(Niko, 16)

"Hello, Lina," I approach Lina after lessons end and she stops talking with a couple of our fellow students she has grown close to over the last few months. At least some of her citizens are loosening up with her. "I have a gift for you. I would have given it to you before lessons, but thought I should wait until after."

"Okay," she smiles, and I open up my spatial storage and pull out the scarf.

It is light blue in color, with some silver runes stitched into it. Runes of the ancient tongue, giving a blessing of warmth and safety. They do not actually hold power, but it still feels nice to touch into those roots we hold as the Magi.

Though I did have to check a few times to make sure I did not mix up the runes with other things. 'Blessing' and 'curse' are both pronounced very similarly to each other in the ancient tongue and use very similar runes.

"It's beautiful," she accepts the scarf from me. "You had it custom made?"

"I did," I nod. "It is made with the fur of a midnight minx and enchanted silver. I requested it made a little more than a month ago, and they needed to hunt the minxes and treat their fur, plus enchant the silver into thread. I was going to gift it to you during the Twelve Honors, but the ice storm they were predicting is about to come through."

Two days later than predicted. Rather than coming through on Felday evening, we simply had cold. Same with yesterday. But word from the northwest is that the weather is moving down our way now.

"Thank you," she says. "It feels wonderful."

"Midnight minxes have quite soft fur," I tell her. "There is only one person in all of Mar who can work it and retain that softness. I know we are heading to our training session with the training group now, but I wanted to give it to you before we parted ways, in case I forgot it when you left after."

"Thank you," she sends it into her dimensional space. "Speaking of our training group, how do you think Jason is going to fare with it?"

I look at Jason, who is speaking with our professor so that he can acquire any missed work they will require him to make up. He has a school bag slung over one shoulder and resting at his side, to carry his things. It seems he's incapable of using spatial magic at the moment for some reason, and even had to borrow a few required materials because his are kept in a spatial storage.

All day today, he has seemed distant, and not just in the 'I am healing and distracted by that' sort of way. Something happened that is taking up his thoughts.

"I will be willing to assist him if he needs it," I tell Lina. "Though I do wonder what he has been distracted by all day."

"Knowing Jason," she says. "It may be related to anything and everything."

Jason finishes his discussion with our professor, then approaches us.

"Let's head to the training room," he says. "And to answer your question, a dream I had last night made clear the reason I received the rune for 'Magi' with the wax for knowledge during the divination during the Festival of Spirits."

"You received the knowledge of the Magi?" I ask. "It was also the rune for 'memories' when angled another way. A dream which was more memories of us as Magi?"

"No," he answers. "A dream of us being sent to Midlaris to become the Magi. The Mother of the Magi, Niko, is the Queen of the Gods. She is the one who sent us here to put an end to the war."

There is more to this than he is revealing, but if he is not saying the rest of it, then he must have a good reason for it.

Wait.

That means the Enamas was willing to risk the wrath of the Queen of the Gods? Was he a moron?

"I am not hosting the training sessions this week," he tells us. "I have to make up a lot of work I missed, and am exhausted from my healing. In addition, I know everyone will be wanting to study for end-of-term exams. I have an announcement, then I will be going to teach your citizens, Niko. Do you two want the announcement now, or would you like to join us for a few minutes?"

"I want to say hello to Jacob," I tell him.

"Okay," he says.

We walk to the training room, where the rest of the training group waits.

"There is no training group for the rest of this week," Jason informs us. "That said, we will be meeting at the Jeshema Mansion on Monday of next week. We will be leaving for the training facility at precisely nine in the morning, so be there by eight, please. Alex, please ensure your crew is aware of this and present as well."

Alex suddenly looks embarrassed about something, and I think I know why.

"You haven't told them I'm alive, have you?" Jason asks, and Alex's face turns redder. "I would love to say 'hello' to them just for giggles, but I have studying to do and explanations to give."

"Explanations?" Alex asks.

"Long story," Jason says. "But my papas and mamas found out about some of my projects. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know about the trip. We will be gone until the seventh day of next month, so plan accordingly. Same restrictions as before. Any questions?"

There are none voiced, though I am certain we all are wondering what those projects are and why he would need to give his parents explanations.

"Everyone but Jacob and Alex are dismissed!"

"We should probably leave," I whisper to Lina, who nods in agreement. I wait for Jacob and Alex to reach us. "Hello, Jacob, hello, Alex. I hope you two have a good day."

(Jason, 16)

That was a quick exit on Niko's part. I look at Jacob and Alex once Niko is gone.

"I heard you two had an altercation during lunch."

"I wouldn't call that an altercation," Alex says. "Just a misunderstanding."

"You punched him."

"He walked into my fist," Alex says. "See? A misunderstanding."

"And you subtly used force magic to trip him," I look at Jacob. "Everyone thought he had just tripped, but I know better. You know better."

The two of them look uncomfortable.

"Here I was," I say. "Planning on just talking some sense into the two of you, but it seems the rift between you is a bit too much for that. What on Midlaris were you thinking, Jacob? Locking Alex up for a week?"

"Would you rather he be loose while angry and volatile, after having already attacked me in public?" Jacob asks. "It was that or actual imprisonment, and I wanted him to calm down without risking his life or his freedom. He is fortunate he did not get into worse trouble today for the punch. A student squabble, they called that."

I pull out a comm plate and activate it.

"Badger Alpha, open the gate."

"Yes, sir!" Badger Alpha's tiny voice comes through the comm plate.

"Wait, there are more?" Jacob asks.

"There are six total," I say. "With a seventh coming soon. The four here in Varil don't know about the other two."

A gate opens up beside us, violet in color.

"Enter," I point, and my two friends look hesitant. "Now."

They obey, and I follow them through, the gate disappearing behind me.

"Wait," Alex looks around. "We're at your home in the Unwild Lands."

"Badger Alpha is its overseer while I'm gone," I say as the stuffie golem jumps up onto my shoulder from his perch. "Come."

They follow me out of the house in silence, and we walk in silence for almost half an hour. When we stop, we're in a large, stony field. Badger Alpha hops off of my shoulder and onto a boulder.

"Badger Alpha," I say. "Open a gate once they've settled their differences."

"Yes, sir!" Badger Alpha gives me a small salute.

"Settled our differences?" Alex asks. "What's that mean? And how come Steven hasn't come after us?"

"He can probably sense my weakness right now," I state. "And has chosen to grant me mercy this time. And it means to not hold back."

I activate my comm plate.

"Tiger Alpha, a gate."

A gate appears beside me, and I step through it, the gate disappearing as the pair of them stare at me in shock. I turn off the comm plate and put it away as I look at Tiger Alpha.

"Send me back to the university," I tell him, then glance at my grandmama and brother. "Hello, Fael Mira, Jarenidis. Sorry about the sudden arrival and departure, I had to go somewhere, and need to return to the university, and this was the quickest way, with my spatial magic unavailable."

"Hello, Jason," my grandmama responds as Tiger Alpha opens the gate. "Good luck with your studies."

"Thank you," I say, then step through the gate.

Jacob and Alex will be okay, Badger Alpha will make sure they don't actually kill each other, even if by accident. Much like Bear Alpha, he can use holy magic, so he will take care of anything too extreme. They won't try to kill each other, anyway, but he's there just in case.

At the university, I make my way inside and to the room where I teach the Marran youth magic. The ten of them are waiting for me, and I quickly take my spot on the professor's desk.

"Hello," I greet them. "My apologies for being a few minutes late, I had to do something before coming down here. Now, as you all know, this is the last week of lessons here. We students are studying every day up to Sorday, when we will take the exams to find out where we place next term – if we're in the same Class of students, if we're bumped up, or if we're bumped down. The Sorday before lessons resume next term will be when you ten take the exam to find out if you are able to attend the university of your choice and where you place there, so you have plenty of extra time to study if you wish.

"That said," I say. "You will be performing your exams for me this week. There are five days of lessons, and twelve schools of magic. Today, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the ten of you will be demonstrating your knowledge in three different schools of magic. On Friday, we will hold a review of the exams, where I give you your results and feedback tailored to the styles of mage you wish to be.

"Today," I continue. "We will be testing fire magic, light magic, and holy magic. You will each have nine minutes to demonstrate your abilities with those, and we will go to a training room for this."

I lead them to the training room where I teach my training group, then begin their exams. I already know they are each at least somewhat competent, but this gives me a better gauge for what they can and can't do than simply teaching them six days a week.

The ten of them do well for how short of a time they have been training, based on my observations of others. I'm not certain how well they are actually doing, though, compared to other magicians their age. They're all rather weak, too – still only red magical power.

But since most people are red magical power, especially in the northern kingdoms, that's not too terrible. The next training session at the facility will raise their magical powers pretty heavily, too. They will all be at least middle orange, possibly upper orange, by the end of it. Even if none of them are upper red yet.

"Good job," I tell my students. "I will see you all tomorrow."

They thank me, they leave as a group. I make my way outside and to my carriage, climbing in. Badger Alpha has not created a gate yet, so Alex and Jacob must be still fighting. I will give them another half-hour before having Badger Alpha make a gate for me to come in. By then, they should be weak enough I can knock their heads together.

When I reach home, I make my way inside and sit at the table in the dining room, across from Eden. He is studying at the moment, and I am going to as well, so I pull out some of the work my professors gave me to do.

The official story is that Jeshema – the 'nation' – had some urgent business that needed handling, and I was assisting in that, only to be wounded and was recovering. In technicality, I have until the next term begins to make up the missed work, but my professors are being gentle with me. Not everything needs to be made up, only the stuff they feel is absolutely important. In addition to that, half of my lessons are practical training, so I can skip out on needing to make up some of that, too.

For a couple of the missed assignments, I will need to do an enchantment or some such thing for a professor, but in front of them. I can do that in a few days, though, after looking over the relevant information.

Right now, though, I am just going to do the paper assignments, the essays that need writing and questions that need answering.

As I work, however, my mind wanders to that dream. To my memory of what caused the Magi's existence. The Mother of the Magi is the Queen of the Gods herself. She sent us here at our own request.

The Gathering of Power… a time when all types of magic become one. Twelve days of this, one for each Divine Beast. That is the end of our lives as Magi, when we will return to our true forms. That must be what happened after the war – why we have no memories of our deaths from back then. We never died, we simply departed these immortal bodies.

I did recover my memory of dying as Lucas, while I was recovering on the Shattered Isle. Now that I know my body will always be immortal when I reincarnate as a mortal, I know from the same source that Her Majesty, my true and original mother, had pulled my soul from my body as Lucas. That she was the reason Kris and I died then.

And it just makes me wonder what the heck was up with her comment at the end of our lives there? Seriously, lady? Of course it's just the end of a chapter! But we are beings as old as or older than the universe! We've had plenty of chapters, and we'll have plenty more! We are the Divine Beasts!

One relief that comes from that is knowing I haven't angered the Divine Dragon and he isn't coming after me for some reason. No, those were my memories of my own rage.

Us being the Divine Beasts explains comments by gods, too. Comments about who we really are, why some care about risking the wrath of our mother, why certain spirits and entities call us 'Creator' or 'Master'.

I sigh as I think about the Spirit of the Volcano. I wish to visit the Moon Folk again, partly so I can converse with the Spirit of the Volcano. I've remembered creating him, now.

Groaning, I let my head hit the table.

"Are you okay?" Eden asks.

"Yeah," I answer.

Now I know why Midlaris always answers when I summon him. Without fail. I'm his dad. He answers my call because he loves me the way a son loves his father, and is excited to be with me like that, even if only for a few minutes.

"Just thinking about stuff," I lift my head up, then resume working.

Cecilia brings me something to snack on as I work, which I'm grateful for. In addition to my thoughts, I have to write an essay on the Wilarna Theory of Sun Magic. I don't even know what that is, so I head into the mansion's library and look through its books, eventually finding one that mentions 'Wilarna'. I return to the dining room table and flip open the tome, skimming through until I find the section I need.

The Wilarna Theory of Sun Magic comes from a desert nation on the southern coast. The basic theory behind it is that fire and light magics are inherently linked, because part of fire is light. Wilarna is a nation – or at least, former nation – whose citizens worshiped the sun. To their culture, their leader was the incarnation of the sun itself.

With their theory, magics of fire and light were stronger during the day, and the longer the day, the more power it would hold at noon, building up until then and then fading after. How cloudy the day was affected the strength of the magics as well, in addition to certain cosmic events.

The theory itself is ridiculous, but I can see why some people might believe such a thing. People can be morons, after all. Even if evidence sits right in front of them disproving something, they will believe it anyway. As there has been no 'true' way to test such a theory in the past, no one could confidently say that the spell was stronger or weaker under certain conditions.

Right now, however, with the testing devices Papa Jared and I created, we can accurately test such a theory. There might be some who would say that we are simply putting more power into the night fire and light magic to create the same effect, but overall, the result will be the same. I didn't create magic to fluctuate under conditions like that, after all.

Well, that thought just hit my mind. First time I've thought of myself as the Divine Dragon rather than as Nolan, Lucas, or Jason.

Man, what I wouldn't give to have the infinite powers I possess in my true form. Being able to shape magic like it's some sort of cosmic clay. That would be amazing. But I can see why we don't have access to that power in these forms. It would likely rip them apart, and possibly interfere with their immortality, resulting in us returning to our true selves.

Though now I'm curious how long it will be before I begin playing around with magic in the way I could as my true self. That would be fun.

Focus, Jason! Focus! You are Jason, Lucas, and Nolan. You are not the Divine Dragon, not in this form. Right now, you have an essay to write.

It's also been an hour…

I'll check on them after I finish the essay.

Cecilia serves us dinner as we work, Mama Alyssa, Fael Mira, and Jarenidis joining us. Mama Elena is here in Varil somewhere, but not at the house right now.

After dinner, I finish the essay outlining the Wilarna Theory of Sun Magic and arguments against its truth, then take everything up to my room and pull out my comm plate. Tiger Alpha is currently hunting imaginary mice, so he won't notice this.

"'Sup, Boss?" Badger Alpha asks when he answers my call.

"Gate, please."

"Sure thing, Boss!"

He opens up a gate and I step through, then promptly sit on the boulder beside him as his gate fades away. Alex and Jacob are still attacking each other, their combat constructs still active. I doubt these are their original ones, though, as I know them well enough to know that having fought this long, they'd have accidentally released the spells or needed to take a brief rest of magical use to recover their mental strength.

"Have they stopped at all?" I ask.

"No," Badger Alpha answers. "I did have to instigate the fight, though. They didn't realize it was me. They just started arguing over who did worse and so on."

"How did you instigate the fight?"

"I insulted their mamas using air magic to make it sound like the other said it."

I flick him on the nose, sending him flying off the rock. His insult to their mamas makes me mad, but I know he isn't aware that their mamas are dead. Alex didn't exactly know his own, but Jacob loved his mama, from what I've heard. He and Lina never talk about her, though, and finding out the details on her assassination has been difficult.

Something serious happened when she was killed, and I think Jacob and Lina were witnesses to it. Or at least, Jacob. Wolf Alpha is also investigating that, but he's coming up with nothing at the moment. I've forbidden him from entering the minds of the royal family, or he'd go right into their heads and search for the information.

I don't want to do that to them. They are my family, after all.

"What was that for?" Badger Alpha grumbles as he returns.

"Don't make comments about their mamas," I tell him as he hops up onto my lap. "That's rude."

"It got the fight started."

"Their mamas are dead."

"…oh," he frowns. "That must be why Jacob reacted so negatively to the comment. Maybe I should apologize. When they finish up and are exhausted."

"Yeah," I say. "You do that."

As I watch, I notice the differences in their expressions. They aren't concentrated on actually hurting each other, it looks more like they're just sparring without restraint now. So I guess I can stop the fight without affecting their 'argument'. Badger Alpha must not have realized that they weren't at each other's throats anymore.

I clap a single time, and powerful boom fills the air, a shockwave rippling out from between my hands and slamming into my sparring friends, throwing them apart.

"Badger Alpha has something he'd like to say to you two," I project my voice to them.

The two of them approach, giving me curious looks as they do. When they reach me, I nudge Badger Alpha.

"Sorry for insulting your mamas," he mumbles. "I didn't know they were dead, and you two were just arguing, so I did the only thing I could think of to get you to actually fight each other."

The two of them frown, but don't comment on it.

"How long ago did you two stop trying to kill each other?" I ask.

"Maybe an hour ago?" Alex asks. "We were just trying to see how long we could go after that. Badger Alpha really did those insults?"

"Yes," I answer. "And no, I don't know what he said, just that he insulted your mamas while making it sound like the other was the one who said it. He's going to return home and think about what he did. Isn't he?"

"Yeah," Badger Alpha hops off my lap and begins the walk of shame home.

"So," I look at my friends. "Are you two done with this squabble? I feel like I'm Nolan all over again with hearing about you two getting into an argument the moment I'm gone for an extended period of time."

They both blush and avert their gazes.

"Alex," I look at my boyfriend. "Jacob put you in those shackles to calm you down because you have a nasty temper, just like me, just like him, and just like every other Magus. But you are the Leviathan, your temper is second only to mine."

Even if Niko's is the one second to mine.

"Jacob," I look at my cousin. "You should not have reacted to Alex's provocations. You could have simply defended or avoided the attacks. Instead, you returned them, especially with the wyvern incident. You were both out of your minds for using Sacred Swords, and I have half a mind to give Niko some sort of reward for confiscating them and your Magus Swords."

Speaking of that, I think Niko forgot he took them, and he never did give them to me like he told them he would.

"Niko told you?" Jacob asks softly.

"No," I answer. "But your papa is aware of that incident as well."

They both look at me in shock.

"There are ways to watch unobserved," I say, and Alex frowns.

"The Sages were watching, weren't they?" He asks.

"Yes," I answer. "But don't ask me how, as I'm sworn into secrecy on that."

Jacob looks like he's about to ask something, but thinks better of it when he glances at Alex. He was going to ask about if it was something as big of a secret as us having a few working gates.

"Now," I say. "Both of you acted inappropriately. Both of you acted wrongly. Both of you need to accept that and move on. You two are friends, even if you have an antagonistic relationship towards each other at times. Remember that. I know you have a hard time trusting nobles, Alex, and I'm not asking you to be all buddy-buddy with Jacob now, but at least try to treat him as a friend again."

They mumble confirmations to that.

"Now apologize," I say. "And mean it. If you don't, I will abandon you here until you apologize with sincerity."

They do, shaking hands as they speak their apologies, then hugging and giving each other a short kiss.

Then Jacob smirks as they both look at me, and I know he is about to make a comment about the apology and my desires.

"I bet you wish you were me right now."

Yeah, called it.

"Not really," I answer. "I might be in a lot of pain and recovering from some pretty nasty injuries, but at least I'm not just getting over the first conflict with a close friend in this life."

"No," he says. "Because of the apology."

"The apology?" I stand. "Why would I want to be someone who needs to apologize for something? It's good you two have shown you are over the fight and are willing to return to being friendly with each other, but why would I want to do that?"

"I mean-" he starts to explain, then sighs. "Never mind. You are as dense as ever. One day, you will realize."

I pull out my comm plate and contact Tiger Alpha.

"No. I'm being pet by Sage Elena."

"Please open a gate."

"Fiiiine."

A gate appears, and I gesture for them to step through it, then I follow. We're in the living room at my family's house in Varil City, and Mama Elena looks shocked.

"He didn't know where you went," Mama Elena says, looking down at Tiger Alpha, who is resting on her lap, enjoying her stroking his back. "How did you open a gate to him if you didn't know where he was?"

"My stuffie golems can open gates directly to me," I tell her. "It's part of their enchantment. There are some restrictions, and the gate will adjust its location automatically to account for objects being in the way or fail if it can't get close enough to me unblocked, but it's otherwise set. It was a fail-safe I put in them just in case I was ever unable to create a gate and needed to get to where one of them was in a hurry."

"The house," she says. "The company headquarters. The palace. You have a stuffie golem capable of doing this at each of them. They aren't just there to protect things and keep an eye on things, they're there in case of an emergency where you are needed."

"Or you and my other mamas and my papas," I tell her. "There is a good chance that if I was unable to create a gate, you would be unable to as well. I wasn't expecting my current circumstances."

"How does that work?" Jacob asks. "Has Tiger Alpha been out to the fields?"

"No," I answer. "But their gate spell functions differently. In addition to being able to open a gate anywhere they have already been, they can also open a gate to where I am."

"Ya already said that," Alex says.

"Because that's how it works," I say. "It has to do with me using some of my life essence to create them."

A gate opens up in the gate space, then Mama Alyssa and Papa Jared walk through it.

"Jason!" Mama Alyssa exclaims. "You're back. Good. Your Papa Jared and I figured out how to fix the issue with your massage ball. Do you mind if we see it?"

"Sure," I say. "Let me fetch it from my workroom."

They follow me to it, and Jacob bids us a good day, as he needs to return to the palace. Alex follows me into the workroom. He already knows about the massage ball, since he was one of its victims. Mama Alyssa walks over to the box it was contained in and pulls it out as Papa Jared looks at my workbench.

"Jason?" He asks.

"What?" I ask.

"What is that?"

"Stuff to make a new stuffie with."

"If I'm not mistaken," he picks up one of the ears. "This looks like a fox's ear."

"Probably because it is."

"You are making Fox Alpha, aren't you?"

"What makes you think he's going to be a stuffie golem?"

Papa Jared gives Alex a look before giving me a pointed one.

"Because the man you're in love with is no longer in the same house as you," he states quite bluntly. "And you no doubt want to have one of the stuffies at his new residence. As Bear Alpha is your emergency traveling stuffie, it makes sense you would make a new member of the Ultra Defense Stuffie Golems to watch Alex's new home."

"Erm…"

"You're doing what?" Alex looks at the stuffie. "Jason!"

"What?" I ask. "You moved out! How can I trust you'd be safe at all times? You're still only orange. You might be a Magus, but there are limits to what you can do. Even if they're pretty ridiculous. Imagine if a dozen blues attacked you! You'd be overwhelmed! He'd only be at the house. He'd be able to catch people setting up traps, bribing the staff, adding poison to things, and so on. Long before you. Stops the assaults before they even again. Wolf Alpha has already stopped quite a few assassinations in the palace."

Alex sighs, then freezes up, and I think he realizes at the same time I do what Papa Jared said. They know for a fact Alex and I love each other, and stated it quite plainly.

"Can you give us a few minutes?" Alex asks my mama and papa.

"You can show me the fix in a few," I nod. "We, ah, need to talk about something."

"Finally," Mama Alyssa mutters as they leave.

"We've been courting since the equinox, so you all lost that bet," I say. "Which means you all owe me instead."

Papa Jared snorts as the door closes behind them, and I look at Alex. They probably expected me to know about the bet, as much as they tried to keep it a secret from me.

"Jacob's comments won't stop until he knows we are together," I tell Alex. "And knowing him, they'll continue long after, but of a different type, since it won't be with the implication that we haven't admitted our feelings. My mamas and papas have already figured out we love each other, and now they'll all know we have been courting for awhile. At this point, it is only inevitable for it to spread among our friends, too. Eden no doubt already realized it, and Niko knows-"

"Niko knows?" He looks frightened.

"I think?" I answer. "He's never admitted he does, but I think he at least suspects we began courting. You've told me your crew knows, and while they'll likely keep the secret to their last breaths… I still think we should maybe stop hiding it from our friends. We could even pull a double or triple date with them. I know Niko and Jacob would probably enjoy that, and the ladies likely would as well. To most observers, it would seem as if we were just a group of friends hanging out."

Alex mulls it over as I sit at my workbench and do some more work on Fox Alpha. Currently, I'm just prepping his fur and stuffing, adding the enchantments into them as I finish making them. Once that's finished, I'll work on creating his core.

"Alright," Alex finally tells me. "Ya have a good point there, Jason. The other Magi already know we love each other, and had no problems with it in our past life and haven't really shown an issue with it in this one. They probably won't react negatively to finding out we are courting."

There he goes with his doubt, but at least it's better than just outright rejecting it. We can keep hiding it, but why should we when our friends will accept it?

"And my crew already knows," he says. "And I doubt Niko's people would have an issue with it, even with how society is and how they were no doubt raised to view things like this. They practically worship ya already, so it's unlikely finding out ya prefer males over females would bother them too much. It would really only be the training group which might show some issues to it, but ya would be able to handle that.

"But," he tells me. "Can we wait until after term ends? During the training camp, at least? I know that might be a bad idea, with us being stuck out there and living in one building, but it will at least let us know reactions decently. It would be hard to hide dislike and disgust there."

"Okay," I stand and face him. "Just so you know, the apology doesn't bother me. I wasn't raised with that as an apology, but I know that's how things are in Varil. It shows you are willing to move past your problems, to do that."

I've never quite understood it, but Mama Elizabeth once explained it to me that it's a way of showing willingness to at least come to terms. That by touching each other in such a way shows that agreements can be made and amends begun.

With my pasts as Nolan and Lucas coming back, it makes even less sense to me, but I know that the kiss on the lips thing isn't new for my world's history. It even happened on Earth, including as celebratory things. A quick, short, unromantic kiss. A lot of people would probably think it strange, or inappropriate, but that's simply how cultures are. Sort of like how some cultures have no issues with hugs, handshakes, pats on the back, and other physical contacts between friends, and then others abhor such things entirely.

"Okay," Alex lets out a huge sigh of relief, and I realize then that he was worried over how I viewed their apology.

Now might not be the time to let him know that Niko thinks the Varilan apology is stranger than Steven's habits. I agree with him on that, too, even if I know their reasoning behind it. With Steven, I fully understand his habits.

"That said," I pull him against me. "Jacob wasn't completely wrong. I do want to kiss you."

I do, and he wraps his arms around me as he kisses me back.

"I love you," I whisper as we break apart.

"I love ya, too, Jason," he says. "Let's let your mama and papa back in, or they might start thinking something wrong."

"Yeah," I say. "And I want to see their solution to the massage ball. I can't use it right now, even with their fixes, but once I finish healing, I want that thing on my back, giving me a nice, soothing treatment."