"That's not news, you already knew there was a card that glows."

"Yes, but I didn't actually think, oh, of course, it's a card that does nothing but glowing."

"That's entirely your fault," she says, and takes his hand. "But hey, it worked out fine, it wasn't terrorising anyone, given that the last card almost killed my mum I'm pretty okay with capturing one that likes prettying faires up."

Theo looks a little guilty at that. "Yeah, I get that. It just seems like a dramatic change."

"There's a card that makes flowers, one that makes bubbles, and then one that makes things disappear forever. That's bound to happen."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm still not really used to the whole idea," he says. "How about we go back to the faire? We didn't really get much of a chance to look around."

"Sure!" She kisses him on the cheek.

Back to the faire they go, still holding hands.

Oh, look, some cuddly toys. Theo points at them, and asks Sadde quietly, "What do you think Kero would say about one of them?"

His tiny head pops out of Theo's bag, as usual. "I heard my name."

"Oh, hi there! I was just saying that it's a shame you're stuck in the bag."

He pokes his tongue out at Theo.

"Yes and given that we don't want people to see a talking stuffed toy, can you get back inside?"

He sighs but does.

"So, anything catching your interest?"

She looks around and: "Ooh, candy floss!"

"Ooh!"

So Theo goes over and buys some. Returning, he offers it to Sadde.

Yay candy floss! Om nom—well, not exactly om nom, but something along those lines.

How about 'mm'?

Oh look, some pretty stands selling assorted items. Theo looks around a bit, and sees if there's anything in particular that holds Sadde's attention.

There's a really pretty keychain there, with a tiny silver padlock on it!

Oh, is there? Why, that's interesting. It does look pretty, and it's within his means. Would Sadde like it?

Well, she's probably not going to buy it herself, and Theo shouldn't be spending money on stuff like that on her account.

Well, in that case, Theo will get it anyway. He hopes she likes it.

Et voilà.

Well, she'll have to kiss him for that, then, won't she?

She most certainly can!

Aww, look at Theo, blushing. Aww!

"You are adorable," she declares.

Grin. "Thanks. You're pretty great."

"I know!"

He laughs and takes her hand again.

And they continue walking around the faire, looking at pretty things.

They see a variety of things – faires are good for that – then leave the faire behind them.

Theo leans in for a kiss, saying "Bye then."

She kisses him back. "Bye. Thank you for the keychain!"

"I'm glad you like it!"

And then they go their separate ways.

That they do!

When Theo gets back to his house, he waves to his dad and goes upstairs to his room. Putting his bag down, he asks Cerberus, "Anything important I'm forgetting, before I go meditate?"

"Like what?" the stuffed bear asks, floating out of his bag.

"I'll take that as a no, then."

So he grabs the Key, turns it into the lovely pink staff, pulls the cards out of his bag, sits on the floor, and starts to meditate.

It's been taking progressively less time for him to get into the right mindset! ...maybe not noticeably so, but still.

Soon he sees his cards, Windy, Jump, Sword, Shadow, and Glow, floating around himself.

Yay for efficiency.

Is there anything interesting about them? What does Glow look like?

Like a fairy!

Of course it does.

The meditation continues.

The cards' meanings and emotions start becoming clearer as he does, some more complex than others. The Sword's chains hold it, taut, and although ascribing it enough personality to call it malicious would be ill-advised, it does seem to be pretty one-track. Glow is almost as simple as Sword, all she really wants is to make pretty fairy lights. There's not much new or of import about any of them; perhaps Windy respects him a little bit more, perhaps Shadow is less reluctant to follow him.

And at the edge of his awareness, in the distance, a soft fiery light.

Yeah, Glow and Sword seem pretty one-track; that's hardly surprising, though it is somewhat worrying.

A fiery light? Can he find out more?

Yes! It's Sadde. Very faint, he doesn't have enough resolution to make it out from this distance, but it's definitely Sadde.

Oh, that's good.

He just keeps meditating, waiting to see if any more details arise.

Nope.

Oh well. He'll just do this for a while. It's kinda relaxing.

Eventually, though, he gets bored, and stops meditating. He yawns and looks surprised. "How long's it been?"

"An hour."

"Really? That's kinda surprising."

"I knew I made the right choice when I made you cardcaptor!"

"What do you mean? I'm not sure that meditating for a while really shows how great a cardcaptor I am..."

"It shows you have affinity with your cards!"

"Ohhkay." Time to ignore Kero again, it would seem.

He yawns again, and checks his watch. It's not even particularly late, but apparently capturing Glow tired him out...?

Oh well. It's time for Theo to sleep, it would also seem.

And the following day, after school:

ding dong.

Ooh, who could that possibly be.

Theo goes to the door, opens it, and greets Sadde with a kiss. "Hey! How was your day?"

"Kinda boring! How was yours?"

"Also kinda boring! Buuut I have a fun thing planned. Pick a flavour! Chocolate, coffee, mocha, cheesecake, Victoria sponge... I am totally drawing a blank on any more types of cake..."

"What's Victoria sponge?"

"... Are you serious? What are you, foreign? Regular sponge-cake with jam between two layers and also usually cream."

She shrugs. "I'm not super into sweets. That sounds tasty, though."

"Like... seriously. Okay, well, I guess we're doing a Victoria sponge!"

Into the kitchen they go. His dad is still at work. Theo sets the oven to 180 (Celsius). "Right, well, since it's your first time doing it, I guess I'll just have to make it seem more exciting than it already is. ... I'm not really sure how."

He pulls out some butter, caster sugar, and a mixing bowl. The other ingredients will be retrieved eventually.

"I'm sure you'll manage."

Realising it would probably be easier if she could see a recipe, he fetches a small cookbook that mentions something about a sponge, and directs her to weigh out the correct quantities of the sugar and butter. Look, here are some weighing scales. So exciting, woo!

Terribly! She'll be over here, following instructions.

And now you have to cream the butter and the sugar together, with this whisk.

... Yep, you still have to do it.

... Yep, even more. It needs to be "white and fluffy".

(Theo gets out some eggs, breaks them into a bowl, and starts beating them.)

And she continues following instructions!

"Is the part where this becomes exciting soon?"

"Iiiiif you want to eat some of the mixture, yes, it absolutely is!"

Is it white and fluffy yet? ... No, apparently not, because it takes ages to become white and fluffy. It's close, though! Theo tells her as such.

She continues trying to make the thing white and fluffy. "I am going to eat some of the mixture, then!"

"Okay then!"

He fetches a couple of teaspoons, and oh look, good timing, it's basically white and fluffy. He can't be bothered to wait any longer. They can have a taste and then gradually add the egg, woo!

Woo! She has no idea what she's doing but now it's tasty and therefore interesting!

It's fine, Theo can do the eggs. "How about you weigh out some flour? It's in that cupboard," he suggests, and then he points out said cupboard.

Then mixing in the eggs, and not letting it curdle.

"Sure." She goes weigh out some flour, and...

She's definitely not super good with her hands. Now there's a non-negligible quantity of flour all over her.

Oops. He really should've thought about aprons.

Laughing at the mess, he stops mixing the mixture, gets two cloths from by the sink, then hands one to her and starts to wipe down the work-surface.

"Sorry," she giggles, and boops him on the nose with a flour-covered fingertip.

Theo blows some air out his nose, shaking his head a bit, then uses his hand to brush it off. "Having fun there?" he asks, smiling.

"You could say that."

He takes the flour over to the mixing bowl, finishes off adding the eggs, then folds in the flour (with a metal spoon, thank you very much).

"I actually learnt this from my mum. She's pretty good at cooking when she's not being a workaholic."

"Oh. Really? I'd thought she. Um. Wasn't around. Anymore."

He gives her a confused look at that. "She and my dad split up, ages ago. She works, like, literally all the time. I went over and stayed at her place in the summer and hardly saw her, and I was there for like a week and a half."

"Yeah, just, this is literally the first time you've mentioned her."

"... Is it? Huh."

Oh look, the mixture is ready; Theo doesn't have to dwell. Would Sadde like to eat some? Because Theo would. Nom.

(He gets out two cake tins and starts putting mixture in them.)

Nom...? "You okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, just didn't realise how little I mentioned her."

(And into the oven they go, set timer, woo.)

"Yeah."

"So. We have about 20-25 minutes to kill. Any ideas?"

"We could make out," she suggests.

"Yes, we could. What a great idea."

How convenient that they're so nearby.

Eeee makeouts!

Eee is a good response! Theo likes it.

Mmm.

Mmm indeed! They should probably be careful with the kitchen utensils around, though.

If she's jumping on countertops, sure, but otherwise probably not.

Will they burn the whole 20 minutes away on kissing? It's a definite possibility.

Maybe!

...nah, she'll pull away and ask, "So what brought this on?"

"Kissing? Or the cake?"

"The cake, I brought the kissing on."

"I thought it'd be nice to do something different. Less involving annoying magic and life-or-death situations, and more... cake-making."

"Well, it's cute. You're cute. I should kiss you for it."

And she does!

Theo thinks Sadde is cute, too! Such a great coincidence.

Isn't it?

Now for some wandering hands, not all of them above the waist, just because she can.

Ooh. Well, in that case, there will be wandering hands over both of them, because he can, too.

Yes, they can easily kill the remaining however many minutes with that.

And then the timer goes, and Theo pulls away to go check on the cakes.

They are done! He gets them out and places them on the top of the cooker to cool.

"What's next? Did you mention jam?"

"I did! I did mention jam. In fact, so does the book."

He gets out some strawberry jam and some cream, and then another bowl and washes off the mixing beaters. "Do you wanna whip it or should I? I know, really exciting."

"I feel like there should be some innuendo here."

"I just said 'whip it', and I can't think of an obvious one for that. Such a lost opportunity." He sighs dramatically. "So: you or me?"

She giggles. "You go ahead, you have more experience whipping it than I do. Yes, I did it!"

He laughs and covers his face. "Are you sure that was even an innuendo?"

"It sounds innuendo-y, especially if I make this face while I'm saying it. 'You have more experience whipping it than I do.'"

Can he cover his face more? Somehow, yes. "Okay, yeah. Don't do that when my dad gets back, please?"

She puts two fingers on his chest and takes a step closer to him—she's shorter than him in this shape—and asks, "Or what?"

"Or I will be absolutely mortified?"

"I know. I want you to convince me that that's something I don't want."

"I... don't think I can?"

He seems slightly worried. Surely she wouldn't... actually...?

She giggles and wraps her arms around his neck. "I won't tease you in front of your dad, however much I may like seeing you blush."

"Thanks," he says, uncovering his face and turning his head to kiss her. "Maybe we should actually do the filling for the cake?"

"Probably. And it should probably be you, I don't have great cooking skills."

"Okay, but at the moment it's just whipping some cream."

Cream, meet bowl. Mixer, meet cream.

"More than I usually do!"

"Really? What's your dinner usually, just microwaved stuff?"

Mix mix.

"Well, no, but I don't usually bake cakes."

Theo shrugs.

The cream is now whipped, the cakes have cooled, and he can now assemble it! It's basically just putting jam and cream on the top of one, then placing the other cake on top.

"Et fini! That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No, it wasn't. My favourite part was the baking."

He sticks out his tongue, then fetches a knife and cuts two slices. And gets plates. Plates are possibly a good idea.

Yes, eating that cake with hands is probably bound to end in disaster.

Who said anything about cutlery? (Or whatever spoons/small forks are.)

Nom.

Um. Okay, then.

Om nom.

"Do you want a spoon?" he says after a bit, laughing.

Here, Sadde. Have a spoon.

"You are a meanie," she says, accepting the spoon. "I might have to mortify you when your father's around to punish you."

"Ha, punish me? Why? I'm an angel who does no wrong."

"Not if I can help it."

"Oh, really? Do you have anything specific in mind?"

"Perhaps I do."

"Are you gonna share with the class?"

"Is your dad going to be home soon?"

"Prooobably..." he says, then looks at the clock. "In a quarter of an hour? I'm sure he'll be thrilled we made cake, and we can cut it into two for you to take some home."

"In that case I suppose we'll never find out."

"Oh no. Maybe you'll just have to tell me some other time. But we have cake!"

She giggles. "I'm trying to seduce you, here, can you play along?"

"I could, but like I said, fifteen minutes."

"Hmm... Maybe I could do something we'll both regret in under fifteen minutes."

"I'm sure there are lots of things you could do that we'd both regret. There are probably also lots of things you could do that neither of us would regret."

"Yes, but where's the fun in those?"

"The fact we wouldn't regret them?" he sort-of-asks.

"But the risk of regretting it is half the fun."

"The risk might be. The actual regretting them... nnno. I don't even know what you have in mind!"

Sadde opens her mouth to say something—

—and is interrupted by a sudden stuffed bear: "You were baking cake and you didn't even invite me?!"

Theo laughs. "It's not like we ate it all!"

"Well I want some!"

"Sure. My dad will be back soon, though, so either eat it quickly or go to my room."

He cuts Cerberus a slice and... leaves it on the cake plate, because he doesn't know if the bear plans on grabbing it in his hands or what. He'll probably find a way.

Kero looks at him expectantly, as if waiting for more cake.

... Okay. He can have a bigger slice. How's double? Because double is the most that Kero's getting.

That's quite good for him! He grabs the plate and manages to balance it above his head, and floats back upstairs.

"That was actually pretty impressive."

He keeps looking in the direction Cerberus left. "Yeah. I'm kinda worried he's gonna drop it."

Turning back to Sadde, he raises an eyebrow and says, "So. You were saying?"

No telltale noises seem to indicate dropped dishes, so presumably Kero's fine.

She glances at the clock, and sighs. "Doesn't matter all that much, I definitely don't have the time."

"Oh, okay."

He cuts the remaining cake in half, then places the parts into two separate containers, one of which goes over by the bread bin.

"But for the record..."

She walks up to him and stands on her tiptoes and whispers to Theo what she had planned. Not because anyone else can hear, but because this is the sort of thing best whispered.

Theo opens his mouth, then covers it with a hand, looking very conflicted.

"But alas, we probably don't have enough time."

He opens his mouth again, then smirks and asks, "Don't we?"

She glances at the clock again, then asks, "Do we?"

"I mean. We could always try."

She boops his nose. "I remember you saying that you didn't want to do something we'd regret," she shrugs.

"Well, I mean, I don't think we'd regret it."

He looks at the clock. "Okay, no, maybe we'd regret it."

"We could always go to your room..."

"Yeaaaah... And Kero can just fly away somewhere?"

Why is he even arguing this? He has no idea.

"He'll be annoyed with us."

"That... does not motivate me to stop this."

"I know."

"I guess he'll just have to be annoyed," Theo says, giving Sadde a look.

"Would you do that to the poor thing?" She leans back and folds her arms, half-smiling.

Theo raises an eyebrow and leans in to kiss her.

That doesn't actually answer her question but it's not like she minds because: kiss!

Kiss indeed!

And then, in a pause, he says, "Yes. I would."

"Weeeell, you'll have to be the one to kick him out of the room, I couldn't break his heart so."

"Fine," he says, possibly too cheerily.

She giggles.

Theo leads her upstairs, goes into his room, and says, "Sorry, Kero. We're kicking you out."

Kero is 3/4 through his cake. "What? Why?"

"You're a smart toy, I'm sure you can guess."

And then, to make the point even further, he kisses Sadde.

She giggles and returns the kiss.

"Ew!" he says, and floats his cake out the window.

And so they are actually risking it.

... Well, it's not much of a risk unless his dad comes straight up to his room to see him.

Yes, not that much of a risk, all things considered! So, let's see if she's accurate in her expectations, yes?

Theo has no complaints. Exactly zero complaints.

Good! Zero is the best number of complaints.

Theo agrees! So much agreement, right here.

Perfect.

So, will she be proven correct in the assessment of her own skills?

She will be. She will be shown to be very accurate in her assessment. Theo's knees might be a little weak.

Good! Very good. She likes being correct.

"You are great," he says, then kisses her. "Have I told you that?"

"Probably, but I like hearing it anyway!" And she kisses him back, maybe pressing him against the wall a little bit.

Theo: is totally okay with that! Look just how okay he is with that.

She knows. It's why she's doing it.

Sadde might be able to hear the front door open from where they are. Theo doesn't notice it.

She pulls away to say, "Your dad's home."

"Ugh," he says, making sure he's presentable.

"Your fly's open."

(It's not.)

He looks down to check, then gives her a look. "Ha."

She giggles and kisses him again.

Kiss.

"That was actually pretty good timing."

"What can I say, I'm that good."

No disagreement here.

"Should we go show my dad the cake?"

"Sure!"

So they go downstairs.

Theo asks his dad if he wants a slice of cake, he says yes, Theo gets him a slice, then his dad eats it.

"Sadde helped me! Apparently she hasn't had Victoria sandwich before," says Theo.

"Really?" asks William (Theo's dad).

She shrugs. "Yeah. Not too into sweets. Or food in general."

"Oh, okay," he says.

Apparently that's all he has to add, because he goes back to watch some TV in the other room.

"So. Got any ideas for what we should do?" Theo asks Sadde.

"Not really! Or, well, too many to count. We could watch a movie, cuddle and read books, play cards, make out..."

"How about cuddling and a movie?"

"Sounds good to me!"

"What do you want to watch? Any genre in particular please-not-a-musical?"

"...please-not-a-musical? Theo I think we need to break up."

"I'm not saying I'll never watch a musical with you."

"No but you're implying musicals are... bad?" she asks, mock-horrified.

"They're not all bad...?" he says, trying to sound convincing.

"Oh my god!" she says, throwing her arms up in the air, turning around, and stalking off.

...to Theo's bedroom, but it's still elsewhere.

Theo stands there for a few moments, not really sure what to do, then follows her.

In his room: "I'm... sorry?"

Then she pushes him against a wall again (because she can pick up on subtle hints about what kinds of things he likes), leans in really close, and asks, "Are you? Are you really? I'm just... not feeling it."

Okay, well, this is somewhat exciting, but he's a little worried. "I thought you already knew I wasn't a great fan of musicals."

She giggles. "Maybe, but that wouldn't have been as fun." She kisses him. "Let's go watch a movie."

Theo presents Sadde with a list of options, and together they pick a nice romcom. He sets up the laptop to play it, and then brings it over to his bed.

Snuggle! Movie!

Snuggles indeed!

... The movie isn't as bad as he expected.

Sadde likes romcoms, as a matter of fact, and she'll be peppering Theo with the occasional kiss when the mood strikes.

Theo will try not to get too distracted by the kisses, because it would obviously be terrible if they missed some of the plot.

They're very chaste pecks, definitely not meant to distract.

Of course they are.

They are! They can wait until after the movie to not be.

That's fine.

Eventually the movie ends. "So. That wasn't as bad as I was expecting."

She hugs him. "I liked it!"

He hugs her back. "Even though it wasn't a musical? I'm shocked."

"Oh shut up," she says, and starts kissing his neck.

"If you're gonna do that," he starts, then makes a bit of a noise, "– when I tease you, I'm," (another noise) "– gonna keep doing it."

"Oh no, that's terrible, I should stop."

She doesn't.

"No y'really shouldn't," he says, getting it all out in a rush. Then he makes another noise.

"But I'm corrupting your virtue," she deadpans, and nibbles.

"Ummmmno, it's already gone."

And he is melting. Wow. Isn't this a surprise.

"Oh, well, in that case," snogging!

Snogging!

He's still a little bit melty, what with being between a wall and Sadde.

She is so surprised. She was not expecting this reaction at all.

She'll continue doing it.

Theo was not expecting the reaction to be quite as strong as it was. But it was.

Mmkisses.

She should try some lip nibbling.

She should! If she does, that will also get lots of approval, as it has done in the past!

She's full of good ideas today, isn't she. Ooh, wandering hands.

Turns out Theo is totally fine with Sadde being the one to initiate things.

So okay.

Perfect! She likes initiating things.

You know what she also likes? Skin contact. She thinks his shirt should be gone.

Oh, sure. His shirt can easily be gone. Watch it disappear.

What about hers?

Oops, would you look at that, it's gone, too.

So surprising. So very surprising.

Theo starts nibbling on Sadde's neck.

She definitely doesn't mind that! Watch her not minding that.

(And listen to the noises she's making while she's not minding that.)

Noises are good. Theo is encouraged by noises.

He should be, that's (partially) what they're there for!

Partially? You mean they're not all for him?

They're not at all voluntary, so no, not all for him. They're certainly because of him, however.

Well. If he were able to hear the narration, he'd definitely like the sound of that, but as is he has to make do with the 'subtle' fact that they're being made when he does things.

Yes, he can probably pick up on that fact.

He can!

Wandering hands aren't just a one-sided thing, either.

Eventually Sadde has to put clothes on and go home.

Well, that's sad, but it's not the first time Theo's had to be without her.

He starts listening to some music on his phone.

And then his phone rings.

Theo notices, sees it's Sadde, and then answers it. "Hi!"

"Hi! So, I think I found a Clow Card."

"... Do you need my help?"

"No, I called you to brag, yes I need your help. Remind me, there was a 'lock' card, wasn't there?"

"Uh, yeah?" Theo responds. "Kero!" he shouts. Where did the bear get to? He goes over to his notebook quickly and looks up what they were told about Lock.

... Turns out it wasn't much. "It's under Earthy and can 'lock a place and seal it off', not that that's very helpful. What's happened?"

There's the bear! He'd been taking a nap. "What's up?"

"It's locked Mum inside the apartment. I've been trying to call her but apparently it blocks mobile phone signal, too."

"The Lock is what's up," he tells Kero. "It's locked Sadde's mum in their apartment."

He grabs his bag and then says to Sadde, "I don't remember where you live – can you send me directions or something?"

"Then you should go capture it!"

"Sure, I'll text you the address and directions," she says, and hangs up to do just that.

So Theo waits for Kero to get in his bag, then goes downstairs, says to his dad that he'll 'be back in a bit', and starts in the direction that he remembers, awaiting the further directions.

There they are!

And so they'll quickly arrive at Sadde's place.

There she is, locked outside, sitting on the ground and playing on her phone. She looks up and says, "Hi."

"Kero, do you have any idea how we can find it and stop it? If it's in there..."

"It should be in a lock..."

"In a lock? Like, as a key?"

Sadde presumably would have noticed, but Theo goes up to the door to check anyway.

The lock looks completely fine and there's nothing in it. "Didn't look like anything was there."

"Not as a key. It'd be invisible."

"... But it would still feel like something? Would it just totally block the lock, or what? C'mon, that's not helpful!"

"None of my keys worked, and there was this—look, I'll show you."

She grabs her key and inserts into the lock and tries to turn. Not only does it refuse to, but what appears to be a... forcefield, or energy barrier, briefly flashes around the door when she tries.

"Did you try using Change on it? I'm guessing it wouldn't work, but it might."

"Yes, but—"

"You can't use Change on magical things."

"... Ugh." Stupid limitations. "Maybe the Shadow could let us do something under the door? Probably not?"

"Dunno, you could try?"

So he gets out the key, magics it into a staff, and then calls upon Shadow.

"Can you get something under the door?"

The Shadow tries, but ultimately fails to get inside.

Theo returns the Shadow to card form. "I mean, as a last resort, I could probably get Jump and see if I can batter down the door. I might want to have some sort of protection in case it doesn't work, though."

So. He's got Windy, Jump, Shadow, Sword, and Glow. Sadde has Change and Fly. "... Or I could try to slice between the door and the frame with the Sword? If you don't mind me probably damaging the door, that is."

"Doesn't your magic key do anything?"

"I... had not thought of that. As far as I know it was in the book or something, and then just appeared when Kero ambushed me into a contract."

He makes the staff back into a key, and sees if it'll go in the lock.

As it approached the lock, it reshapes itself to fit it perfectly.

Except that doesn't work either.

"...that's strange, if the Lock was inside that lock the key should have displaced it."

"... So the key is magical in ways other than 'is secretly a magical staff'. Right. So do we have any idea where the Lock actually is? ... Should I try meditating?"

"You could try!"

"As far as I know that's the only lock that leads to the apartment..."

"I will try meditating then..."

So he makes the key into a staff again, sits down, and closes his eyes with his bag (of cards) on his lap.

After he's managed, he'll be able to see the Lock very clearly. It's a bubble around Sadde's apartment, blocking his view of the inside completely.

And there's a knot, a source to the bubble. It's on the other side of the apartment... where a window would probably be.

... He stops meditating and asks Sadde, "Do you happen to have Fly on you? Please tell me you do, because otherwise I'm going to have to try using Jump."

"...yes?"

"It's on the other side of the apartment. Presumably in a window," he says to Sadde. Then he asks Kero: "If I give Sadde the key, can she use it to open the window?"

"No, only you can use the key."

...

"Can I have Fly then, Sadde?"

"Only if you let me watch."

He keeps smiling, though it might be a bit forced now. "Of course, darling," he says. "Now, can I have the card?"

"Here," she says, and grabs it from her bag. "You be good to him, okay?" she tells the card before handing him it.

It's not gonna bite him. It's just a card. He takes it and goes out of the building, trying to see which window corresponds to Sadde's apartment.

It's not hard to find, and it is indeed closed.

She follows him! That she wants to see.

Of course she does.

So he manifests Fly, somewhat desperately hoping it doesn't attach wings to the staff again.

Ha.

Okay. Well, he's already committed himself to this, and if anyone looks, they will hopefully believe they're seeing things. Except Sadde, of course. And Kero. Whatever.

He gets on the staff like it's a magical broomstick, and feels utterly ridiculous. But no, it would be worse to back out now. So. How does this thing go?

It's actually pretty smooth sailing. All he needs to do is think about where he wants to go, and oop, there he is.

(And thankfully for secrecy, they're in a somewhat secluded alley, not a whole lot of people will be able to spot them.)

(Well, that's good.)

He flies up to the window, hangs off it, changes the staff back into the key, and tries it. It almost seems too easy.

A strong wind starts pushing him away from the window when he tries the key, coalescing into a whirlwind.

Okay, well, he still has his bag, so he can just manoeuvre around slightly, make the key into a staff again, then awkwardly throw out Windy's card with his fingertips and summon her, can't he? "Windy, stop the wind!"

Wow, he still feels stupid, saying things like that. And it's really annoying, having to explain what he wants each time he summons a card.

It tries!

There's no more wind, however, because as soon as Theo stops trying to use the key, that wind coalesces into a floating winged lock, which proceeds to disappear inside the window's keyhole.

"Ugh!" he exclaims, then wills the staff to return to a key form, asks Windy to help support him if possible, and tries to unlock the window again.

It's a good thing he's got great upper arm strength, isn't it? Kinda weird, really.

That strong wind again and—

—Windy seems unable to do anything about it.

"The Lock is a special card! You can't use Windy on it!"

Sadde's watching this all from the ground and asks, "Couldn't you have told us this earlier?"

Theo grunts and tries even harder to fit the key into the lock. Even though there's no obvious place to put it, the Key seems to be okay with him trying that anyway, which is weird.

There might be a little blurring, but it's a bit hard to tell.

He does succeed—unlocking the window isn't the problem. The problem is dealing with wind strong enough to make him start to sway from where he's hanging.

"Okay, it's unlocked!" he shouts, still trying to keep hanging on to the ledge. In case that wasn't obvious.

He tries to open the window, looking for a way to do it despite the lack of obvious handle – maybe if he pries at the edge of the window? Fortunately the ledge allows him to hang there without obstructing the way, so it's not totally impossible.

That upper arm strength is still kinda ridiculous, though.

"What the heck do you expect me to do about it?" she calls.

The window doesn't open easily—

—until Laura pushes it open from the inside, slowly so as not to drop Theo. "Hold on to my hand!"

Wind, wind, very strong wind!

He pulls himself up, again, and tries to grab ahold of her hand.

Stupid. Bloody. Lock.

She manages to pull him in—

—and as soon as she does the wind closes the window again and locks it.

Right. Of course it does.

Well, nothing's horribly pressing right now, so he can just ask her, "How are you?"

Also, he presumably still has his key. If he wants to get out, he can probably just unlock the window and jump, then summon Fly so he doesn't break a leg or something.

"Not great," she says, sitting back on her wheelchair and raising her shirt a bit to reveal the bandages where a small bloodstain's showing through.

Rrright. Of course she's not. "Oh, right."

He stands there awkwardly for a couple of seconds, then unlocks the window to shout to Sadde. Even if the wind starts up again, he'll shout, "I'm okay, and your mum's... mostly fine!"

That might not be the most reassuring thing to say. Sadde also might not be able to hear it if there's wind.

Yup, wind! Inside the apartment, pushing Theo away from the window and drowning out his voice.

Oh, for pity's sake. He turns the key into a staff and tries to capture the Lock by tapping the window and/or the lock.

If this works, he's going to feel a bit stupid, and if this doesn't work he's going to be mostly out of ideas. Maybe he'll try another few card combos and one will actually work.

Nawh.

He makes a noise of frustration. Then he looks about and studies the scene a bit, because really, maybe this whole thing is different on the inside or there's something he can see because he's magic. Who knows.

Not really. It's just Sadde and Laura's apartment.

"What's the plan, then?"

"I was hoping it would be a bit more obvious after I got past the perimeter, and there would be something that I should just hit with this stick or something, but no, stupid magic system has to be stupid." He makes a noise of frustration, then looks at her and realises he's being unhelpful. "Sorry."

"It's alright. What magic do we have at our disposal?"

"Uhm." He checks his bag to see which cards are available, and then says, "This stick that also becomes a weird key, a card that does wind, a card that does flying, one that does jumping, one that does shadows, a card that does small glowing stuff, aaand..." He hesitates a bit, then finishes with, "The Sword."

She doesn't seem to harbour the Sword any ill will. Well, she doesn't react to it either way. "You used the Shadow pretty creatively the other day, it doesn't just do shadows. What other kinds of uses do these cards have?"

"Well, Windy and Shadow sorta did that themselves. They basically seem to do lots of things that fit inside that sort of general idea, or that kind of scope. I tried getting Windy to control sound, but that was a no because I don't have enough control, and Shadow can apparently generate shadows and also use them to move things...?"

"And your key can be used to temporarily displace—"

She's interrupted by a knock on the door. "Mum? Theo?"

"Wh-" he starts, then starts moving doorwards because why is he expressing surprise audibly, that's not helpful. He tries to open the door, and says, "Yeah, we're here."

Door's still locked.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine, dear. We were brainstorming ways to get out of this." She looks at Theo. "Have you tried using the key on this door instead of that window? Why did you even go to the window?"

"Do you mean just now or earlier?" he asks, shrinking the staff into the Key and trying it on the door. "Because just now, I wanted to shout that we're okay, and because earlier, the front door didn't work."

Nope. Key doesn't work.

"Earlier, but it's very inconvenient that it didn't work. Why did it work on the window?"

"Because the Lock is there. So the front door didn't work last time. And this door didn't work, again, because obviously the Lock isn't in this door, still, it's in the window. Ugh."

"Hmm, and your wind card doesn't work. But needing to be in an actual keyhole sounds like something we could exploit."

"Any idea how? I mean, slicing it off with the Sword might work – I don't remember if Kero vetoed that idea – but that's not a great first option."