That's how it starts...

With a kiss.

Then parting a bit to grasp some air...

Then right back at it again.

With a peck to lips, a peck to the cheek, and as they say... turn the other cheek. So be sure to kiss that, too.

Reverse the steps, for good measure.

Slowly but surely... peck your way to the neck.

Left or right, doesn't matter.

Be a vampire for a while and mark it with love bites.

Alexander just finds hickeys to be interesting to leave behind.

However... when calm and logic finally settled back in, he stopped himself...

It's not that he's had enough. He had to.

Gone were the flurry of emotions and scattered thoughts...

So, he unwrap the wrapped lotus that they were in.

Laid back on the bed and took note of the sight to see...

On top of him, was a blushing "cowgirl", who can't help but ask out. "Why did you stop?"

"Just because..." Alexander shrugged, not telling her the real reason. "... I'm sleepy."

"But we just started." Milla pouted.

"Wasn't the congratulations thing supposed to be just a kiss?" He pointed. "I kissed you plenty, so..."

An audible "tsk" was heard from Milla as she murmured. "I still want to do it though."

"Same for me..." Alexander admitted. "But we kind of have to limit ourselves."

"Why?" The girlfriend asked as she drooped down in interrogation.

Then again, Alexander just asked back. "Milla, you do know what being boyfriend and girlfriend during the 6th grade is about, right?"

She thought about it and jokingly answered. "It's dating but not in the 5th grade... and it's not in the 7th grade. It's in the 6th grade."

Milica then unwittingly fumbled to a funny memory. "Hehe! Which reminds me of poor Brian. He wanted to date me... but it was actually you that he wanted to date the whole time!"

"He could have been my boyfriend but he could have been yours too." It was both shocking and funny. "Haha! How do you feel about that, Alex?!"

"Well... that one is clearly a misunderstanding and an act of desperation." How could Alexander not remember that guy?

But it's best to not put much focus into it though.

Perhaps Brian Cranston and his friend Aaron Fall had patched things up. Maybe even grew their "friendship" a step further.

Making meth... no... answering math and other 6th-grade problems together.

That's their Breaking Bad-esque story, for all he cares.

His concerns were more about this girlfriend of his... and the boyfriend identity he put himself into.

"Is there something wrong, Alex?" Milla asked out. "Was the Brian thing too far?"

"Setting aside that old classmate of ours, we've gotten a bit off-topic." Alexander thus continued. "Do you know how most dating at our age boils down to?"

"They do romantic stuff... and well... date..." She said that last thing with a bit of blame. "Something we don't do at all."

"Even though I consider our morning runs as our dates. With the local park as our date spot." Milica spoilingly requested. "As your girlfriend, I still want to do other stuff besides that."

He could only cough at that and explained. "That's not exactly the point I was getting to... but how about a trip to Mexico?"

"I'm not dumb, Alex." Milica jestingly pouted. "That's where Predator is filming. You're just two-timing me... with work."

"But that's good too." She said reluctantly but her smirk was obvious.

Of course, that was just a show of willfulness. She knows how Alex hates spotlights and going on real date spots with the famous her is equivalent to paparazzi gossip.

He's also a workaholic, so dating while working, or two-timing is the way to go.

Hence, Mexico is good.

Also, it's far away from shrews. Then again, it was by the jungle and that is, if Shrew doesn't shamelessly tag along.

With Shrew and two-timing in mind, Milica looked to the stuck Alex...

Hehe... it's finally time to confront him about it.

-------

Anyways...

Alexander can't help but note how they've gone off-topic once again.

What he actually wanted to say is that... 6th-grade relationships aren't exactly as far as they both are right now.

It's generally just for status, curiosity, and the heck of it. It's plain handholding stuff and it's pretty isolated as a school activity.

Most of them are a matter of one person saying "will you go out with me?" and the other saying "sure".

Then both parties get too shy to talk to each other.

Break up a week later...

And yeah... he/she broke my heart.

That's not exactly how Alexander and Milla are in.

Essentially, they've skipped a few grades and conventions. Probably not a few but a lot, actually.

Kissing as congratulations, dates, and date spots are sort of acceptable... but well... sleeping together in the same room... and living in the same house.

Hence, the reason he stopped and limited himself...

Then again, with this special dating scenario, Alexander can't help but think back...

At a certain time when Old Sullivan asked. "Alex, you should know of grandpa's business right?"

Only in this scenario, the reply wasn't something cheeky like... "Filming naked people isn't that bad to pay bills."

Young Alex, still in between his 'loss phase' and 'art phase'... simply shook his head and opted to not give a care...

Grandfather Creed didn't divulge any further... but by the time Young Alex turned 11 and at the strike of his 'hormone phase'... with the truth revealed... it all compounded altogether.

The fact that his grandfather was in the porn industry, his babysitters were porn stars... and that teening and angsty rebelling urge called puberty.

Without a doubt, 11-year-old and onward became a wild ride. Shaping young Alex into the Silicone Valley playboy that he will come to be...

Anyhow, that was how it went, in ye old timeline...

It's the new timeline though... and for certain reasons, he can't be as wild as he had been.

Then again, he still had a girlfriend. Wouldn't it have been better, if he didn't have one?

Just why?

As for why he did so... despite concerns of the FBI pounding on his door and the morality of it...

Well... hormonal freakin puberty again, that's why?

As much of an advocate he was of finding and collecting programming malfunctions, he wasn't exactly that thrilled when he's afflicted by them.

Chaos and the Mind Mansion seemed perfect... but hormones and puberty were the bugs that actually pulled through...

So, as a counter, he got a girlfriend. And it works. What just happened was proof of it.

Gone were all the emotional outbursts and pressure gauge nonsense. With a few kisses, got back his calm.

It seems having a girlfriend just has that effect on him. On puberty, rather.

Granted, said girlfriend probably wouldn't be too thrilled to know that she's a patch for a bug...

Of course, this got Alexander thinking about RPGs again.

Not the role-playing game kind...

Relationships is R. As for the P and G of it... well... it's best that Alexander stop there.

He just needed to be conscientious and act with appropriate discretion. And really, really limit himself.

But of course, he was still evil and deplorable. That he can admit.

Which is way better than acting like a saint about it.

But still... he can't help but think...

Aside from him, no one really knows.

It's not like there's some guy with no universe out there... writing and sharing his stupendous re-life for trashy entertainment.

He's technically 11 minus the awkward re-life matters... so it should be good, right?

Or maybe he should have found some well-maintained lady in their late 40s or early 50s? Would that have been the way to go?

Also, his last "girlfriend" and fling was Snipes, whose dad's balls and mom's uterus probably haven't cycled through to her existence.

So... technically, his ex-"girlfriend" hadn't even been born yet...

And so... his line of thinking raveled... and the more it unraveled, the awkwarder it got...

Clearly, a regressed life wasn't easy at all.

-------

However... as usual, before his thinking could sink him further... Milla pinched him out of it.

"Alex, before you head off to wherever your busy mind takes you... is Shrew going to be going to Mexico too?"

That's a weird ask but Alexander replied. "I don't know. Probably, if she's not busy."

"Will you ask her for me then?" She requested out of nowhere which he quickly parried. "Uhm... we'll just ask her tomorrow."

"How about tonight?"

"Why tonight?"

"Come on... Alex... don't play dumb. You're suppose to be a genius."

"Erm... Milla, what am I even playing dumb about?"

"Alex, I'm not a genius... but I'm also not dumb." Milla harrumphed. "I know you've been sneaking to her room."

Blinking for a bit, it would seem that his Swift Sneak had failed him. "So you know about that, huh?"

"Of course, I know. I even planned this whole thing."

With him stuck in the strategic cowgirl position, her plan actually worked.

And so, she crossed her arms for the next part of it... the true interrogation!

"Now... my boyfriend, what are you doing in the room of someone who's not your girlfriend?"

"Well... you see... Milla..." Alexander had no choice. In this scenario. "Can I plead the Fifth?"