"I dunno. Build a sandcastle?"

"Cool! Hope Moira doesn't mind."

"Oh right you're Moira's boyfriend. That's weird."

"Why? Is it 'cause she's human? Because that's racist, I think! "

"No, it's 'cause you're eight!"

"You don't know how mer work! I could be a million jillion!"

"She's eight!"

"And I could be one...okay, we're both eight. Who cares?"

"Dating is a grownup thing!"

"Kids don't do fun stuff with kids they like? Do you not like sandcastles?"

"That's not dating that's just being friends."

"Well, we're going to have babies someday. And they will be so cool."

"You don't know that!"

"I know that being mer is awesome, and I know being a Miracle is almost as awesome, so therefore mer-Miracles will be amazing."

"You don't know that you'll still like each other when you grow up," she corrects. "You could have the West—Westermer—you could think she's gross when you grow up 'cause you grew up together! Besides, that's not what babies are for."

"What are babies for? Moira's dumb brother told me they were meant to be test subjects. And we didn't grow up together. Moira lives here, I live over there." Michael points out to sea. "So, still wanna play sandcastles?"

"You should only decide to make babies when you know what they're for," she nods. "And yeah sure."

"Cool, tell me if you figure out what they're for." The boy strolls over to where the sand is still wet, scoping out where to begin construction. 

She goes after him and looks at the sand dubiously. "I don't have a swimsuit."

Michael looks at Sadde with genuine puzzlement. "Neither do I?"

...right. She furrows her brows and ponders for a second then shrugs and starts stripping.

And then she notices what's between her legs, and more relevantly what's not, and stops.

"Is something wrong? You don't have to be naked if you don't want to."

"No, that's not it," she says, chewing on her lip, then strips to her underwear—boy underwear.

(She should not be girl-shaped—yes she's a girl today but now they're gonna wonder when she inevitably changes back, she was never able to prevent it the other way around, they will know she has powers—

—and is that so bad here, really?)

She finds somewhere on the sand to sit and help him.

Brushing aside his new friend's apparent confusion, Michael gets to work on the castle. He's had a ton of experience.

She hasn't! She has in fact never built a sandcastle, it will probably be best for her to be Michael's assistant than anything.