"Well, why did you?"

First to mention? First to mention what? Also everyone else is either hitting the showers or leaving.

"I just remembered a thing someone said to me. Don't worry," he says evasively. "I'm gonna go get changed. See you in the library?"

"Something someone said to you that made you blush? Riiiight. Anyway, I'll actually wait here until everyone else's changed and then change, myself, since we're staying."

"Okay," he says. "See ya in a bit then."

And off he goes to shower and change.

And after everyone's done that and left, Sadde does the same.

Theo's already in the library, playing on his phone.

Sadde walks in and takes a seat.

"So," Theo says. "Vampires. Magic. Anything else you care to spring on me?"

"Well, a lot of texts mention demons, hells, werewolves, faerie, angels, gods, and all that, but I've only ever really seen vampires, and as far as I know calling for gods is just a way the incantations sometimes work. I'm also definitely not betting on the existence of souls and the afterlife. Or afterlives, depending on the author."

"Oh. Right. Demons, hells and stuff. Obviously. So how'd you find out about the magic?"

"That is a long, depressing story into which I would not like to get right now. Suffice to say that I did and have been trying to get enough out of it that taking out a single vampire doesn't leave me like that. It's been slow going."

"Oh, okay," Theo says, feeling a bit guilty. "So why is it still not well known? Is there some evil group silencing people who try to let the world know? I mean, I'm sure the vampires want to kill anyone who might make their prey have better defenses, but how do they get to everyone who knows before they tell the world?"

"Beats me. Chesterton's Fence, I'm not touching it or trying to spread it around until I understand it better and am powerful enough to not be crushed by the first witch who dislikes the way I look."

"Sounds reasonable, but what's Chesterton's Fence?"

"That. The principle that you shouldn't do policy reforms until you understand why the current one exists. It's not an end-all be-all, of course, but when it comes to magic and vampires and demons and gods, I think understanding how it is that the whole world doesn't know about it is pretty important."

"Oh, right, yeah. Sounds like a good principle. And I'm just the latest unfortunate victim in a series of vampire attacks? ... Wait, is that what the barbecue forks thing was about? I thought it was just a ridiculously unlikely statistic!"

"...yes. To be fair, it is ridiculously unlikely, Sunnydale is sort of an outlier when it comes to vampires."

"Oh, good, so I've not just been living a lie and actually ignoring all the weird supernatural stuff that's going on just around the corner. I mean, I didn't think I was, but suddenly I get bitten by a vampire and find out that they're a thing, so I kinda had to wonder."

"Well, maybe."

"Huh?"

"I mean, it's not impossible your old neighbours were in fact werewolves or some such, these things have pretty much always existed. Also, remember the part where I said you were pretty?"

Theo might be starting to blush again. "Uh, yeah, it's possible that they were. And maaaybe."

He blinks, and smirks. "Wait, is that what you were blushing about, earlier? Did thoughts of me distract you from the game?"

Turns out, while Theo does blush, it's not really freaking obvious, it's just somewhat noticeable. So instead of blushing furiously, he's just slightly red.

"Uh. N-no? Maybe. I didn't realize what you'd said until I thought back on it, okay!"

"Hmm, I'll explore the implications of that later, I think. Anyway, back to the point, in addition to being very pretty, you're very—graceful?"