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The nights were still a bit chilly, the wind that blew against Ash’s face was almost uncomfortably cool, though that was the only part of him really affected by the weather. His suit was actually remarkable like that, it regulated his temperature completely, so whatever the weather, Ash felt perfectly fine. It made a very good case for him to keep wearing it, despite its appearance, and it had been long enough now that Ash was almost at peace with how it looked. Almost.
“You’re thinking about the suit again, aren’t you?”
Ash glanced over at the cat running by his side. They were out in a little neighbourhood close to his. Thankfully, it was residential, and late enough that no one was really out. It was just past midnight as they ran, letting their senses guide them.
“No,” Ash lied evenly.
Artemis couldn’t really roll her eyes, but she gave Ash a look that was an equivalent. “At least you know enough to keep it on, so I suppose that’s something.”
Ash didn’t say anything. He remembered the first time he had transformed and found himself wearing an outfit that could only be described as cute . Very cute.
The shock of seeing the little black cat Ash had picked up by his house turn into a much bigger cat—a lynx—was helpful in preparing him for the shock of suddenly having his clothes turn into this outfit in the same way one kick to the shin prepares you for another.
Ash looked down at himself and saw a white jacket with pink trimmings that flared into a kind of half skirt at his hips, which became a pale pink at the ends. He was wearing knee-high white boots decorated with ribbons that matched the one at his throat, and frilly pink gloves.
The cat, she had said her name was Artemis, regarded him with big amber eyes. She seemed to nod her head approvingly. “Now, you are fit for battle, Ash.”
Ash immediately began to unbutton the top.
“This way,” Artemis said, as she leapt lightly down the street to their left.
Artemis was just a bit faster than Ash himself was, and when he transformed, Ash was maybe twice as fast as he had been. He was also physically stronger, and could take much more damage; he had learned the latter the hard way.
“It’s close by,” Ash said. He could sense it, they both could.
“They,” Artemis corrected automatically.
“Right, they.”
They were getting close. Not only could Ash feel it, he was starting to see it—them—too. There, down the next street, a big figure. Neither Artemis nor Ash pointed it out, they were both well aware that the other had noticed, so they kept moving.
Despite the fact that Ash had been running the entire time he had left his house, he wasn’t even a little bit winded, and his muscles hardly felt any strain. Enhanced stamina was apparently another gift he had been bestowed with.
They both slowed down as they got closer to the being they were tracking, instinctively moving to the shadows of the partially lit street. Ash blinked, trying to clear his vision. Despite the fact that this wasn’t his first time out looking for one of these beings, he was never fully prepared for what he would come across. Now, as Ash tried to refocus his gaze, he had to admit that his eyes were working perfectly fine and he was looking at a giant mound of sand. And it was giant, taller than him, and at least twice as wide. Ash watched as grains of sand slid off the sides of this creature as it slowly moved down the street.
He heard the faint sound of hissing, and then the panicked and angry yowl of a cat.
Ash stopped, took a breath, and summoned his wand.
“Don’t I have to, like, I dunno, chant some spell or whatever first?”
Artemis looked at him unblinkingly. She didn’t have eyebrows, or the same kind of features as a person, but it seemed remarkably easy for her to look insultingly patient with him. Like Ash was being very slow for even asking this in the first place.
“No,” she said, in that put-upon and condescending tone she had used with him in the beginning, before he saved her life, twice. “I told you the magic lives in you, you don’t need anything to manifest it, it is you. Do you have to ‘chant some spell or whatever’ to breathe? No.”
It felt a bit like relaxing his shoulders after keeping them tense, or letting his jaw unclench, it was like letting the magic inside him drain out. Suddenly, it appeared in his hands, a white staff with pink trimming, and a pink bow at the head like the ones on his suit.
“Wait, Ash—”
But it was too late. Staff in hand, Ash was already channeling his magic. He felt the burning heat of fire at his fingertips, but it caused no pain at all. Bright flames shot from his wand and hit the creature.
“ Ash !”
Oops.
The creature made a low, rumbling sound, and seemed to shift more than turn, but suddenly Ash could make out eyes, red and glowing.
“Watch out!” Artemis leapt away to the right, and Ash immediately moved to the left, feeling air rush past him.
More rumbling, and sand slid under his feet, shifting and making Ash lose his footing. He managed not to fall only because he used his staff for balance. He jumped off the lamppost behind him and landed on firm ground again. The sand creature was still rumbling, and Ash could hear Artemis trying to speak to it, but the rumbling grew louder, and the wind began to pick up. Sand blew across Ash’s face, and Artemis was blown back, thudding softly against another lamppost. Ash didn’t think she was hit hard, but he couldn’t check—the sand was blowing harder now and he had to close his eyes, bringing his hands up instinctively. He felt the wind pick up and the grit of sand move all around him, and then suddenly, it was gone. And so was the presence of the creature. Ash felt only the faintest tug on his senses which meant the creature was very far now.
Ash brushed at his face, but there was no sand on him. Presumably, the creature had taken all of it when it—they—left. Ash opened his eyes and rushed over to Artemis. She stood at the base of the lamppost, looking over in the direction they had come from.
“Are you alright?” Ash knelt next to her. She seemed fine.
“Yes,” she said, still staring. Ash looked over too, but he couldn’t tell if that was the direction the sand creature had gone in; he didn’t think Artemis could either. She blinked and then focused her amber eyes on him. “What was that lesson that you swore you had learned already? That you kept telling me I didn’t need to remind you about?”
Ash bit back a retort. For once, he was willing to admit this one was on him. “Talk first, fight later,” Ash said with adequate meekness.
Artemis continued to look at him, but then she blinked again and sat back. “They were frightened. I could feel it, couldn’t you?”
“I thought that was the cat.”
“The cat too,” Artemis agreed. “But, that sand being was just as scared.”
Sometimes Artemis reminded Ash of Griffin. She didn’t need to be mad at Ash for him to feel abashed, and she didn’t need to explicitly tell him she was disappointed for him to feel it.
Ash sighed slightly and let his defensiveness drain away. “I’m sorry.”
Artemis sighed too, and then leaned forward to bump her head gently against his hand. This brief affectionate gesture was a sign that she wasn’t really mad at him, and a reminder of her hard-won trust. “You’re still learning, and I know your intentions are good. Try to remember next time, yes? We are trying to help, after all.”
Ash nodded, and they both turned to look back the way they had come at the same time. Someone was coming. Ash heard the faint sound of metal clicking, and then saw Shorter turn the corner and bike over to them. He stopped just in front of them and let his shoulders slump in exaggerated defeat.
“Missed it again, huh?”
“Yup.” Ash stood and let go of the magic extending out from him that sustained his staff. It disappeared in the same soft white light it appeared in. Then, he quietly exhaled, feeling the same release of tension, and felt his clothing shift. The familiar weight of his sweater and jeans were on him again.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing that,” Shorter said.
“Holy shit !” Shorter took several steps back and wrenched his sunglasses off, still staring at Ash. “It’s you ! Ash, you’re—” Shorter swore again, loudly, a string of highly explicit and surprisingly coherent curses and cuss words. “Why is your face blurry ? When did you pierce your ears?”
“My ears are pierced?”
“That’s what you’re going to focus on?!”
Considering how uncool both of them were the first time, Ash would say they had come a long way.
“Hey, girl,” Shorter continued, putting his hand down to greet Artemis. She allowed the tips of his fingers to graze her head, and then she too changed. She didn’t look like a massive lynx anymore, but a small, common black cat with moss green eyes. Shorter smiled ruefully at her as she walked by and began heading back home.
Ash and Shorter exchanged a look. Shorter knew not to take it personally. Artemis wasn’t human, but she was an intelligent being, a person in every real sense. That was basically her equivalent of a handshake.
Shorter turned around and he and Ash followed behind Artemis.
“So,” Shorter began, turning to look at Ash, grinning. “What did the mysterious ‘Lynx’ get up to this time?”
Ash shook his head. “I still don’t understand why that’s my name. Artemis is the one that looks like a lynx.”
Shorter shrugged. “Perils of being a superhero. So?”
“I’m not a superhero,” Ash replied automatically.
“No,” Artemis chimed in, “Ash is a soldier. A warrior.”
Shorter snorted. “Yeah, you looked like a real warrior in that suit.”
“He should,” replied Artemis again. “Pink is derived from red for both strength and love. And white for clarity and wisdom, all of which Ash possesses. These qualities allow him to wield the magic bestowed unto him. He is pure of heart, and that is his true strength.”
“Plus,” Ash added, “I look good in everything.”
Shorter laughed and shook his head again. “Anyway,” he said, apparently choosing not to comment further on Ash’s appearance in his soldier suit, obviously realizing that both Artemis and Ash made good and irrefutable points. “What happened?”
Ash described the fight as they walked, Shorter biking slowly beside Ash while Artemis led the way back to their neighbourhood. Shorter didn’t interrupt, but listened intently while Ash told him about everything that had happened.
“A sand thing, huh?” Shorter said thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t freezing it make sense?”
“That could work,” Ash agreed. “We’ll have to look for it later, unless it comes to us again.”
“Perhaps they will,” Artemis said, stopping in front of Ash’s house. Her tail swayed behind her as she sat and looked up at both young men. “Ash’s powers should make them seek him out.”
“Well, maybe I’ll be able to catch the action next time,” Shorter said gamely.
Ash gave him a look. “And what would you do anyway?”
“Cheer you on,” Shorter replied without missing a beat. “Or maybe punch it real hard.” Shorter lifted his arms and flexed. He was wearing a t-shirt under an orange vest, even though it was still too cold for t-shirts. Ash would never admit it, but Shorter’s arms were impressive.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ash said, waving Shorter’s display away. “Next time if you can find an opening, you’re more than welcome to try.”
Shorter grinned and extended his fist to Ash. Ash bumped his own against it. “You bet I will.” He looked over at Artemis and nodded his head to her; she inclined hers in return. “I’ll see you two later.”
“Later.”
Shorter waved once, and then he was off. Ash and Artemis watched him go until he turned the corner. Shorter lived maybe eight minutes away, walking at a leisurely pace, biking was maybe two minutes. His street was just behind Ash’s. It had been great as children when they could so easily visit each other to play, and it was convenient even now, because if Ash suddenly disappeared, Griffin would assume he was just at Shorter’s. Ash felt a little bad about not being completely honest with his brother, but he didn’t know how to explain a talking cat that wasn’t exactly a cat, and all the magic that she brought into their lives.
Pushing the old gate in front of his house open, Ash let Artemis in first, and then went in after her. The gate closed behind him, and they both went into the house.
Two other families lived in that house: on the second and third floors. Ash and Griffin lived on the first. On the one hand, it made sneaking out a little bit easier, but on the other, they heard a lot more stomping noise than was really ideal, especially because the people that lived directly above them had two small children.
All the lights were off, and Ash had to turn the light on his phone on to see where he was going. Artemis walked in front of him, moving soundlessly, and Ash followed, just as quietly. Walking in through the kitchen, Ash passed his brother’s room. The lights were off, and the heavy silence of night surrounded them. Ash glanced at his brother’s door guiltily, and then went into his own room.
Closing the door behind him, Ash turned off the light on his phone and turned on the lamp by his bed on instead. Artemis was already sitting at the foot of his bed, green eyes luminous. She looked at him intently.
“We will have to find them soon,” she said.
Ash sighed quietly. “Yeah.”
The downside to having a free period in the middle of the day was that Ash couldn’t just go home, but the upside was that Shorter had the same free period.
They sat in the library. In theory, they were there to do homework; in practice, they were just idly people-watching. Shorter was taking a lot of classes with overlapping subject matter, so he didn’t need to do as much studying as other students in their final year. He was in his thirteenth year, picking up some required courses, but mostly there to get his average up. It wasn’t that he was a bad student, he had just been a largely absent student, and that had taken its toll.
For Ash, this was his last year too. He had gone over his college applications with Griffin and tried not to let how much he enjoyed Griffin’s obvious pride in him show. Ash had been a largely absent student in his first two years of high school as well. He had just barely met the minimum requirement to move on to the eleventh grade. One or two of his teachers had been tempted to fail him on principle. It was only because Griffin, former American soldier and local sweetheart, had interceded that Ash was able to graduate on time. After that Ash had put in more effort. He still sometimes took days off because that was his prerogative, but his homework was always done, he participated in class, he did his share of group projects, and he showed up for every quiz, test, and exam.
He had even gotten extra studying done for his SATs, but that was partly because of—
Shorter suddenly nudged Ash and made him accidentally draw a line through the leaf pattern he was doodling in his notebook.
“Cute jock at six o’clock.”
Ash’s first impulse was to whip around. His second was to suppress that impulse, and not let it show on his face just how hard his heart was beating. With much more calm than he actually felt, Ash slowly turned.
Standing at the entrance, Ash spotted the ‘jock’ Shorter was referring to right away.
A young man with dark hair stood talking to a student Ash vaguely recognized. The other student said something that made the young man smile, and Ash felt his heart beat. The other student said something else, and then turned and left.
Shorter half stood and began waving his arm, but Ash didn’t even bother trying to stop him. Other students shot them looks, but Shorter ignored them.
The young man turned, caught sight of Shorter, and grinned. This time Ash felt his heart skip a beat. This smile was so much nicer than the one he had bestowed upon that other student.
Sitting back down, Shorter waited until he was in front of them, and then extended his first, “Yo, Eiji.”
Eiji smiled and bumped Shorter’s fist. Ash remembered the first time Shorter had tried to greet Eiji like that, Eiji had been stiff and hesitant, now his movements were familiar and seemingly reflexive.
“Hey,” Eiji said, and turned to look at Ash, including him in the greeting. His brown eyes were soft and warm.
“Hey,” Ash echoed, trying not to stare, and also trying not to avoid looking at Eiji too much.
Be cool , Ash thought to himself.
Shorter shot Ash a very unsubtle look and swiped his water bottle off the table, making a big show of getting up. Ash fought the urge to drop his face into his hands.
“Well,” Shorter said as he stood, “I should get going. Gotta do stuff, get more water before class starts. See you guys later.”
Both Ash and Eiji looked over at the bottle in Shorter’s hand: it was clear plastic and it barely had one sip taken from it. Eiji smiled, waving Shorter off, and Ash wondered, not for the first time, if Shorter was being deliberately obvious.
Eiji sat in Shorter’s vacant seat and smiled at Ash as he slung his bag off and set it on the table.
“I wanted to show you something,” Eiji said as he rummaged through his bag.
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” Eiji took out a binder and set a graded assignment in front of Ash. It was an essay on Hamlet Ash had helped him with a few weeks ago. Most of that help consisted of reading certain parts out loud for Eiji so he had a better sense of the tone. Ash had only done that because they had been in the privacy of Eiji’s room, and Eiji had looked at him with big pleading eyes. Thespian was not one of Ash’s career choices, but Ash had decided to make an exception.
“B minus,” Ash said, looking from the paper to Eiji’s shyly proud smile. “That’s awesome!”
“It’s only because you helped,” Eiji said as Ash leafed through it, reading the comments in the margins. “I wouldn’t have been able to do so well without you.”
Ash shook his head, flipping the pages back, and handing the paper to Eiji again. “Nah, you would have been fine on your own. But, I’m glad I could help.”
Eiji took the essay back and returned it to his binder. “Well, either way, I wanted to say thanks again.” He was looking down at his binder, tracing the spine with a finger. “I thought, if you want, you could come over and I will make dinner.” Eiji glanced up at him, a little uncertain. “If you want.”
“Yeah,” Ash said, embarrassingly quickly. The words were hardly out of Eiji’s mouth before Ash replied, he just barely stopped himself from cutting Eiji off. He felt his face warm, and tried not to think about it. “That’d be—yeah, sure.”
Eiji was smiling. He nodded and said, “I wish I could return the favour. Too bad you are not learning Japanese.”
Ash laughed. It felt like the release of nervous tension. “Too bad,” he agreed. “You could teach me to pole vault though.”
“Would you want to learn?” Eiji asked, eager and serious.
“From you, yeah,” Ash said thoughtlessly. “I mean, you’re amazing. I think you’d be a great teacher.”
Eiji smiled slowly. “I think you would be a great student.”
They smiled at each other for a moment, both glancing away at the same time. They continued to talk until the bell rang.
After school, Shorter met Ash at his locker. Ash moved automatically to the side to give Shorter space to put his own books in and grab his sweater. Technically the locker was Ash’s, but it was prime real estate, right in the middle of all of their classes, and since Shorter knew the combination to Ash’s locker, he had moved in the first day of school. Shorter had even put up pictures and a mirror in Ash’s locker. Ash pretended to be annoyed when Shorter blatantly took up space, but secretly enjoyed this casual familiarity; it spoke to all the years they had known each other.
Shorter’s own locker, off in a far corner in the English department of the building, sat empty and completely unused. Unless you counted the flyer for ‘Welcome Week’ Shorter had stuffed in it on the first day, which Ash did not.
Shorter glanced in the mirror to check his hair, thoughtlessly pushing Ash out of the way to do so and ignoring the glare Ash shot him, turning his head this way and that. When he was done, he flashed his teeth at Ash and gestured for him to continue.
“All yours, man.”
“Thanks so much.”
Finally, the two boys made their way out to the track. Ever since elementary school, Shorter and Ash walked home together when they could, and they still did. But, when Eiji transferred to their school last year, and the boys realized they went the same way, they made a habit of walking with him too.
Right now Eiji was at practice, so Ash and Shorter sat on the bleachers on the other side of the track where Eiji was practicing. Shorter pulled a bag of chips out of his backpack, opened it, and held it out to Ash, who took some without looking away from Eiji. He was stretching now, his coach saying something to him that neither boy could hear.
They sat without speaking for a while, eating the chips and watching Eiji. Ash wasn’t really thinking about anything, and if he had been someone else, Shorter suddenly speaking might have startled him.
“How come you don’t just tell him how you feel?” Shorter asked, and then bit into a chip, crunching loudly.
Ash looked down at his hand. Reaching for the bag, he withdrew it and clasped his hands loosely on his lap. He sighed a little and looked back out at Eiji. He had the pole in his hands now. Ash watched as he adjusted his grip, balanced the weight of it in his hands, and began to run.
“We’re friends,” Ash said, as if that was an excuse, or an explanation.
Eiji brought the pole down and jumped. Ash never got tired of seeing Eiji do this. The way he held his body in rigid control, allowed himself to put all his weight, all his trust in that instrument, and let it launch him into the sky, confident in his own abilities, flowing with the momentum, stretching his body out, and knowing precisely when to turn. It was like watching magic.
“Yeah,” Shorter said around the food in his mouth, “exactly.” He dusted his fingers off, and then bent over his backpack to put the bag away. “You already know you like each other as friends. That’s a solid foundation, man. It’s kinda perfect.” Shorter straightened and looked at Ash; Ash looked back. “It’s your call, I’m just sayin’.”
Ash looked away, and then nodded. He didn’t say anything in reply, but he thought about Shorter’s words as they watched the rest of Eiji’s practice in relative silence. Shorter pulled out some things and began to do homework, while Ash continued to watch Eiji.
When Eiji was done, he looked directly over at them and waved. They waved back. Eiji held up one finger, and Shorter held his two thumbs up. This was old hat for them, and Shorter put his things away as Eiji went to get changed.
Ash leaned back in his seat, still thinking about what Shorter had said.
“What if he doesn’t feel the same?” Ash asked quietly.
Shorter replied, easily picking up the threads of their earlier exchange. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.” Shorter raised an eyebrow at Ash. “And, I think you know that too.”
Sighing, Ash looked out over the field.
“You could always tell him you’re a superhero,” Shorter suggested, bumping his shoulder to Ash’s. “I bet you’d literally make him swoon.”
Ash bumped Shorter’s shoulder in return, harder than Shorter had done, and fought a smile. “I’m not a superhero.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Eiji came over a little later while Ash and Shorter bickered over the proper title for Ash.
“Hey,” Eiji said, a little breathless, and still red from exertion. The ends of his hair were damp and slightly curled. Eiji’s hair was shorter now than it had been when they met. It had been just at the nape of his neck, and flicked out at the ends. Now that it was cut at his ears, it made Eiji look older, and Ash had been struck by the change in his look. It looked good, very good. “Ready?” Eiji asked, holding onto the straps of his bag, looking cute in a way that almost physically hurt Ash.
“Yeah,” Shorter said, getting up. Ash followed automatically.
The three walked over to the street and began making their way home.
“So, now Sing rolls up the sleeves for his shirts all the time too,” Shorter said, smiling fondly at the distance.
“Your cousin sounds very cute,” Eiji said.
“He is! And, he’s coming to visit this summer. You guys should meet him—he’s cute and prickly, like a lil’ porcupine.”
Eiji laughed.
They were about ten minutes away from Eiji’s house. They normally walked him right up to his door, then kept going. Shorter suddenly looked over at Ash, and then took his phone out of his pocket.
“Oh, I gotta go to the store,” Shorter said, stopping and making the other two stop with him.
“Okay,” Ash said, already making for the intersection to go to the plaza across the street.
“Uh, no, don’t worry about it.” Shorter put his hands up and began to walk backward. “You guys go on, it might take me awhile, I have to get, uh—bananas.”
“Bananas.” Ash echoed.
“Yeah,” Shorter said, smiling too widely. “Nadia needs them to, uh, make dinner. Anyway, I should go, I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” Shorter waved, and jogged off before either of them could say anything.
When things were really serious, like they had been when both Shorter and Ash hung around the wrong crowd, Shorter had an incredible poker face. He was one of the coolest liars Ash had ever seen in action, and it was a terrifying thing to try and call Shorter’s bluff. But, when it came to ordinary things, like obviously trying to give Ash time alone with Eiji, Shorter seemed to have absolutely no idea how to be subtle. Ash was now pretty sure he wasn’t doing it on purpose.
Ash and Eiji watched him go in bemused silence for a moment. Then, they turned toward each other and shared a small, somewhat awkward laugh, and kept going.
“I was thinking,” Eiji began, as they continued walking, “that I might go to a college here.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eiji said, smiling down at his feet now as they went.
‘I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. And I think you know that too.’
“Eiji, I—” Ash started, watching as Eiji looked up, brown eyes focused on him. “I-I think that sounds great,” Ash said, feeling regret sour in his stomach. He couldn’t say it. He tried to cover it up. “It wouldn’t be the same here without my favourite klutz.”
Eiji rolled his eyes. “I bumped into you once.”
Ash grinned at him. “Yeah, and then you fell—”
“That was an accident!”
“—and you knocked over that display—”
“Shorter pushed me!”
“—and made that kid drop all his books—”
“He was going to drop them anyway!”
Ash laughed. He could see that Eiji was trying not to smile.
“Anyway,” Eiji said, firmly changing the subject, “I thought I should stay. Someone needs to protect you from all the scary pumpkins during Halloween.”
Ash shot him a look of deepest betrayal. “I told you that in confidence!”
“And I have not told anyone else,” Eiji said innocently. “What if I dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween?”
“I’d run away,” Ash said, “maybe cry.”
“No.”
“Yes. But, if you really want to scare me you could dress up as natto, nothing scarier than the grossest food known to man.”
Eiji bumped his hip against Ash’s, and Ash bumped him back. “Don’t be rude.”
“I’m being honest,” Ash said seriously. “I thought you were trying to poison me!”
“Oh, please. Like Americans can even talk with the kind of food they make.”
“Listen, just because that’s true doesn’t mean that what I said was wrong.”
“When I make dinner for you,” Eiji said, “I will make natto too.”
“Why are you trying to hurt me?” Ash asked. “I thought this was a thank you.”
“It is,” Eiji said, smiling. They were at his house now. Eiji rented a room on the second floor of the house that wasn’t technically student housing, but only students currently called it home. “If you want to make sure there isn’t any, maybe you could come early and help me cook.”
Ash raised his eyebrows. “If you wanted my help you just needed to ask. You didn’t have to threaten me.” Eiji huffed a laugh and shook his head. He was holding on to the straps of his bag again, curling the end of one around his finger. Ash had shoved his hands in his pockets.
They were smiling at each other. Ash felt the moment stretch, turn almost anticipatory, like Eiji was waiting for something. Maybe they were both waiting for something.
Ash took a step back, feeling regret again, and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Eiji agreed, uncurling the strap. “See you.”
Ash turned and left.
A couple days later found Ash and Artemis having made no real progress. They hadn’t been able to track down the sand entity again; the sense they got from otherworldly beings that normally allowed them to track them down was too vague in this case.
“You should be able to find them, Ash,” Artemis said, sitting across from him on his bed. “Picture them in your mind, let your senses reach out. Remember, magic is not something you have, it is something you are.”
Ash took a deep breath. He focused like he did when he was transforming, or summoning his staff. He exhaled slowly.
A muffled thump from the kitchen broke Ash’s concentration. Ash didn’t even bother saying anything to Artemis, he just got up and left the room. He could feel Artemis following him out.
Griffin stood scowling in the kitchen. He had dropped a box of cereal and it had spilled a good amount across the floor.
“I’ll get it,” Ash said, already making his way over to the broom.
“You don’t have to throw it out,” Griffin said, not protesting Ash’s offer to clean. “I’d still eat it.”
Ash gave him a look. “Aren’t you supposed to be teaching me not to eat food off the floor?”
“When you were a baby, yeah. Now you just have to use your best judgement. You have to go forth into the world and decide for yourself what you can still salvage and what floor to eat off of—hey!”
Ash had started sweeping. “Uh-huh, well, I judge that you’re a crazy old man and no one is eating off this floor. I can’t remember the last time we mopped.” Ash got the pan and swept all the Cheerios into it, and then threw it out without a second thought.
Griffin watched it go mournfully.
“Anything else I can do while I’m here?”
Griffin, who was already pouring himself a bowl of cereal, raised his eyebrows at Ash. “What a dutiful little brother I raised. My hands are full right now, but imagine I’m patting your head—wait, no, ruffling your hair.” Ash rolled his eyes. “You could grab my phone, I left it in my room.”
“Sure.” Ash went to do that. Coming back with phone in hand, he found Griffin had moved to sit in the living room. They still had basic cable which Griffin only kept because he liked to watch the news. “Here.” Ash passed him his phone.
“Thanks.” Griffin looked away from the TV to smile at Ash, sincere and familiar. His brother was obviously genuinely grateful for Ash’s help, even though he rarely asked for it.
When Griffin came back with one less leg, and an honourable discharge, it had taken them a while to find a good balance between them. That was right around the time Ash found himself with a less than stellar crowd, but seeing the way his brother needed him made Ash break away from all that. He couldn’t mess around with all that gang crap; it was bad enough that Griffin had personally gone to Ash’s school and used his local hero clout to stop him from failing, or maybe even being expelled. Griffin accepted his help on the condition that Ash continue to go to school, and Ash appreciated him for it.
Ash perched on the arm of the loveseat, the biggest couch they could fit into the living room, and watched the news for a minute. Artemis was already sitting beside Griffin, and Ash wasn’t about to try and move her. He preferred to keep his hands intact.
“We interrupt this program to bring you live footage—”
As Ash watched, the TV screen was filled with an image of the sand being he and Artemis had spent days trying to locate. Only now it was as tall as some of the buildings it slowly moved past. Ash managed to push down the urge to jump up and point at the screen. He almost yelled at Artemis too. He could feel her tension from the arm of the couch. She jumped lightly off the couch and hurried down the hall. Griffin didn’t even turn to look at her, but just stared at the screen, mouth open and chewed up cereal on display.
“I’ll, uh…” Ash cleared his throat and Griffin turned his shocked gaze on Ash. “I’ll be right back. Shorter needs help with some homework.”
“Yeah, sure, yeah,” Griffin said, like he hadn’t really understood what Ash had said.
Ash turned and ran, just barely stopping himself from throwing the door open in his haste. Artemis was out like a shot in front of him. Despite the fact that she wasn’t actually a cat, she had a lot of remarkably cat-like tendencies, like running right in front of him and constantly threatening to trip him. Ash swore under his breath as he just missed stepping on her, and closed the door behind him. Feeling the pull of his magic, he transformed as he jumped down from the top step of the entryway—luckily, no one was walking by at that moment.
Transforming felt warm and tingly, and when Ash landed just in front of the gate to his house, he was already wearing his suit.
“We have to hurry!”
“I know!” Ash said as he ran around to the back of the house. “All these powers and I don’t have anything useful, like flight or teleportation. Maybe next time you could get me, like, a robot, and I could just pilot that instead.”
“Very funny, Ash,” said Artemis as Ash unlocked his bike, and quickly brought it back around to the front. “But this is not one of your animated television programs.”
“First of all, it’s anime,” Ash said, throwing a leg over his bike. “And, second, I know you know that already.”
“Shorter—”
“Yeah, he watches a lot—”
“No,” Artemis said urgently, and Ash paused, about to kick off. He turned to follow Artemis’s gaze. Coming down the street was a streak of purple riding his bike furiously in Ash’s direction.
Ash grinned, bent down to scoop up Artemis, and began to pedal.
“Hey!”
Shorter caught up to him quickly.
“Looks like you’re finally going to get your chance to fight one of these things!”
Shorter laughed breathlessly. “Looks like it, yeah!”
Artemis, who sat in the basket Ash had attached to his bike a couple years ago for groceries, interjected with, “Them!”
“Right!”
The two boys biked hard, and then Ash suddenly stopped about a minute away from the house.
“What are you doing?” Artemis demanded.
“There’s no way we can get there fast enough like this,” Ash said. He let the magic drain out, although it wasn’t going out, leaving him. It was going back in, it drained inward. “We’re gonna have to take the subway, come on!”
They did, being as careful as they could not to smack other passengers with their bikes, but still annoying quite a lot of people with the bulk of them. They stood in the train and waited to be brought across the city.
It was a surreal feeling, to have such a huge sense of urgency, to know he had abilities, powers that were unique and incredible, but he still had to ride the subway like everyone else.
A good distance away from where the sand creature was, they stopped the subway. They weren’t letting transit approach after a certain station, and Shorter and Ash had to elbow their way up to the street, disgruntling everyone they encountered.
They climbed back onto their bikes the second they could and rode through alleyways, skirting blockades as best they could.
The sand creature was slowly moving in the opposite direction they had come from, and Ash could already hear the panicked cries of people over the police sirens.
“I think we have to go on foot from here,” Ash said, stopping in another alley. “And, by we, I mean me.”
Shorter began saying something, but Ash wasn’t listening. He closed his eyes and summoned his magic. He felt it, like a warm glow around him, running through him, and Ash began to move with it. He turned, extended his hands, feeling it flow through him like water, bubbling up from the wellspring of his power, suspending him in a moment where nothing else existed but the feel of it.
And then he opened his eyes.
Shorter was staring at him. “Shit,” he breathed out in awe. “That was kinda beautiful.”
Ash was already moving though. “Watch my bike!” And he ran into the street.
Here there was another police blockade. This one was tighter than the one he and Shorter had managed to get through, but Ash didn’t have time to stop and talk to them, or ask for permission to go through. He just ran for it. And when the officers noticed he was coming, they moved aside and began to cheer him as he neared. Ash went by with shouts of encouragement ringing in his ears.
“It’s him!”
“The Lynx is here!”
“We believe in you!”
“Of course we don’t shoot him, are you crazy?”
Ash was glad he had garnered enough good will that he didn’t need to test his suit’s resistance to bullets.
Artemis ran by him as they neared the sand creature. “Let me try and talk with them, okay?”
“Got it!”
Their main objective, as Artemis reminded him, was to help. But, in order to open portals to send these beings home, they had to be willing, their hearts had to be open.
“Sometimes we will simply be able to speak to them,” Artemis explained. “And others, I think you’ll have to weaken them to be able to calm their hearts. The latter is primarily what the staff is for, and that’s why it has to be you, Ash. It’s your pure heart that calls to theirs.”
As they drew closer, he could hear Artemis begin to call out to the creature. She was probably trying to communicate telepathically too, but the creature just kept slowly moving away. There was sand everywhere in its wake.
Turning the corner of one of the streets, they now had a very clear view of the creature. It was bigger than Ash had thought seeing it on TV. It was easily over twenty feet, definitely bigger than Ash’s house.
“Why is it so huge?” Ash shouted over the noise of car alarms and police sirens.
“I don’t know!” Artemis yelled back. “It might have something to do with exposure to your world!”
They kept running. When they were closer, Ash let his staff manifest. It lived in him, or so Artemis had explained, and now it appeared in his hand.
“Hey, Sandy!” he shouted. But the sand creature didn’t even pause. Ash felt a deep cold at his fingertips, and then ice shot from his staff. It hit the sand creature, but the beam was so much smaller in comparison to the sand creature that it didn’t even seem to notice. Ash hit it again in the exact same spot and watched as a bit of the sand broke off, encased in ice. It shattered as it hit the street, and that finally seemed to get the creature’s attention. It shifted, and Ash once again saw glowing red eyes. It rumbled, and either didn’t notice, or continued to ignore Artemis’s attempts to communicate.
She made a sound of frustration, and then dodged left as Ash leapt right, sand swept by them, and Ash closed his eyes against the sudden attack.
“Damn it!” Ash had meant to get googles the next time he fought this thing, he kind of needed his sight to be able to effectively dodge.
“Ash! On your left!”
Ash quickly moved, silently thanking Artemis as he heard the impact of something hitting metal: a car, whose siren also began to blare. More beams of ice shot out of his staff, but they all did about as much damage as the first. He couldn’t risk fire here, and wind wouldn’t do anything against something made of sand. He had the option of using water, but it would probably be as successful as the ice simply because of the size of the beams.
“Think, think, think,” Ash muttered as he dodged, and then spat out sand. Artemis was on the other side of the street now. The sand creature was concentrating on Ash and she was perched on top of a streetlamp. She called out to Ash which way to move when he had to close his eyes against the harsh sand.
He forced stinging eyes open as he weaved through the street, thinking furiously. There had to be something he could do.
Looking up ahead he saw people who had been huddled behind a car make a sudden dash for the building across the street, a library. There was someone on the steps of the library waving them forward. Ash glanced back at the sand creature. It continued to slowly move toward him, rumbling so low Ash felt the vibrations in his chest.
Ash narrowly missed being slammed into the side of a building by another sweep of sand. He looked back at the library entrance and saw that someone was still standing on the steps.
“Run!” Ash shouted, but the figure merely turned their head to look at Ash instead. Ash swore, leaping lightly to the left, then right, sand rough against his exposed skin, and then ran for the person on the steps. If they just stood there, they were going to be engulfed in sand, and there were flattened cars that made a good case for why that would be bad.
He yelled again, but they didn’t move. Ash grit his teeth and ran with inhuman speed up the steps, picking up the person, feeling them go startledly rigid, and then grab on to Ash as he ran back down. A rush of air grazed his back, but Ash kept going, ducking into a small alleyway on the other side of the street. The sand creature rumbled again, and continued to inch forward.
For a second Ash stood with the person in his arms, a young man, he realized, and let go when he noticed that.
“Sorry,” Ash began, carefully putting him down, and stepping back. He broke off when he saw that he knew this person. Large brown eyes blinked up at him. It was Eiji.
“It’s—no, ah, thank you,” Eiji said, his voice and smile both shaky.
Eiji was always, in Ash’s mind, dressed like a proper young man. His clothes were always neat, and the collar of his shirts always folded down. He looked like the type of person who always ironed their clothes. But, despite that, Ash had never seen him as dressed up as he was now. Eiji was wearing dark, slim fit dress pants that made his legs look exceptionally long, a pale blue dress shirt, and a black tie. His hair was styled too, parted slightly to the side. He looked older and more mature. Ash wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t recognized him right away; this professional-looking Eiji wasn’t someone he had ever met before, which was probably for the best because he couldn’t seem to stop staring.
When Ash opened his mouth he meant to ask, ‘Are you alright?’ Instead, what came out was, “You look really nice.”
In that instant Ash had a mental picture of just walking out into the street and letting the sand creature swallow him whole.
He watched as surprise came over Eiji’s features at the same time as a blush coloured his face. Before Ash could say anything to try and explain himself, though he had no idea what he could say, Eiji gave him a somewhat apologetic look.
“...Thank you,” Eiji said hesitantly. And then, with much more determination. “I think you are very brave, but I have someone I like.”
The idea of letting the sand creature just flatten him into an Ash-pancake was looking better with every passing second. That was of course if Ash didn’t spontaneously combust from all the painful embarrassment. Eiji thought he—The Lynx—was hitting on him, and he was turning Ash down. So much for heroes getting the girl—guy—person they liked.
Mercifully, Ash didn’t have to say anything to that after all, because just then Shorter barreled into the alley, out of breath and frantic.
“A-Aaa…” Shorter trailed off when he noticed Ash was with someone, and Ash watched as he blinked and realized that someone was Eiji. His eyes darted between them, and Ash shook his head once. “Um, Lynx!” Shorter said. He looked at Eiji, and then gave him a very blatant once over, Ash felt himself bristle. Shorter whistled, “Woah, Eiji! Dig the look, but what the hell are you doing here?”
“Job interview,” Eiji said, waving this away, “that’s not important right now,” he glanced in the direction he and Ash had come. “We have to stop that thing.”
Artemis had followed them into the alley too, and Ash wondered if she had been there to witness his embarrassing stumble, but either way he could feel her bursting to say—“Them,” Ash corrected. “Stop them. Wait, did you just say we ?”
“Maybe you could use help,” Eiji said gently, apologetic once more.
Ash could see Shorter nodding emphatically in his peripheral vision. They weren’t wrong.
“Alright, fine,” Ash said, “if you guys have ideas, let’s hear ‘em.”
Eiji and Shorter looked at each other. “It is sand, yes?” Ash nodded. “Why not use water then?”
Ash shook his head, “I can’t hit it with enough water, or fast enough for that to work.”
“Use that,” Eiji said, turning and pointing to the roof of a building in the distance. Ash looked over and saw that Eiji was pointing out a water tower.
“Well, shit,” Shorter said.
“That could work.” Ash said. He looked down. “Artemis?”
She sat by his feet now in lynx form, her tail curled around her feet. She seemed to consider a moment, and then said, “Yes, it could. But, remember, we are trying to help them, our objective is not to harm.”
Ash nodded at the same time Eiji made a high-pitched strangled noise. Everyone turned to look at him. He was staring at Artemis in horror.
“Damn,” Ash muttered.
Shorter glanced between Eiji and Artemis, and then took a dramatic step backward and lifted his hands up toward his face in a warding off gesture, “Oh my god! A talking cat!”
Ash shot him a glare and, without thinking, cuffed the back of his head. “We don’t have time for this!” More gently to Eiji, Ash said, “It’s okay, I know it’s crazy, but she’s here to help. She’s really nice once you get to know her,” he added. “So, okay,” Ash said, plowing right on, feeling a little bad about the fact that he wasn’t giving Eiji a lot of time to process this information. “I’ll lure them over to that building, and you guys tip the tower over when I give the signal.”
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” demanded Shorter.
“Artemis will help.”
“I am very strong,” she explained when Shorter gave her a dubious look.
“Trust me,” Ash said, he moved to look out of the alleyway. The sand creature was still making slow progress: it was turning in the wrong direction. “We need to move.”
“Got it,” Shorter said, tugging on Eiji’s arm.
He glanced over at Shorter and then at Ash. “Good luck,” Eiji said.
Ash smiled, knowing Eiji wouldn’t be able to really see it. “Don’t need luck,” he said, and then ran out into the street.
Getting the sand creature’s attention was as simple as it was the first time, but avoiding hits was harder. Ash didn’t have Artemis to guide him anymore. He was running on a combination of instinct, and despite what he had said, luck.
It was a balancing act, moving slow enough for the creature to follow him, but still moving fast enough to avoid being flattened or hit.
They were almost to the building with the water tower, and Ash had only a small friction burn on his forearm for his troubles.
With all the noise made from car alarms and sirens Ash was tuning out, he almost didn’t notice the sound of a dog barking. As he moved down the street he realized it was getting louder. When he ran to his left, closer to the sound, he found a dog tied to a bike rack on the sidewalk. Ash silently cursed the dog’s owner—who would leave their dog stranded in the middle of a crisis?
He could feel the deep vibrations of the sand creature’s rumble, and hear the sound of sand scraping over metal, but Ash ignored it. Instead he froze a small section of the dog’s leash, and then kicked it, shattering the ice. The dog continued to bark frantically, but then it ran down the street, disappearing into an alley.
Just as soon as Ash thought he needed to move, he was hit. Sand enveloped him. He had just enough time to put his arms up over his head before the world went dark.
It turned out being swallowed by sand was a lot like being submerged underwater, in the sense that Ash couldn’t breathe, and he had no way of knowing which way would bring him to the surface, and air, fastest.
For one panicked moment, Ash’s brain went blank. And, before he could properly formulate a plan, ignoring his lack of oxygen, Ash felt the sand suddenly fall away around him. He was dropped on top of a car. It felt a bit like falling out of bed onto the floor: it hurt, but it wasn’t terrible.
Ash gasped for breath, brushing sand from his eyes and then blinking them open. His vision immediately zeroed in on the only other person in the street with them. It was Eiji. Ash stared in disbelief as Eiji shouted something and threw his shoe at the sand creature. Ash realized he was now standing in stocking feet, and his tie was nowhere to be seen.
The creature rumbled again, and began moving toward Eiji. Eiji turned and ran with a speed that shouldn’t have surprised Ash, but did anyway, and the creature followed.
“Damn it,” Ash muttered and pushed himself up. His head spun, and his vision went white. He grit his teeth and stayed still until he could see again. He ignored the lightheadedness and got up. The first step he took was shaky, but he didn’t give himself time to adjust. Ash pushed off and ran flat out. If Ash was this bad off, he didn’t want to think about what might happen to Eiji.
Ash watched as Eiji ran down a sidestreet, just big enough for the sand creature to fit too, and felt his stomach drop.
“ Eiji !”
Seconds later, he was at the sidestreet, and just managed to catch Eiji make his escape. In his hands was what looked like broken and rusted metal piping. It was about as long as the pole he used to vault. Ash caught him already running, just the second before the pole struck the earth, and then launched him up into the air.
Despite the pressing nature of the situation, Ash paused to admire him. Every single time he saw Eiji do this was striking. It was like seeing it for the first time.
Eiji cleared the side of the building and disappeared onto the roof. The sand creature rumbled again, and Ash saw that they were at the building with the water tower.
Slipping quickly by the creature, Ash climbed onto the fire escape on the side of an adjacent building.
“Artemis!” He shouted, “Now!”
There came the very unpleasant sound of metal scraping, screeching in protest, and then a deep rumble that didn’t come from the sand creature. Ash felt the building shake a little, and pressed himself as close to the side of it as he could.
Ash’s suit was peculiar in the things it protected him from. It stayed dry when he worked up a sweat, but as water splashed over him, Ash did, in fact, get soaked. At least it washed the sand off, and it was working on the creature too. The water dissolved the sand, washing it out, and flowed into the abandoned streets.
It happened very quickly, all in a rush, and suddenly what was left was a small mound of sand, maybe three feet high.
Ash quickly climbed down, noticing Artemis was climbing down too, and they both landed in front of the sand creature at the same time.
Hostile, glowing red eyes fixed on them, and Artemis shot Ash a look. Ash nodded in understanding. His staff had disappeared when Ash had been swallowed by the sand, but he summoned it once more, and this time when Ash held it aloft, he felt its power not at his fingertips, but in his heart. Warmth filled him—it was the same feeling he got when Griffin smiled proudly at him, or when Shorter bumped his fist, or when Eiji turned bright brown eyes on him. “We’re your friends,” Ash said, and soft pink light surrounded the sand creature.
A moment later the light disappeared, and Ash put his arm down. He was now looking into blue eyes.
“What is your name?” Artemis asked.
The sand creature made a sound like a cat purring, and Artemis replied with the same noise.
“How is it that all these things can understand you, when I can understand what you’re saying too?” Ash had asked one day after they dealt with another otherworldly being.
“Because,” Artemis said matter-of-factly. “I am speaking to them with my heart.”
Ash still didn’t understand what she meant, and wasn’t quite sure he believed her when she said it was something he could do as well, but it was working now.
“Open the portal, Ash,” Artemis said, and Ash nodded. With his staff, Ash drew a circle of pink light in the air. It shimmered, and looked like the surface of pink water. “You can go home now,” Artemis said gently.
The creature made another purring sound, then slowly slid over to the portal, and without hesitating, went through.
“They say thank you,” Artemis said, as the portal closed with the fall of pink sparkles like bright rain. She blinked amber eyes at him, and seemed to smile at Ash. “You have good friends.”
Ash looked up at the roof of the building, Shorter and Eiji were hanging off the edge of it, and they both waved frantically when he looked up. “Yeah,” Ash said, grinning. He gave them a thumbs up, and they both cheered.
“Come on,” Ash said, “we should let everyone know everything’s okay now.”
“ They just wanted to go home ,” Ash heard himself say, his voice distorted and almost unrecognizable. “ They didn’t mean to hurt anyone. At their core they’re filled with love and compassion, just like we are .”
“Would you turn that off,” Ash said, glaring at Shorter.
They were on the bleachers again, waiting for Eiji to be done with practice. Shorter had his phone out and was watching videos of Ash, The Lynx, on YouTube.
“It still freaks me out that we can’t see your face,” Shorter said evenly, completely ignoring Ash’s request. “It’s like looking at a blurry picture, it’s uncanny.”
“Then stop watching those videos.”
“But,” Shorter said, looking up, “you’re a hero .”
Ash glared at him.
Shorter laughed, and the audio stopped. He stretched a little and then put his phone in his pocket. Shorter stood and began to gather his things.
“What’re you doing?”
“Leaving, obviously,” Shorter said without looking up. He stuffed his books and water bottle back into his bag. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I’m not always the smoothest liar. It’s probably better if I just head out first.” Shorter slung his bag over his shoulder as he straightened. He grinned at Ash and made finger guns at him. “Good luck on your date.”
Ash felt his ears burn. “It’s not a date.”
“Uh-huh,” Shorter said, already making his way down the bleachers. “I wanna hear all about it later!”
Ash watched him go, then shook his head. When they were little, he and Shorter had tried to set their older siblings up Parent Trap style. It didn’t work, of course, and both Nadia and Griffin saw right through them, but it had been Ash’s dearest wish as a child. If Griffin and Nadia got married, then he and Shorter would be brothers for real. It had seemed so important back then, to have something to solidify it. But now, as great as that would be, Ash wouldn’t try to set them up again. It wouldn’t make a difference anyway: Shorter was already his brother.
After practice, Eiji jogged up to him. Ash had moved to sit at the bottom of the bleachers and stood when he approached.
“Thanks for waiting,” Eiji said, just a little breathless. “Shorter left?”
“Yeah,” Ash said, then smiled. “He needed more bananas for dinner.”
Eiji laughed and shook his head. They began walking home. While they walked, they talked about their plans for the upcoming summer. Ash would be spending two weeks in Cape Cod with his brother. “You should come, if you can, if you want. Shorter’s already coming.” Ash said. He hadn’t really thought about it and now he wasn’t sure how the offer sounded.
But Eiji looked at him like Ash had just offered to pay all his tuition. “Really? I would love to!”
Ash felt his heart squeeze.
They made their way slowly to Eiji’s place. Ash told him stories about all his summer vacations at Cape Cod, and about growing up there when he was a kid.
“Griffin was soaked and I was completely covered in mud,” Ash said, laughing as he remembered the look on his brother’s face. “I ruined his favourite Nirvana shirt, but I was little and cute, so he couldn’t be mad.”
“He sounds like a great brother,” Eiji said, smiling.
Ash was surprised by this comment. He realized then that he had been speaking very fondly. “Yeah,” Ash agreed, “he is.” And then added, “You have a sister, right?”
Eiji made a face, “Yes.”
Ash laughed, “Oh, come on.” He bumped Eiji’s hip with his own, and Eiji bumped him back.
Eiji told him his own sibling stories as they got to his house. Eiji let them in and then led them up to the second floor where his room was. Every floor had its own shared kitchen and bathroom. The house was in a perpetual state of looking like it needed a very thorough scrubbing, but only students ever lived there, and so that never happened. The stairs creaked, and the paint was chipped. There were more scratches and dents in the walls than Ash could ever count, and a very generous amount of spiders, which would almost be okay if they actually helped keep the bug population down.
They dropped their things off in Eiji’s room, and then went down to the kitchen. Eiji had already bought all the ingredients to make hamburgers from scratch. So, in the cramped, somewhat questionably ‘clean’ kitchen, they cooked together. Eiji graciously let Ash have the one floral apron that was available, and completed Ash’s look with a pink headband, using a green one himself to keep hair out of their eyes.
Eiji pretended to swoon when Ash put both things on and Ash threw green onions into Eiji’s hair.
It was a fun and easy thing to make, and that was due in large part to Eiji’s presence. Ash had liked him from the very beginning. Maybe not like- liked him, but there was a certain affinity he felt that was like a pull when he was around him. It wasn’t something Ash had ever experienced before; it was strange, and kind of wonderful.
When they were done, they took the fruits of their labour back to Eiji’s room. “I can wash up later,” Eiji said when Ash asked him about cleaning up.
Eiji closed the door behind them, and they both took a seat on the floor. Eiji’s room was probably the only room in the house where Ash would willingly sit on the floor. It was a lighter, cleaner, colour than the rest of the house. They leaned their backs against the side of Eiji’s bed and ate in silence for a moment. The food had turned out really good.
“Hey, Ash,” Eiji said after a long moment. Ash ate more slowly than Eiji. He was surprised to find Eiji was already done, while he still had a bit left.
Ash looked over at him, “Yeah?”
“What would you do if your friend was secretly The Lynx?”
Ash choked on his food. He coughed to clear his throat, and then took a drink of water. He coughed again, longer than he needed to, stalling as he tried to decide what to say to that. Eiji watched him quietly.
“I don’t… know,” Ash managed finally.
Eiji looked down at his now empty plate. He put it down on the floor and then clasped his hands in his lap. “I think my friend,” Eiji started, “someone that I really admire, might be him. What do you think I should do?”
Despite the fact that Ash had just drained his entire glass of water, his mouth felt dry. He swallowed. “I don’t know,” Ash said again.
Eiji glanced up at him through dark lashes, “It gets more complicated,” Eiji said. Softly he added, “This friend… I-I like him.” Ash could hear his heart pounding in his ears. “That was before I knew—I thought—he might be The Lynx.”
“And,” Ash said, feeling the butterflies in his stomach flutter in earnest now. “Does that change things?”
“Yes,” Eiji said. He looked back down, and then directly at Ash. “I think I like him more now.”
“Because he’s a ‘superhero’?” Ash said. He couldn’t stop a little bit of disdain from creeping into his voice on the last word.
“No.” Eiji was still looking at him, his brown eyes lovely and sincere. “Because he is brave.”
Without really thinking, Ash began to lean closer. He didn’t fail to notice the way Eiji’s gaze flicked down to his mouth, and then back up to his eyes. Eiji leaned in too.
Eiji tasted like the melon soda he had been drinking. Sweet. Much sweeter than Ash could have imagined. His mouth was soft and dry and Ash felt like his heart was overflowing.
After a long moment that felt much too short, they drew apart. Eiji was blushing, and Ash knew his own face was red too. They were both leaning on their hands, only inches apart.
Quietly, into the space between them, Ash said, “I have two things to tell you.”
Ash was walking on a cloud the whole way home. Ash blinked dreamily at his brother when Griffin spoke to him. He didn’t even notice the knowing smile Griffin gave him as he glided into his room. He fell onto his back on his bed and sighed, closing his eyes.
A second later he felt the light weight of Artemis as she jumped onto the bed with him. Absently, Ash lifted his hand to pet her, forgetting for a second that she wasn’t a regular cat, and didn’t notice how significant it was that she simply let him stroke her head.
The first kiss had been wonderful, but so was the second. Eiji had put his hand in Ash’s hair at the nape of his neck, thumb gently caressing Ash’s jaw. And then Eiji had opened his mouth.
“Ash, there’s—”
Ash opened his eyes with a start, and Artemis leapt down from the bed. He looked over at her, “Something—someone,” he corrected himself before Artemis could, “is here.”
She nodded. Well, Ash supposed there really was no rest for the wicked.
He picked up his phone and opened a chat with Eiji and Shorter.
> Who’s up for saving New York?