"Oh, Terry..." She hugs him again. "It's okay if you don't go to Stanford or Harvard or MIT or Yale or Georgia Tech."

"Thanks. Didn't mean to get all... Ranty."

"It's okay, feel free to get all ranty whenever, and I'll provide hugs as needed."

Chuckle. "Oh, hugs, is that what a - friend is for? Gossip has steered me wrong."

She raises an eyebrow. "It's one of the things, yes, what did you expect instead?"

"No, no I was joking. Though it did make me think about the words 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' and whatever possible relation to us they might have."

"Ah, well. What relation do you think they have?"

"I don't know what your opinion on the matter is, or mine for that matter, that's why I asked."

"Hmm, my opinion on the matter is that it's a nice, warm, fuzzy word that'd make me feel good, but I care more about the expectations that would come with adopting or not adopting such a word."

"My expectations would be... Mostly that it means we like each other enough to declare it. More of the same, possibly with actual date-like activities instead of hanging out in the park or one of our rooms, because card-hunting sounds like an adventure but not necessarily a nice time. If you're a girl at the time. I don't want to open that can of worms."

"To whom is it a can of worms?" she wonders.

"Me more than anyone else. It'd be... Stressful."

"Wait, I'm confused, what would?"

"Having a boyfriend emphasis on boy."

"Um. Why?"

"Because I struggle with the external pressures of society telling me that it's vaguely immoral even when I see that, logically, it's not. I know, I know, I know, anyone can wordfriend whoever they want but that doesn't put me all the way to properly feeling that way."

"Oh. Um. Uh. Does that mean that if I'm your girlfriend I... won't be when I'm a boy? Won't be your boyfriend, that is."

"Not in so many words. I will want to not act like you are in public. I know, I'm terrible."

"I... can deal with not being boyfriendly in public, in general, but it sounds very... uncomfortable. For you, I mean. I'm not sure 'caring about external social pressures' is a setting I even have, but. Um. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Help me figure out how to magic properly once we have some more cards. Nobody cares if the king-queen of Mars's sorcerer-in-chief is bi."

She giggles. "You're terribly cute. But I was planning on doing that anyway, I meant in addition to it." She shrugs. "Well I'm a girl today and I'm gonna seize the day. ...well kinda, you said you have to go home do homework and I shouldn't be holding you up."

"Yeaah. Homework is annoying when I actually have things I really want to do for once. But musts must be met."

She sighs. "...can we make out a little bit before you go, then? I kinda do want to seize the day at least a little bit."

Smile-lean-kiss. And no teasing short pecks today.

Eeeee! No teasing short pecks: she approves.