"Are we going out again today?"

I swing my head over to Lukas, with his thinking face on and hand on his chin, he looks deep in thought. Probably planning how to make the rest of the day most effective and efficient.

A grin stretches across my face, and what I am going today dawns on me.

"Well Lukas.... I was thinking-"

"No." Lukas stops and whips to me. "If you say anything that relates to your fire, I don't want to hear it."

"Hey! I-"

Lukas holds up a finger and glares at me. "Nope, today you are going to try and keep your fire completely concealed. I want to see if you can do it."

"Okay mister...." I roll my eyes and he crosses his arms. "But since we already finished all of our responsibilities and whatnot, I kinda want to see how good you're now at with your bow. And don't give me that 'I'm rusty' stuff, I know you've been keeping your skills up ever since the Admin thing."

"No."

"Awww, pretty please." I grin, being as innocent as possible. "You owe me after throwing those pies at me."

Lukas stares at me, trying to convince me otherwise with just his eyes. He fails though and looks away, sighing in defeat.

"Fine then," Grumpy Lukas stands up and makes his way to the door, growling under his breath. "I can't believe you would want to see it anyway, I'm no better than last time you saw me."

"And I can't believe you keep selling yourself short." I lightly slug him on the shoulder. "It's a huge compliment when people want to see what your good at because they admire those skills. So stop whining and be proud of yourself."

"Humph... When people watch me, I feel judged. Like they have set expectations for me, and since I have no idea what they are, I always fall short of them. Y'know how terrible that feels?"

"Yes... I do." A brief image of Petra yelling at me in the Portal Hallway flutters in my head. The way she curled her lips in disdain and the daggers she shot into my soul through her glare.

My eyes flicker to Lukas, downcast and suffering by the relentless stream of gloomy thoughts that I know all to well. However, I start to smile. I wonder when my face will start to hurt since I've been smiling so much lately.

"Well that's a good thing though." Lukas's face scrunches up, sending a confused look my way. "Now I can empathize with you and you don't have to worry about it anymore. Since I wouldn't want you to feel that."

"Humph..." Lukas's countenance hasn't changed, but he looks away from me. And I know I've gotten through to him, and a victorious grin stretches across my face. I continue to smirk and stroll pridefully, waiting until Lukas gets fed up with it.

"Ohhh-kay Jesse!" Lukas sighs in exasperation, shaking his head. "Am I the only one who has to bear your egoistic personality?"

"Come on Lukas, you and I both know Axel is much worse than me. I won't bring it up again, but he would tease you constantly for an hour." I reach for the door, opening it up for Lukas.

"I suppose that's true, but you wouldn't want Axel hearing that."

"What do you not want me hearing?"

I freeze, there is no mistaking it, that is Axel's voice. His deep, often confused, voice can be recognized during a party with fireworks going off.

I slip past Lukas, who is starring at Axel and glances at me as I past. His look is as clear as day: How did we forget that today is the first of the month? How did we forget that our friends are coming over?

"Axel, it's good to see you!" I walk down the steps to him, hoping he didn't register Lukas's and mine own shock. And if he did, well I suppose I could distract him and have him forget about it.

"It's been since last month buddy!" Axel wraps me into one of his rib-crushing hugs, which dented my armor one time. Thankfully my ribs have learned to withstand the immense pressure.

He releases me, and goes to suffocate Lukas. "I'm happy to see you too Lukas, but I really wanted to be first this time."

"Yeah..." Lukas wheezes, now off the ground as Axel tightens his arms around him. "Got here... dawn..."

"Okay Axel, let the poor man breathe." Axel drops him, and his body droops. He sends me his pity face, and rubs his foot in the ground.

"No one lets me have fun..."

"You call crushing my lungs fun?" Lukas is still trying to regain his breath, crouched over and a hand on his heart. "I think you managed to pop a rib or something."

"Aww, little kitty cat can't handle one hug." Axel immediately brightens up when teasing Lukas, much to Lukas's displeasure. Axel's actions are setting me on edge though, my body prepping itself even though my mind has no quarrels.

"Only the King of Boomtown can deprive so much joy at suffering." Lukas has apparently recovered, crossing his arms at Axel.

"Actually Lukas..." This is a good time to intervene, while the teasing is still light. "I'm technically the rightful King of Boomtown. Axel has been permitted to be the acting King until I decide to grace the land with my presence again."

"Oh yeah Jesse? I can so totally beat you at a grieving match now, I've beaten Magnus multiple times now!" Axel puffs out his chest, a smug look on his face.

"I've beaten Magnus too Axel."

He waves an arm back, discarding the statement. "You only had ONE block left, I've had my ENITRE tower standing one time."

"Okay, I gotta admit that's pretty impressive."

"Axel did something impressive? Was it getting here on time?" Olivia is standing front of the Order Door, a great big grin and joy plastered all over her face.

"HEY! So I was really late that ONE time... geez it's like I always do that." Axel crosses his arms, getting all defensive at us.

Lukas smirks at me, and I return it. Since Petra isn't here yet, we might as well spend the time torturing Axel. I nod at Lukas, signaling him to start the onslaught.

"How can you blame us Axel? You are ALWAYS late for EVERYTHING." Axel's unibrow turns into a V, and he opens his mouth to retort back.

But I've always been quicker with my words than Axel. "Remember that one time when you almost forgot to show up at the Building Competition for Endcon?" I give a smirk to Olivia, inviting her to join in.

"Oh yeah I remember that!" Olivia snaps, tapping her finger against the air. "The announcer was just about to have us start when you rushed in saying 'WAIT!'"

"Can you blame me!? They were giving out free cake at map center the night before. I was totally in a food coma."

"Y'know Axel," I turn to Lukas, who rubs his chin with a devious expression. "That reminds me of the time when Jesse heroically stole from a witch to get us cake, but I suppose you weren't there to enjoy it."

"Oh my goodness, that was amazing! The best cake I've ever had! Soo much better than those sad potatoes Jesse was scrounging for earlier."

"Axel, dude, you even left too soon to try Stampy's cake or Stacey pumpkin pie. Both of those were delicious and totally free!" I'm quietly chuckling under my words, Axel wildly looking at all of us in confusion.

"Are you guys teaming up on me or something...?"

"Nooo, of course not Axel." Lukas waves his hands in calming gestures, pretty convincingly too.

"Yeah Axel," Olivia's words laced with innocence. "We're your best friends, we would NEVER tease you like this."

"Well Petra would, but she isn't here." I scratch my chin, gazing up at the sky. "Although there was that one time when you slipped and covered her in a cake. She was furious at you for still trying to get some off of her to eat."

Lukas starts to chuckle. "Petra was so red and was screaming at you... I don't even want to know where she learned those swear words."

Axel is turning red; his face tightening up. "I got big feet, I trip a lot."

Olivia is laughing now too. "Petra wouldn't look at you for days! Anytime you would bump into her she would always bring it up."

"She said the funniest things too. 'Got another cake Axel?' 'Do I have a target sign on my armor?!' 'Axel! Get some glasses!'" I bend over, laughing so hard I'm as red as Axel.

None of us can say anything else to tease Axel anymore, as we are all struggling to breathe. Olivia even has to take a knee and Lukas is gripping onto his stomach, while tears start to slip from my eyes.

"I am so not appreciated here! Just wanted to finally arrive on time and this happens..." Axel's guilt card doesn't work in the slightest, all of us still doubled over in tears while we laugh.

"Whoa! What happened here?"

Through watery eyes, I see flaming red hair tied up in a blue bandana. Petra has her hands on hips and surveys the situation. Three of us in a fits of giggles while Axel is fuming and completely red.

"They were teasing me!" We all explode into another fit of laughter, even Petra starts to smile at Axel's whiny toddler voice.

"Oh, the big bad griever couldn't handle a bit of teasing?" Petra pouts, giving big sad puppy eyes. "I feel soo bad for you..."

"THANK YOU! At least someone here gets it." That's all it took to break Petra, throwing her head back and hollering at Axel's ignorance.

"Wait... You too Petra?" Poor Axel, he looks so confused and lost. Some part of me wants to explain it for him, but everything else is too busy laughing.

"Petra.... teasing.... you too..." I manage to wheeze it out, slowly recovering and catching my breath again. Petra's a bit of a lost cause right now, but Lukas stands up properly and whips a tear from his eye.

"You guys... you guys are just the worse." Axel is scowling at us, arms crossed and almost like a bigger version of Ivor when he gets upset.

"No Axel." Lukas has regained the ability to speak! "We're your friends, and that's why even though you'll eat all the cookies here, we won't get mad at you."

I take a huge deep breath, holding it in until my giggles subside. My lungs start to burn a bit, but I eventually get my bearing together. Olivia is also trying to reign herself in, but Petra isn't doing anything like that and is laughing away.

"HELLO MY FRIENDS!"

I shriek at the sudden booming voice right next to my ear! My flames fan up, almost bursting out to protect myself. I glare at the potion master behind me as I struggle to smoother the fire.

"Ivor..." My voice is strained, but only Lukas knows the real reason why. "How many times do I have to tell you to NOT sneak up on people!?"

"Can't resist, the looks on people's faces are PRICELESS!"

"Serves you right Jesse." Axel seized this opportunity, grinning now that the tables have turned. "That's what you get for teasing me."

"Okay guys, how about we all take a few deep breaths..." Lukas sends a look over at Petra, the only one stilling giggling. "...and calm down."

"Please blond guy, I'm ALWAYS calm.'' Ivor rolls his eyes, as if it were the most absurd thing he's ever heard.

"Yeah, there was actually something I do need to tell you guys." Petra, although still has a massive smile on her face, can speak again. "I suppose it's also good that Ivor here's too, he might be able to help."

"What can I say? I AM incredibly useful!"

Olivia turns to Ivor, one eyebrow perfectly raised. "You do know you don't always have to shout Ivor, right?"

"I'M JUST SO EXCITIED TO BE WITH MY FRIENDS AGAIN!" Ivor's inner child is coming out, his aged face bearing the most innocent of smiles as he hops from one foot to another.

"Back to what I was saying, so-"

"WAIT!" Axel completely interrupts Petra, much to her annoyance.

"What Axel?"

"I'm hungry."

Petra smacks her forehead. "Oh for the love of Notch..."

I smile at Axel. "Okay guys, into the kitchen. I have plenty of food and then Petra can say her thing."

Everyone starts to shuffle towards the kitchen. Petra is still scowling and muttering what are probably curses. Axel though has a slight bounce to step though, clearly happy with my decision.

Lukas notices this too. "Don't start dreaming about cake Axel, Jesse doesn't have any sweets."

Axel stops, instantly becoming downcast, muttering just like Petra. I smile at Lukas, the same grin being reflected back at me before Lukas opens his mouth to speak again. This time only loud enough for me to hear.

"Well, anymore that is."

****

Yes, this is basically 100% a fluff chapter. But I wanted to introduce the Order as friends getting together and having a good time. Until I totally ruin it and wreck chaos onto all of their lives. Plus I wanted to get used to writing their characters and dialogue with more than 2 people.

There are methods to my madness people!

And you should enjoy this calm happy weather with them. Because you never know how much worse the weather can get until it does.

Okay, bye y'all!