cubes, anyway."

"Oh!" He says. "Okay! If you're okay with it, then sure!"

I nod, then finish making the cube as he eats his breakfast. Once the first one's done, I begin working on the second. Sam comes out with breakfast while I'm doing that, and Sig begins playing with the cube. I only remember to let him know that it requires mana use after he figures it out.

Which only took him about two minutes to do.

"How'd you figure that out?" I ask. "There weren't any instructions."

"Easy," he shows me the cube. "These lines here look like the ones on the training spheres! They're different from the ones on the completed puzzle spheres, too. So I figured, that means they probably require mana to be channeled into them. So they're a little like the training spheres, but meant for using in solving a puzzle rather than training my mana control. Though it will help with training mana control."

The lines do look different between whether a person needs to channel mana into it or not, but I didn't think it'd be obvious to others. I guess it's not just my passive magesight which makes them look different.

"Oh. I guess it would."

Sig manages to solve the cubes by the time everyone else finishes their breakfast, and I finish building the other two cubes. Temporal acceleration was used for all of it, but I have plenty of mana to spare.

"Let's go to the park," Sam suggests once all of the dishes are taken care of and my magitech tools and materials are put away.

"What about Nine Springs?" Isaac suggests. "Been a bit since we went there."

"I want to go swimming," Connor says. "Been awhile since we did that in a pond or something, too. And there's less chance of getting run into by others if we go out of town for that. The woods would be better than Nine Springs, I think."

"I want to climb on stuff," Sig says. "And swimming sounds fun, too. So for me, it's either Nine Springs or the woods. What about you, Xander?"

Oh, right. I'm a part of the group, so I get to help make decisions. Should I be honest or should I try to avoid answering so that I don't have to lie? There are three votes for leaving town to play today so my vote won't change that.

Being honest would probably be the best idea. They won't get mad at me for lying that way and I'm fairly certain they'll be fine with my answer.

"Um… I want to do my Saturday walk and some other stuff," I tell them. "But I can join up with y'all after, if that's okay."

"Of course!" Sig says. "Can we go with you, or would you rather do it alone today?"

There are things I want to talk with some of them about and while it's okay for that to happen with to others, I'd rather do it alone.

"By myself, please."

"Alright," Isaac says. "What would you like to do with us after? The park? Nine Springs? The woods?"

"Um," I hesitate. "I wanna go swimming, but… maybe not at Nine Springs. It feels too open."

"So one of our places," Sig says. "Or the woods? Let's do this – we go to the park while you do your stuff and you meet back up with us, then we'll head to the woods to go swimming! I can climb in the trees or the cliffs – if we go somewhere with cliffs – and we'll be unlikely to come across others at a couple of the good spots. They take longer to get to so fewer people go to them."

They all really know the woods around here, I've learned. Even if we haven't gone into them very much since I started hanging out with them a lot, they've apparently explored a significant amount of the forests in the area.

"Alright," I say. "Um, let's plan on that, then."

"Sweet!" He says. "Let's all go change, then head out! Are you gonna ride with us until the split point, or just teleport there?"

"I'll ride with you."

"Okay!"

They go change into clean shorts and underwear, though I've already put on a clean outfit after waking up so I don't change again. Mr. Thompson makes sure everyone has lunch boxes with food in it for lunch. While they sometimes eat at a restaurant or something for lunch while they're out, they usually eat a lunch they bring with them. Those lunches are either prepared by one of the dads or is something they fix themselves before leaving.

Mr. Thompson even makes sure I have a lunchbox with something for lunch even though I tell him I have food already. It's nice that he's making sure that I have food as well, but it won't be nearly enough for me and it's not necessary, either.

"Everyone ready?" Sig asks once we've gotten to the street with their bikes and my hoverboard, and we tell him that we are. "Alright! Let's go!"

We begin riding and once we reach the place where I'll be splitting off from them, I tell them goodbye.

"Here?" Sig asks.

"Yeah, here?" Connor asks. "This isn't the way to the mage district."

"I'm going there later," I say. "I want to go to the farmers' market in Lakeview first. And if I still have time after, I might go to the one here in Dragon Falls. I don't know it very well but I want to give it a try since it's closer to home. It might be better, too."

Or it might not be, since there are fewer farmers closer to it than to the other ones in the area. But the range for which vendors can come from covers the same area as the ones for the others, so it might have stuff that's good anyway. And it might be quieter and less crowded since it's in Dragon Falls rather than one of the more outer towns.

"Doesn't teleporting mean you don't need to worry about distance?" Isaac asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "I'll try to meet up with y'all after I finish my stuff. Bye!"

They wish me good luck and tell me they'll see me later, then I leave. When I reach the farmers' market, it's already a bit crowded. There are definitely some good jams and fruit butters here. A really nice lady sells fruit breads she baked, and also cinnamon-raisin bread.

I leave the Lakeview farmers' market and head to the Dragon Falls one to look around. It's not quieter or less crowded at all. In fact, there are more stalls and even more people here. But I do find a few foods I like the samples of and buy.

Oh! It's Seph! I recognize him from the pictures Sig shared from his hunting trip last weekend. Also from some pictures Luke sent me of them hanging out, but I don't get why Luke was sending me them. Something about the anklets working, but I already knew they did.

Greyson was a good test subject for that.

From what I can see on the vendor map, the section Seph's in isn't for actual set vendors. People who booked booths. Instead, it's for people who showed up and claimed a spot, which they can claim for up to forty-five minutes, including their time setting up and cleaning up. They're not allowed to sell food products at these stalls but can sell non-perishable goods. Even minors can claim one, apparently.

Seph has a couple of bows, some sets of arrows, leather pouches, and even jewelry that's made from leather, bone, wood, and stone. Very few of his items were made with magic materials, but I still walk over to examine them anyway. They look nice.

"Hi," I say. "I'm X-Xander, one of Sig's friends. You went hunting with him last weekend."

"Yeah," Seph nods. "He's a cool guy."

"He says you're cool, too," I say. "But I'm fairly certain your body temperature is normal," I look around. "It doesn't seem different from most people's, anyway," I look back at him. "Did you make all of this?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Over the course of the summer. The leather and bones come from things I've hunted, and I cut the wood used in everything myself. Nothing's really that magical, though. From what I've seen, you're a mage through and through. Ain't really the kind of guy who'd be at my stall. That one over there's more your style, ain't it?"

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He indicates a stall selling accessories and other things made from the parts of magic beasts. All of it has to be handcrafted by the vendor or their household so I know it's homemade, and I did notice it was all magic.

"No," I answer. "I was just curious about your stuff because you're one of Sig's friends."

"He called me his friend?" Seph is really surprised by that.

Enough it almost makes me stagger. There are already so many emotions I'm feeling from everyone around here… oh, right. Mr. Cox did teach me how to temporarily suppress my empathy, so I do that as Seph asks me if I'm okay.

"You're looking a little pale," he adds.

"Yeah," I answer. "I'm a natural empath so I'm feeling all of the minds around me and there are a lot of them. I forgot to suppress my empathy. It takes a lot of effort so I'll stop once I leave here. It's just overwhelming to feel so many minds."

"Oh."

"To answer your other question," I say. "Yeah. Sig makes friends pretty easily and he views people he likes as friends. Likes as in as a friend. But then you have his close friends, like Connor and Sam and Isaac and me. He calls us his best friends."

"Ah."

"I like this one," I point at a necklace, which is made from what looks like a bunch of small bones cut into thin squares with a hole in their center, which was then threaded onto a black leather cord.

There are two of them on the table he has set up, and they look nice. One of them is made with blue beads, the other with green. Ice and poison magics are in the bones, but they're harmless. It's just a part of the material rather than an actual magic.

Even though Sig doesn't really wear any accessories other than the ones I got for him, it seems like something he might wear. I can't really tell why, so the feeling might come from my psychic powers.

"That's a shell necklace," he tells me. "One of the only items with magic materials I've got. There's a lake back where I used to live which has a creature called a vise snail. It's a breed of snail which loves water and produces a pretty toxic chemical. When something picks it up, it creates an icy vise to grip onto the target and an icy needle to stab into it, injecting its toxins.

"And no," he adds. "I didn't hunt them. It's a magical creature and they lay eggs in spring, before it warms up. The snails die off once it gets too warm, but the eggs lie dormant. When autumn comes and it cools off, the eggs hatch and the new batch appear. They form their own shells with their magic, and those beads come from them.

"Specifically," he says. "They're collected from the beach. The water and sand wears them down, and the hole actually comes from the sides of it. Their spirals end in a small point there. The point is smaller and thinner, so it wears down faster than the larger area below. That creates the hole which is used to thread the cord through."

"Oh," I say. "That's really interesting."

A magic species of snail which lives in a cooler area is something which might have a documentary on it. Is there a warm-climate variety?

"So you collected the shells?"

"I did," he confirms. "It takes a lot of time to gather them, but I managed to get enough for four necklaces before we moved out here. I've kept one for myself, and the other one's for sale. It's another blue one, if you're interested in getting two."

Not in two blue ones. I want to enchant the one for Sig so that it lasts longer, but I haven't enchanted something with so many tiny pieces before with this set of enchantments. Even the chain-link bracelet with the strength-restriction enchantments I made for Greyson doesn't have this many pieces. Practicing on another is important but I don't want the second one to go to waste if it doesn't get ruined.

Which means I'll be wearing one at least sometimes. If that's the case, I want it green.

"How much are they?"

"Eighty bucks each," he answers. "They're made with magic materials and I had to go travel a bit to get to them and deal with some beasts, and it takes a lot of effort to make."

"Okay," I say. "Would it be a problem if I enchanted them after buying? I like putting a standard set of enchantments on my stuff so that they last long."

Since he made them by hand, he might consider it rude to modify them, even if it's to put enchantments on them to ensure they last a long time. Dad told me to always ask before enchanting something someone made for me by hand because of that.

"Sure," he says. "So you'd like one?"

"Can I get both of them?" I ask.

"Yeah!" His face brightens up. "Oh, but I don't take card. I do accept market vouchers, though."

The farmers' markets allow people to pay in cash at booths, and some booths accept card-based payments as well. All booths are required to allow someone to spend vouchers to buy stuff. The vouchers are purchased by the info booth and can be paid for with card, and any leftover ones can be turned back in to receive the money back on my card.

As long as I have my receipt.

I didn't buy enough vouchers to pay for those as I only expected to spend maybe $50 here. Dad did tell me my limit is $2,500 today when I asked if he could raise it, so I can afford to buy more vouchers.

He keeps bumping it up to that even though it's not really necessary to raise it that high. I want to ask him why, but that would be questioning an adult, which is bad. All of the other times I've questioned him have been fine, but what if this is the one he draws a line with?

"I don't have that much in vouchers," I tell Seph. "Is it okay if I ask you to hold them while I go get more?"

Some vendors are a "buy it now, I'm not holding it" sort of person and I don't know Seph and how he operates. Better to ask than to just assume he will.

"Sure!" He answers.

Once I have the vouchers, I buy the two necklaces from Seph.

"Thanks!" He says.

"You're welcome," I say. "And thanks."

"See you around!"

"Bye," I tell him.

After looking at some more stuff here and buying some more food, I make my way to the mage district and the first place I stop inside of is Mr. Vincent's fudge shop. A few of the shop owners or workers are outside but he's not.

He's also not in the front room, either, but he comes out after only a few moments.

"Oh!" He smiles upon seeing me. "Hello, Xander!"

What does my magical perspicacity say about him? Um… oh!

"You're a bull."

Mr. Vincent laughs.

"Sorry!"

"It's fine!" He tells me. "Unexpected things can make a man laugh. Laney told us she'd let you know about us all being magic creatures. So you've figured out how to tell?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I guess I got so used to the awareness of what you were that I tuned it out… but my magical perspicacity lets me know. But how are you a bull? Even the mindwave cattle ain't that smart. And they're more than just magic beasts with a higher magic type, they have mind magics."

"I'm one who was born to some which escaped from that ranch several centuries ago," he tells me. "Gained a bit more intelligence as I got stronger in the wild and eventually, transcended my bestial nature. So I still have my bull form, but I use this one to interact with others and run the shop."

"So I take it you don't like the mindwave cattle ranch?"

Since they raise them for milk and meat and hides, and he's one of them.

"On the contrary," he says. "I'm fine with it. My parents may have come from there, but mindwave cattle are only a form of magical, intelligent beast. Yes, they're raised for their meat, milk, hides, and other parts, but they also live quite well. The Coxes even play games with them."

"But you're also a bull."

"I am," he says. "But I'm not a beast anymore – think of me more like a dragon than an animal. Dragons are intelligent creatures with minds on the level of a human, even if they aren't human. I'm the same way, since I've transcended my bestial nature."

"Oh," I say. "I guess that makes sense."

"So!" He smiles. "Would you like to try the cards and see if you can get seven free things of fudge?"

"Yeah," I answer.

Mr. Vincent shows me the deck I'm on and I try to guess the right card, but I don't know how to tell which one is right for this deck. That leaves me to really guessing for the right one.

"How'd you pick this one?" Mr. Vincent asks.

"Um… I just did a modified version of the dragons and demons thing I hear Sig sometimes do when he's trying to pick between things," I tell him. "But I did 'when the dragons let out a roar, they've let out another roar'. Because that makes the statement true. Why would demons hit the floor just because a dragon roared?"

"Remember when you let out a roar at Alkronomak?"

"You heard about that?"

"The dragon who lives near there is a friend of Roger's," he tells me. "So Roger heard about it and told the rest of us."

"Oh," I say. "Yeah, I remember my roar."

"Well," he says. "Most people assume a dragon's roar would be like that, were dragons real. And it's powerful enough to be said to instill terror in its foes, and that dragons would definitely be their enemies. So the children's picking song plays to that – it pretends that demons immediately fall over dead from fear if they hear a dragon's roar."

"Oh."

"And the song worked for you," he turns the card around. "The King of Diamonds. Go ahead and pick out the seven fudges you'd like today."

"Okay!"

After I pick out the fudges and Mr. Vincent gives them to me, I leave and continue down the street. When I enter Mr. Roger's candy shop, I make sure to try and tell what he is and he is definitely a sun dragon.

"You're my great-uncle."

"I am!" He laughs. "Blaze and Celeste let me know you know now. I swear, those two have the most odd perspective on the world. Would you like to do this week's arm-wrestling?"

"Yeah," I nod. "Is you being my great-grandpa part of why you do this?"

"A little," he answers. "But as I told you before, I like seeing hatchlings grow. And before you ask, I call all youth 'hatchlings'. That's not just for those with draconic powers."

"Okay."

Mr. Roger and I do our arm-wrestling session, and I struggle hard to win against him, but I manage to get his hand down to the table.

"It won't be long before you're able to outdo me every time," he says. "That's when this will come to a close… but I might continue letting you get a discount anyway. A family discount sort of thing."

A family discount? Even though I'm only his great-nephew? Whoa.

"Okay," I say. "Um… so for the candies…"

After I pick out my candies, I continue through the street, and stop at the sub shop for lunch to order my usual from there. I do eat my packed lunch after leaving as well, since I'm still hungry and I'm sure Mr. Thompson will probably be upset if I don't. He put the effort into making it, after all.

I finish my trip around the mage district, then make my way to the Wolf's Dragon by foot. This is a lot earlier than usual, but I don't want to keep my friends waiting for too long. It should be fine to go an hour earlier for one week.

[Sig – 13 years]

Ethan quickly puts me into a lock when I try to put him into one, but I refuse to yield!

"You'll never take me alive!" I exclaim.

"COLD! COLD! COLD!" He quickly lets go of me. "No using magic!"

"Hahahaha! You can't handle the power of ice!"

"That was like… tiny little snowflakes," Connor snorts as I charge at Ethan again. "Aaaaand he's back at it."

This time takes Ethan a little bit longer to put me into a lock, but that means I did better than the last time. The rest of our friends are resting after playing for most of the day since we arrived at the park, but Ethan and I still have plenty of energy left so now we're wrestling around.

He's taken proper martial arts lessons and knows how to grapple, though, so I'm at a serious disadvantage.

"Ha-ha!" He laughs. "You won't get me with those tiny snowflakes this time, S.G.!"

"No! Not my advantage!"

"Yield to me!"

"Never!" I respond. "I'll break free no matter what it takes! Now despair!"

"Gah! Don't lick my arm!"

"ANY MEANS NECESSARY!"

"Are you okay?" Xander's voice suddenly enters my head. "Do you want some help?"

I can't see him, which means he's probably hearing me shouting from wherever he's approaching from and can see that I'm in a lock. He sounds super concerned and it takes me a moment to realize why.

Xander's never wanted to join in on us wrestling, but me being in a lock and hearing his concern has made me realize why. Or feeling it? That was definitely feeling his concern with the telepathic message, not hearing it.

It reminds Xander of his old foster home. Did they tie up him at times? If so, I hope the griffins his cousin fed them to really took their time eating while they were still alive.

"We're just playing!" I force my thoughts into pure words, hoping he's listening for a response rather than forgetting to do that part, I don't know how this works. "He's not actually holding me down and if I told him I wanted out, he'd release me."

"Okay," he still sounds concerned, but a lot less so than before.

"But if you want to help me mess with Ethan a little," I add. "You can teleport me to the table. Just know that once that ends, I'll probably tackle him for another wrestling round."

"Okay," he's quiet for a few moments. "Why did you lick him?"

I snicker.

"What?" Ethan asks. "Got a secret weapon? I've foiled them all! Ha!"

"Because it grosses people out and makes them let go… usually," I say. "Useful if they put their hand over your mouth. Most people's response is to pull it away from the tongue."

Xander's quiet for a few moments again.

"Oh. Lemme know when you're ready for the teleport and I will."

"Ready!"

"For what?" Ethan asks, and I suddenly find myself sitting at the table beside my backpack.

Sitting. At. The. Table. Not in a headlock.

This is honestly disorienting while simultaneously amazing. Xander can even teleport someone in such a way that their body's position is different!

"What the-?" Ethan asks as he scrambles to his feet. "S.G.?"

"Jeez," I grin at him. "You'd think you'd notice when someone escapes your grip, Ethan!"

Everyone else jumps at the sound of my voice and looks at me, and my grin just gets bigger.

"How did you get over here?" Connor asks.

"Magic!"

"I teleported him," Xander says, a smoothie in his right hand. "I thought Ethan was bullying him and offered to teleport him out, and he said they were just playing and it was fine, but he asked if I could teleport him out to mess with Ethan."

He's wearing a new necklace in addition to his bravery one. It's green and made up of a lot of tiny pieces and looks really nice on him.

"You didn't have to tell them all that," I fake-complain.

"Oh."

"It's cool!" I get up. "What kind of smoothie is that?"

"Blueberry-lemonade, with bananas added to it," he answers. "Can I give you a hug?"

"Yeah!"

Xander gives me a quick hug, then sits at the table to watch as I tackle Ethan again. When Ethan and I finally wear ourselves out, we join everyone at the table. Connor, Sam, Isaac, and Macy are playing cards while Xander's drawing in his sketchbook.

Since I sit next to him to rest, I make sure it's okay to watch him and he says it is. He's trying to draw a peach, and he even has one on the table in front of him to use as a reference.

"You only recently started drawing, right?" I ask.

"Yeah," he frowns a little before correcting an error in his sketch. "But I sometimes cheat and use temporal acceleration to give me more time to practice."

I am in no way surprised by that. He probably already has over a hundred hours of drawing practice when including his temporal accelerations.

"And you're doing it to improve your lines for enchanting?" I ask.

"Yeah."

Does shading really help with lines? Though I guess he probably figures that if he's going to do the outlines, he might as well go all the way. He doesn't really do things halfway. It seems to work for him, too. While he's no master artist, he's definitely advanced beyond beginner with all of the added time he's used to practice.

Xander finishes his sketch, then puts his art supplies away before pulling out a necklace which matches his own, but blue instead of green.

"Seph was selling these," Xander tells me. "He had four of them, but only three were for sale. I thought it seemed like something you'd like, so I got you one."

For me? He didn't need to do that! I do like the necklace, though! I've seen pictures of guys wearing them before and liked seeing them, but my parents never really liked me wearing stuff like this. Or even bracelets or anklets. It was always better if I put them on after leaving home and took them off before entering the house again.

Did his dreamsage powers let him know about it?

"And you?" I ask.

"I wanted to make sure I could enchant the one for you properly," he says. "So I bought two so that I could practice on a different one. But green instead of the other blue one, since I'd be wearing it sometimes so that it doesn't get enchanted and then just… not worn."

"So you already enchanted them?" I ask as I accept the necklace and pull it on.

Both the bracelet and the necklace I'm wearing came as gifts from Xander. The bracelet's the first thing I've worn consistently without taking off before getting home, or without having to take it off after I got home. I don't know why my parents hated me wearing accessories, but… that's not really a concern for me anymore, is it?

"Hey, if I buy a bracelet or necklace," I say. "Could I pay you to enchant it?"

"With the standard set?"

"Yeah."

"I'll do it for $10."

That's what I expected the price to be since it's what he did for the school lanyards and I know arguing with him won't change the price. He really does view it as something basic and simple – something standard. Like putting caramel sauce on ice cream.

"Alright!" I say, then give him a hug. "Thanks for the necklace! Oh!" I quickly release him. "Sorry!"

Xander stiffened up and it took me a few moments to realize what I did. Is he upset? He's not responding.

"It's… um… you're okay," he fidgets for a moment, then turns and gives me a hug for a moment. "So. Um. Are gonna keep playing here, or are we going somewhere else now?"

"To the woods!" Isaac exclaims. "Bye Ethan! Bye Macy! See you guys Monday!"

We would invite them to join us, but Xander might not swim with us if we did. They also said they have some other stuff to do this afternoon after the hangout, so probably don't have the time to go to the woods.

"See you Monday!" They respond as we all get up and bid them goodbye.

As we make our way to the woods, I notice Xander glancing up at the sky every time we come to a stop.

"Something the matter?" I ask once we reach the woods and have to secure our bikes.

"Hm?" Xander seems distracted and takes a few moments to look away from the sky.

"Is it going to rain?" I ask. "You keep looking at the sky."

"Oh," he says. "I was just wondering if we're going to get some very heavy snow this year."

That seems completely random. Why is he thinking about snow?

"Xander!" Connor laughs. "Summer hasn't ended yet! Let's just enjoy it before it ends! We've got plenty of time to wait for snow!"

"Okay," Xander says. "How far until the pond?"

"It'll take about twenty minutes to get there," I answer. "A little less if we walk faster."

"Okay," Xander says. "I can store the bikes in my backpack, like I do with my hoverboard. That way, you know they're secure and don't have to worry that someone might steal them. I know it's not likely, but it's better to be careful, right?"

"Are you really okay with that?" Isaac asks.

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't," Xander says. "It ain't as if I don't hold stuff for y'all sometimes, anyway. Like Sig's field trip stuff."

"Yeah, but you're his boyfriend," Connor says. "That doesn't mean you'd do it for us."

"If you had a spatial backpack," Xander says. "Would you offer to store everyone's bikes?"

"Of course!" Connor says. "We're all friends, and it'd mean-oh. Point taken."

Once our bikes are in Xander's backpack, we begin the walk through the woods. With smoothies. Xander apparently got one for each of us and a second one for himself for us to drink on the walk.

I'm not sure why he did that, but I'm not going to complain, either. This is delicious!

Though I definitely need to figure out something I can do for him so that it's not always him doing stuff for me and the others. I need to figure it out before his birthday, too, as it's coming quickly. Thursday. And I still haven't figured out what to get him for a present.

What do you get for someone who can buy or make whatever he wants?

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