"We could have me poof from dog to human in class and then claim that I'm a new student."

"Good idea except for how you wouldn't have clothes. I think claiming you're new in town and your parents haven't gotten the paperwork in but you're shadowing me until things get worked out is the way to go." 

"Also, Lilith isn't affected by Sunnydale Syndrome and if she knows I exist she can probably take me back."

"Yeah. And that." He hands Leo clothes. 

He gets dressed.

"At some point are your parents going to notice that I live here now?"

"They'll be thrilled I have more than one friend. After a while they'll get curious but you can't really talk to them since you don't have any languages in common and you don't have to eat and I spend most of my time holed up in my room anyway so I can field it." 

"I guess if they ever get really concerned I can bring clothes to school and change in the bathroom for a while."

"Yeah. — I might have to actually tell them in words that I'm queer but it isn't like they don't know." 

"...I think I'm confused but I don't know how to put my question into words."

"Straight is the word for when a man is only attracted to women or a woman is only attracted to men, that's the default expectation people have. There's some arguing about the definition of queer but for our purposes queer is everything that isn't that. There are people who will be assholes about it — there are people who are assholes to me about it, especially before I started dating Marlo — but here in California you won't get very many of them." 

"People care?"

"People care a lot. Human society puts a bizarre amount of emphasis on sex and who you're having it with." 

"That is... incredibly weird."

"I'm sometimes confused by it too, but also I have a pin I usually don't wear that proclaims me to be Queer as in fuck you, so I can see where at least some people are coming from." 

"Well, you wouldn't have to tell them to fuck off if they minded their own business!"

"Not wrong!" 

Downstairs — Sasha's mom has her back turned and his dad is still in the shower — and to school. 

Lev gets distracted on the way to school by examining a stop sign.

Sasha takes his hand and gently tugs him schoolward. "That's there to make it clear who has the right of way and who stops if there are cars coming both ways at the intersection." 

"How is it made!"

"Metal with paint! I don't know how they cut the metal." 

Bounce bounce bounce. "I want to learn how to make one!"

"If I find a metalworking place you can learn at I will tell you about it!" 

"I want to learn EVERYTHING. Can I learn everything."

"People have tried but it turns out that there are a lot of things out there and all of them require lots of time to learn properly and you only have so much time to go around." 

"I'm a fairy, I'm immortal."