"Oh yeah even odds he's already guessed to be honest. I kind of like him, he's—a kind of relaxed with the world that is refreshing, contrasted with my constant overthinking. Annnndddd wow now that I put it that way I actually think I see where his plot with Sophie's going. ...day two, I should stop making assumptions. I'm overthinking again."

"If I were writing you and you said that I'd have Sophie shag Monika, and then where would you be."

"That depends, would I get to watch? ...Monika would never let me."

Pat pat. "Some people have personal boundaries. Or so I've heard."

"Can you imagine? Could not be me."

They fetch up at the dorms. "...you know, I think even I'm starting to notice when things take a narratively appropriate amount of time?" Edmund muses. "Unless I'm just making that up, but."

"You absolutely are not. The trick is just not paying attention to your surroundings so that the narration or whatever it is that's happening that's like a narration doesn't have to show it to the audience, then they can just claim it worked fine. Of course then we ruin it by hanging this lampshade but honestly if the audience weren't interested in this kind of fourth-wall leaning shenanigans they would have moved on to other stories by now, it's a whole theme."

"I'll remember that... maybe I'll pay more attention next time, to have more time with you."

Goodbye kiss?

Goodbye kiss! "I'll see you tomorrow, handsome."

And into his room he goes.

Hywel's doing chin-ups on an exercise bar positioned suspiciously near the door! The natural result of this is that Pete is eye-level with the pouch of his jockstrap, because obviously he's not wearing anything else.

"Heya, Pete," he grunts.

Why is he a teenage boy.

"Hello, Hywel," he greets Hywel's jockstrap pouch.

"Had a good evening?"

Chin over the bar; back down. Chin up; back down. Crotch chin up. Back down.

It's mesmerizing. He should probably look away. "I did," he informs the crotch. "Went to a café with Edmund and Mr. Jones the librarian. How about yours?" He really should look away. "And may I come in?" The request really is undermined by how he has in fact still not looked away.

"Ah, right. Stand back?"

Once this request is fulfilled, Hywel puts his legs together and lifts them forward and upward, such that Pete can just about duck under.

(He is still wearing a jockstrap.)

Man after earlier today what's seeing a little ass gonna do. The movement is enough to break the spell and he can duck under quickly enough to hopefully not be hit on the way back in when Hywel lets go.

He really, really shouldn't fuck Hywel. Like, really. No matter how much he wants to. He really shouldn't. So he won't.

...but he wants to. Hhhhh.

Chinups resume! From a different angle.

"My evening was fine, anyway. Dafydd wanted to get plastered but I'm not doing that on a weeknight so I went and swam with Artie and Sean."

"Insert admonishment about underage drinking here," Pete says, dryly. "You should probably shut the door."

"Let's all be honest with ourselves: you want me to shut the door."

"Other people would also prefer you shut the door," Tom says as he passes by. "-not me, I don't give a shit. But think of poor Clarke."

"Ah, damn it, you're right, Clarke would hate this." He shuts the door.

"Why would Clarke hate this?" he asks, taking his shoes off and stretching. Does he have his schoolbag with him? Well, it doesn't matter, if he does then he puts it down and if he doesn't then it's already been put down at some point, probably.

"Hates his body, feels bad when people show off too much. It's a bit of a lost cause but I can at least try not to when I think of it, you know?"

"Huh. Is it in a trans way or in a fitness way or..."

Pete you have enough quests. That is too many quests. Put some back. No, no, that is not putting it back, that is—put some back—you have enough quests—

"Not actually sure? It's seemed more personal than I'm rated to ask him, I don't know him that well. Probably if he was a girl someone would've told me to get my pronouns right."

"Fair enough, and not really my business probably." Theeeere, tranquiiiile, tranquiiiiiile, he will not pick up the quest to make every random person he meets who might be slightly unhappy happy. Even though he'd have enough time to do it his days are long enough as they are and he's starting to get exhausted but the magic would prevent that from happening still, he should wait until the quests he already has are a lot farther along than they currently are.

...anyway, he'd had an insight earlier about the likely future of Hywel and Sophie, what was it again oh right. Hmm. Now how is he going to get that to work...

That is really a problem for tomorrow!Pete, actually.