Sadde giggles. "Can I keep it? Can I can I caaaannnn I?"

"Um. Using our story metaphor from earlier, I'm not sure if you're Ron Weasley or Draco Malfoy yet. Maybe in a few days. Discretion and valor and all that."

Sadde glows again and is holding the card. He hands it back. "That is very reasonable and it makes me want to kiss you even more than I already do."

What.

"Uh. That's a- Really, me? The alpha nerd?"

"Buddy if the only reason you can think of for us not to be kissing right now is that you're a huge nerd I should've mentioned this a while ago, I already wanted to when I was a bear. It's okay if you don't, though, we've just met and such. Also I'm a boy half the time, I understand this can be a dealbreaker."

...Cerberus is wondering what he got himself into.

"Um. I would like more than five seconds to think about it." He does not mention how 'is sometimes a boy' is far from a dealbreaker. The secret is a reflex.

"Also entirely reasonable, also makes me want to kiss you more."

Eyebrow raise. "Is there anything that doesn't make you want to kiss me? What if I started shouting racial slurs?"

And internally, he has a little debate. Mostly the debate consists of a thorough search for 'Can I produce any valid reason not to kiss them? Should I give Change back first to keep up the pretending? Probably. Even if he's just as cute as a boy.'

"That would be a thing that would make me not want to kiss you," he admits. "Currently my image of you is adorable smart nerdy boy who got magic and immediately proceeded to run experiments on it. I also noticed you did not raise an objection related to gender. Racial prejudice might ruin that but somehow I don't expect it to exist."

"You're right, it doesn't."

Hm.

He hands Change back to Sadde.

"Being a boy sometimes is not a dealbreaker even if it complicates things while you are a boy."

He accepts the card again and raises an eyebrow. "Complicates things?"

(Eeeee he's gonna kiss a cute boy eeeee!)

"I. Don't really want everyone to know I want to kiss boys too sometimes."

"Oh." Pause. "Who-all counts as the everyone you don't want to know? I presume your parents are included in that list?"

(EEEEEEEEEEE)

"Mostly - nobody? I mean." Blush. "I've never had a reason to actually talk about it before."

"You're blushing!" says Captain Obvious. "That's too adorable." He shakes his head to return to the present conversation. "I don't actually mind only kissing you when I'm a girl, except for the fact that that leads to a much lower concentration of kiss-per-second than would otherwise be possible since you actually do like boys and girls. Also we've just met and I've just got a crush on you, any long-term decisions like coming out you might want to make should not be made on account of only me. We can just spend our time together nerding about magic while I look at you like I want to kiss you."

"Yeah, I'm probably just- Going to continue to pretend to be straight. For now at least. And the look is going to be distracting now that I know what it is."

He points a finger at a tree over there. "We could also kiss in a secluded place like behind that tree where no one who knows you is likely to see us."

"Or you could not!" Cerberus calls from within Terry's backpack where he's been cleverly hiding.

"Um." The blush that was retreating returns. "Er. Maybe. Cerberus, why not?"

"I didn't sign up to babysit hormonal teenagers!"

Sadde continues giving Terry the look. It is not too unlike the look one would give a particularly delectable meal. "You can stay in the bag, you don't need to watch," he says, not taking his eyes off Terry's face.

Terry's glancing between Sadde and his backpack. Still blushing. "Don't need babysitting. I'll tell Float to send you somewhere else if you want?"

"I'll stay here. If a card appears, you'll need my help!"

"Sure we will," he says, bouncing up and extending a hand to Terry. "Now how about we go over there and make out?"