Alex had spent much of the day cooking up a storm for three in the Novas' kitchen: spaghetti, honey garlic drums, barbecue chicken drums, honey-coated fried vegetables, garlic loaf of bread, and freshly squeezed lemonade were on the menu for the sleepover dinner evening.

Lev had idly watched him with a peculiar gaze for nearly the entire time, until Alex asked for a hand in preparing a banana cream pie for dessert. While Lev had been busy whisking the batter, Alex had decided to paint his face with whip cream. Lev had retaliated by clutching Alex's skull to smear the batter-covered whisk all over his face. Alex had laughed through the sticky assault and scooped up the residual batter on his face, lapping it off his finger. He tried shoving a spit-coated finger in Lev's face, which compelled him of a bountiful fit of laughter as he tried fighting Alex off.

Neither of them had noticed Kaia hiding behind a wall of the kitchen entrance, silently observing the buoyant scene.

When it had finally come time to gorge on the feast, Alex and Kaia had indulged in the largest servings. Lev couldn't help but gawk left at right throughout the meal at the two, who were so entranced by the food that there wasn't much conversation happening then. By the time the three had devoured the much of the table, along with taking care of all of the mess in the kitchen and scrubbing the dishes, it was almost 11 p.m.

An exhausted Alex had gone upstairs with Lev to his bedroom to prepare for the final stage of a sleepover — actually sleeping. While Alex got changed into some sleepwear, Lev had a closer look at his bow.

"So you seriously made this?" Lev asked, as he examined every nook and cranny of Aetherius.

Alex sat cross-legged on the floor in a white t-shirt and blue boxers, and neatly folded his other clothes into his duffel bag. "Yup. Took a long while. You like it?"

Lev tried to hide his fascination. "It's...alright."

Alex grinned to himself as he put his duffel away. He stood and started towards the latter of the bunk beds, when Lev stopped him.

"Nuh uh, Prior. I'm on top, always. Get under."

Alex threw his hands up in defense and flopped down onto the lower bunk. "Noted." He then noticed the golden chest by the foot of the bed. "What's in there by the way? Sorry to pry, but it stands out so much. I probably wouldn't even look twice at it if it was wooden or something."

"It's nothing. Forget it."

"Aw come on, pleeeaase?" Alex begged, increasing the pitch of his voice until it was unrecognizable.

Lev stared at him for a moment, his eyes blank of any emotion, before setting down Aetherius, and going towards the chest. "Don't ever do that again," he said without looking at Alex.

Alex nodded, grinning from ear to ear, and rotated himself to lay stomach-first on the bed. He watched as Lev pulled a silver key from his back jeans pocket, and used it to unlock the chest. Inside was a silver double bladed sword, with a midnight blue centered handle. Both blades were shaped as Chinese Dao's. Lev held it up for Alex to see.

"Whoa!" Alex rocketed to sit up as Lev went around to let him hold the sword. The centered handle was quite cold, and the blades were flawlessly shined. "Where'd you get it?"

"A place," Lev said casually.

"Wow. That sounds just as magical as the place I came from," Alex teased. Lev sneered at him. "Why is it so cold? Does that chest you keep it in transport it to the North Pole when it's locked?"

Lev leaned forward and mercilessly flicked Alex on the dead center of his forehead. Alex winced and squirmed a bit, as if he could wiggle away the numb pain he was starting to feel.

"No, wise-ass," Lev said. "The chest has a built-in thermometer that constantly makes it cold, and I prefer it that way." Alex nodded in understanding, a few of his fingers rubbing the spot on his forehead that was flicked. Lev noticed. "Does it still hurt?"

Alex quickly withdrew his hand from his head and placed it back on the sword. He smiled at Lev. "Nope."

Lev looked at him, slight guilt present in his eyes, and stepped closer to gently rub circles on his forehead.

Alex smiled to himself, enjoying the cold feeling of Lev's thumb against his skin. "...oh, I almost forgot. What's its — his, or her name?" Lev retracted his thumb and swiftly thumped the same spot on Alex's forehead, making Alex wince yet again. "Was it something I asked?"

"Are you one of those freaks that gives a gender to inanimate stuff?"

Alex chuckled. "Well Aetherius is a 'he', but he's the only object I'd ever give a gender to."

Lev observed him for a moment. "Aetherius?" Alex nodded. Lev then gestured to his sword. "Verglas, is an 'it'."

"Interesting," Alex whispered.

"Hey, why'd you think I'd name a weapon anyway?"

Alex shrugged. "All the rowdy looking kids in this town seem to be doing it."

"So I look 'rowdy', but not intimidating." Lev sighed as he unconsciously moved to sit down next to Alex.

Alex frowned at him. "Why does it matter so much if you're intimidating or not?"

Lev stared him down for perhaps the trillionth time today, but Alex stood his ground with most earnest gaze he could wield.

Lev sighed once more. "Because it's just me." Alex looked at him confused. "When school starts, it'll be just me. No friends, no one to talk to, no one to hang out with, no one to look out for me. Just me. So that no one tries to mess with me, I have to let 'em know I'm not someone to fuck with. That I will push back, if pushed first."

Alex's gaze grew softer. "You don't want to get bullied."

"That's...a way to put it, I guess," Lev said quietly.

Alex nodded. "You know, there's an much more effective way to deal with people who pick on other people?" Lev eyed him, curious as he waited for the answer. Alex said, "the Herculean art, of complete disregard."

"The what?"

"Growing up I had all these 'friends' that I hung out with all the time, but eventually — like high school eventually —I realized how repetitive it was, how lame they were. I always forced myself to hang with them though; tried out for sports because my mom said that it's what normal kids do, so that's what I did. Everyone kept telling me to try this and that, but 'this and that' was always somewhere along the line of taking selfies, going to parties, texting, getting wasted, all that kind of stuff."

"Last spring I finally decided to just stay away from it all. I quit the soccer team the day after we won a game, and stopped talking to everyone who knew me at my old school. I deleted every social media account I owned, and stuck to archery ever since. Got a lot of backlash from a lot of people, even my mom. Only my dad was on my side, which was enough. So I just ignored everyone else, pretended they weren't even there."

"The point is, in case you missed it, just ignore them. If people are gonna turn their backs on you so easily, then they weren't people you could really be friends with anyways. No loss there. Not hitting back is the hardest punch of all." The intense gleam in Alex's eyes met Lev's for a soundless second, before realizing what he was doing and immediately swung his gaze away. "Sorry...Your piercings had me hypnotized there."

Lev coughed, seemingly flustered himself. "Y-yeah...uhm, thanks, I guess."

"Your welcome. And by the way, you do have someone — a friend, to hang out with and have your back and stuff. Me."

"You?"

Alex nodded. "I cooked for you and your mom. We had a little food fight. You ate my cooking. You introduced me to your pet salamander. You rubbed my throbbing forehead. You confided in me. I confided in you. Your my friend. I'm your friend."

"But what about-"

"But nothing," Alex cut in. "We are friends." He couldn't read Lev's countenance, but for a split second he thought he felt Lev's body relax a bit next to his. Alex handed Verglas back and Lev took his time putting away into the chest. "Now, there's one more thing I wanna do before we end the night," Alex said.

"What, you gonna give me a sermon about food?" Lev joked.

Alex chuckled, "no, but would that be such a bad thing?" Lev narrowed his eyes at him, but Alex went on before he could get a word in. "I wanna try holding Skelkin."

Though it was a miniscule crevice in the frame of his face, Lev smiled and headed for the terrarium, no hesitation or objection, or even annoyance, Alex noticed. He waited on the bed, quite giddy, as Lev brought the amphibian over and lowered him into Alex's waiting, cupped hands.

"He likes to lick," Lev warned.

"Same here, sometimes," Alex replied.

Skelkin's skin felt damp and bizarre. He started to dab his tongue against Alex's palm with his slimy, worm-like tongue, which made caught a chuckle from Alex. An idea came to him, and he placed Skelkin upon his face where the amphibian began to lap at the tip of his nose, provoking a much louder laugh from Alex. Lev quietly watched the scene unfold, the petite of his still lingering on his lips.

Eventually Lev returned Skelkin to the terrarium and flicked off the light switch in the room. Alex wriggled into the lower bunk, while Lev climbed onto the top one.

"Oh, I almost forgot again," Alex whispered to Lev, despite no one being in the room. "When are we having a sleepover at my place?"

"What? Why would we do that? That wasn't part of our deal."

"Yeah, but that deal was like an icebreaker with certain circumstances attached. There's nothing stopping us from taking this new relationship further." Lev stayed silent. "...unless you're too intimidated by me?"

"Shut up," Lev growled. Alex laughed. "Next Saturday, Prior. The date isn't negotiable."

"Deal. And, just one more teensy-weensy thing."

"What now?"

"What do you want for breakfast tomorrow?"

"No."

"No? Is that like a side dish or something?" Alex joked.

Lev fought back another growl. "No wise-ass. I'll do the cooking tomorrow. You just be a guest. Got it?"

In the dimmed light of the room, Alex beamed to himself. "Got it." He wiggled a bit, finally realizing the myriad of pillows surrounding him. "Is it just me, or am I drowning in pillows?"

Lev chuckled quietly to himself, but Alex still heard it. "My mom's always bugging me to sleep with a pillow, so she bought me a horde load. But they're too soft for me to remotely get any sleep, so I just leave them all on the bottom bunk. If it's too much for you, putting some on the floor is fine."

"Nah, that's alright. This is strangely very comfortable."

"Try not to drown overnight."

"Good night to you too."