And after him goes Sadde!

"I'll meet you in the park at ten tomorrow?"

"Sounds good! And then we can make out!"

He glances around nervously. When it seems nobody is nearby, "...Yep."

He grins. "I'm listening for footsteps, unless your mother's very light-footed I'd've heard her coming. And if I hadn't I'd've probably found a way to play it off as a joke. Not out of character at all for me, though your mother may not know it."

"Right. Okay. See you tomorrow, then."

He purses his lips. "Sorry, I won't do that anymore," he says, a bit subdued. "'Bye."

"It's okay, I just... Yeah. Bye."

Away he goes!

Aaaand Terry has dinner and does homework and thinks about cards and sleeps and has some very, very strange dreams about cards and Kero and kissing plus more with Sadde and so on.

And then it's 9:30 AM tomorrow and he's reading a novel in that park.

Sadde arrives fifteen minutes later!

"'Lo, cutie."

"Hello! Sleep well?"

"Yeah. Accidentally, while trying to meditate."

Snrk. "I should ask Cerberus whether it'll even help you if you do."

"It helps for anyone with magic, but it's easier for you," he says, popping out of Terry's backpack.

"I see. Huh. By the way, Sadde, if you wanna borrow Change for a while just ask. I'll probably be de-paranoided enough to give it to you once we capture another card."

"If you predict that'll happen then why hasn't it happened yet?"

"If I give myself checkpoints it's easier to follow through. I get twitchy thinking about it now, but after the card I can tell myself 'I said I'd do it after the card... Do I still feel like that's reasonable? Yes? Okay.' And do it."

"Huh. Cool."

"I thought most people have trouble keeping promises to themselves? This seemed like the obvious solution to fourteen-year-old me, when I started doing it."

"I mean, I don't usually make promises to myself, and if I know I'll think something in the future then I go ahead and start thinking it now, and if I suspect I'll think it but don't know it I figure out which things I'll need to decide and go find them out."

"That's another way to do it, sure."

"Anyway, it's a bit of a hassle to borrow Change whenever I'm a girl, 'cause that's like half the time, and my own magic isn't half-bad at it, though not nearly as thorough as the card."

"Er. Makes sense."

...He's thinking about the ways in which it might not be completely thorough. And blushing.

"Have I mentioned you look adorable when you blush?"