"Okay," he says, pulling away enough that she can get to her phone.

She fumbles in her pocket. "Hello? Hi Mom. Mm-hm! Yeah - no - twenty minutes maybe? Yeah. Love you too."

"Missing curfew?" Kanimir guesses wryly.

"I don't have a formal curfew, but she did want to know if she should wait up for me or not," May says. "I told her I'd be home in twenty."

"I suppose I had best get going, then."

"But I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Of course!"

"She liked the cakes fine. One of our experiments failed, but the others succeeded, and we had several more good ideas to add to the to-do list."

"And the date part?"

"Several of the good ideas were in the date part. It's nice to be with someone who thinks this kind of thing is a good recreational conversation topic."

"You know what I mean."

"...She does think magic is a good recreational conversation topic, and she has good ideas, and she's funny and intelligent and her smile, she has the most beautiful smile. And she hugged me spontaneously at the park and she was so warm and she kissed me after it was over and it was--I think I need to apologize to you for mocking you for running off with Daphne at odd moments to make out, if it felt like that." He rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Jaromira, I have it so bad. I haven't really had anyone but you since we were eleven, and--" he swallows. "I'm scared of--going too fast, or getting clingy, and ruining everything."

"Aww." Jaromira hugs her brother. "It's good that you've got someone other than me. Talk to her if you're worried about messing up. Tell her that you're not good at being close to people, and how exactly you expect that to impact things. If she's really as wonderful as all that, she won't take it too badly as long as you phrase it as 'I'm concerned about your boundaries please help define them more specifically' rather than 'I expect to behave badly.'"

He leans into the hug. "Thank you," he says quietly. "You're--so much better at people than I am." He giggles. "That was one of the things that was funny, even, we joked that extroversion was witchcraft and it ended up with the Inquisition with the comfy chair--you know, from Monty Python--versus the tea we made with the boiling spell and an 'interrogation'."

"That's adorable. You're adorable," Jaromira declares. "You-plural are adorable."

"Thanks."

"Can we talk?" Kanimir asks when he walks up. "About last night, I mean."

"...Yeah? Wow, that's not an ominous conversation starter or anything, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just..." he trails off. "I've always been an introvert, but when my mother died, I withdrew. For almost a year Jaromira was the only other human being I would talk to. I've gotten better since then, obviously, but I'm not good at figuring out what's appropriate or healthy concerning human relationships. ...I don't know if I'm actually in love with you yet, but I seem to be very infatuated at the very least. I do not want to get clingy or pushy or otherwise problematic, but I'm not completely certain where the boundaries are."

"The latter. I didn't think I had done anything wrong yet, but--I want you to know that if I do, you can tell me and I will back off. I don't expect to, but. People usually don't."