Three days have passed since Shinda's spar with his father. Said boy was more than excited to try another shot with his old man, especially now that he knew that D. wouldn't go overboard and break his arms or something. Said man, however, had other plans.

Shinda was told that it would be for the best if he trained with Magatsu instead of Dedalus for two reasons. One: they would grow stronger both faster and together and two: it would spare D. of his time so he could focus more on his students rather than anything else. Besides, even if he wouldn't admit it out loud, Dedalus' age prevented him from having frequent matches like that with someone like his son.

Despite their childhood relationship, it's been almost a month since they saw each other since Magatsu left Dedalus' dojo. Now facing one another, they go for a manly handshake followed by a tight hug, three taps behind their backs.

– Ever heard of visits? – Shinda mockingly asks his friend while letting him go. The boy laughs sheepishly.

– I think I got a bit too busy with training.

– I bet that didn't stop you from seeing Sasha. – Shinda says with a grin. Magatsu raises an eyebrow, hiding the embarrassment.

– She lives literally next door to mine.

They share a good laugh and go meet with Sasha to have some fun. It was Saturday, so no school for neither of them.

Once there, she asks them to go in with an overly excited voice. Weirded out by it, they go and take a seat on the couch. She sits between them and squeezes them with her arms with a joyful smile.

– Someone won the lottery, I see. – Shinda jokingly says. Sasha looks at him and shakes her head.

– So what's up with the hype?

– My father just called. – She starts. – He said Jeffrey gave him a full report from when he came and that he was satisfied with my performance. Do you know what that means?

– Who the hell is Jeffrey? – Shinda asks with a raised eyebrow. Both his friends ignore him as Sasha continues, as hyped as before.

– That means I won't have to worry about the hindrance that is my family anymore! And once I make 18, that will only solidify even further!

– Congratulations, Ashlair. – Magatsu mocks her, who knocks his head hard.

– I already told you not to... – She stops when she realizes his smirk. – Ugh, you...

– In any case – Shinda drags their attention back to him. – , I'm pretty sure that calls for a celebration, I think. So, how about we go out to have some pizza?

– Ew. Who likes pizza?

– Well, I do. – Sasha says, with a fake offended voice. Magatsu shakes his head while smiling faintly.

– You guys disappoint me. There's nothing better than a good macaroni right out of the pressure plate. Hm...

– With meatballs? – Shinda asks with a playful smile. His friend bumps his fist with the same smile, approving his choice. Sasha rolls her eyes.

– You don't like pizza but like some spaghetti. Geez.

– So that was a stalemate. – Magatsu points out but Shinda had that covered.

– Rock paper scissors to see who will choose what we'll have?

The two aside him nod and immediately do the game. Magatsu wins by choosing scissors over his two friends' papers.

– At least I don't have to worry about pizza. So, what about some sandwiches, housemade style?

– They're too expensive and I don't have a penny. – Shinda points out but Sasha grins maliciously.

– Leave that to me.

After deciding what they would want, the trio goes to the city's most recent building: a food plaza. More than ten restaurants with various types of fast and regular food could be seen. They chose the one that sold sandwiches and took their orders. Ten minutes later, they sit down on a table and enjoy themselves. Lunchtime was soon to come, so all of them asked for two instead of one.

Magatsu was munching a bite he just had when he decided to look around for the sake of it. Something he noticed after a few seconds was the couple that was eating some good meters away from him. He immediately recognized the green hair of both siblings from his dojo: Ramon and Vanessa.

At first, he found odd why they were there but ultimately shrugged the feeling off by thinking they just wanted to have a good meal at the plaza, much like a lot of other people were doing.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

– Cool.

– What? – Sasha follows his eyes. – Who are those two? Do you know them?

– Yeah, they're responsible for Disarm's dojo when he isn't around, which is almost all the time. Ramon and Vanessa.

– They're such a cute couple. – Sasha comments, making Magatsu raise an eyebrow.

– They're siblings, you know.

He wasn't seeing it, but Vanessa would, every so often, timidly caress Ramon's hand while giggling. Sasha, however, had sharp eyes and caught them doing that at least twice by now. Shinda either didn't see or cared enough to bother himself with that. Other than that, they were pushing each other while laughing and talking about things the group couldn't hear.

– I think you got something wrong there, Mag.

The blunt way Sasha phrased that made Magatsu process the information for an extra second. He then starts looking between both siblings with furrowed eyebrows.

– Why do you say that? They're just minding their business like all siblings do, right?

– Seriously – Shinda swallows a bite he was chewing before addressing Magatsu. – , how can you miss such an obvious cue like that? Are you made of ice or something?

Still missing what his friends mean, Magatsu shrugs lightly while curving his lower lip. Sasha rubs the upper part of her nose with closed eyes, not believing Magatsu could be this dense. Shinda starts laughing a bit too loud, dragging attention from some of the other people.

– Listen, Mag. – He starts. – Either someone lied to you our you're dumber than I remember, so let me help you with this one. They. Are. A. Couple. Anyone with half of a brain would have seen that by now.

– But how can they be a couple if they're siblings? – He retorts, a bit annoyed.

– How should I know, dammit? – Shinda counters. – It's not like I care about them being into incest or whatever.

All of a sudden, both siblings' eyes cross Magatsu's, causing them to freeze on the spot for two solid seconds. They then look to each other with worried eyes before staring back at the boy. Magatsu grew worried at their reaction and became more and more anxious with each second.

– I... think we caught them doing something a bit too private. – Sasha points out while doing a slightly sad, disappointed, even, face.

– Oh boy... – Shinda hides his lips inside his mouth, forming a line. – Let's just pretend none of this happened and get going with our lunch, ok?

They spend the rest of their meal with a rather awkward silence, the obvious eyes of both siblings occasionally scouting their table. Things go like that for another three minutes before Ramon and Vanessa leave the plaza like actual normal siblings. The group sighs with relief and quickly finish their meal before leaving themselves.

Now outside, the trio argues for a while of what they should do next. Magatsu just suggests they go to the arcade to spend their afternoon. No one disagrees and they spend some it playing all sorts of games, as many as the arcade of their small city had to offer anyway.

Soon, evening would knock their doors, so Shinda suggested they did something else.

– A climb to my Power Tower? – Magatsu suggests.

– That name is still as ridiculous as the first time you said it out loud. – Sasha mocks him with lowered eyebrows. – But I don't think I have much else to do, so why not?

– That energy tower he claimed for himself? – Shinda asks. – And what are we supposed to do once we get there? Jump off?

– If you want your legs broken, suit yourself. – Magatsu retorts before addressing Sasha. – You coming?

– I'll buy something to eat. Don't climb it without me.

– And you? – Now he addresses Shinda, who shrugs.

– I was thinking about something cool for us to do up there, so sure.

– You and another one of your infamous ideas. – Magatsu mockingly says while turning away. – Alright. See you two there in, what, 20 minutes?

Both his friends nod. He takes that for granted and walks away.

For no reason in particular, he decides to go past Dedalus' house to see if the siblings were around. As he passes the man's front door, Juno conveniently comes out of it with a satisfied smile.

– 'Afternoon, Jun. – The nickname makes Juno blush mildly but she manages to hide it under a forced cough.

– Hello, Magatsu. What a surprise for you to be here at this time.

– Nah, I was just passing by.

– So you wouldn't mind helping me with something small, right? – She quickly asks with puppy eyes, making it extra hard for him to say no. – It won't take a minute, I promise.

Magatsu rubs his chin with furrowed eyebrows, thinking hard if he should do it or not. Ultimately, he falls for her plea and obliges.

Once in, she takes him straight to her room. Once there, the first thing he notices is how big the place is. The second is the abnormally large amount of monitors covering one of her walls. Juno immediately catches up to that and explains herself.

– This is my computer. I use the various monitors as a really big one to watch movies and stuff. Pretty cool, right?

Magatsu nods with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk. Juno's eyes spark a little with his expression.

– I wish I had half of them.

– You can have all of them. – The news catches Magatsu off guard. – Not even my father comes here anymore, but I suppose I could make an exception for you...

Magatsu wasn't as dense as people thought. Or so did he thought, at least. He noticed how weird Juno acted, rubbing the edge of her shoe against the ground, one of her hands massaging the other arm. Nonetheless, Magatsu shrugged any ill intentions away and nodded with a smile.

– But what is it that you needed help with? – He reminds her, who does a surprised face.

– Do I? I thought I called you to show you my room...

– Weird. – He rubs his chin again but throws the thought away. – In any case, next week I shouldn't be doing anything, so I could drop by for us to watch something nice.

– Hm... – Juno does a nervous expression.

– What?

After a few seconds, she shakes her head. – It's nothing.

After that, he finally leaves the house and keeps going to the "Power Tower".

Magatsu was subconsciously thinking about what he both saw and heard earlier that day and thought about how could two siblings actually be in love with one another. He always thought that such a thing was just material for shady, lame fanfictions from 13 years old girls. He knew that if he had a sister...

Unfortunately for him, he didn't have the chance to finish his train of thought because of what he sees in front of him: a boy and a girl, both with green hair and in their early 20s, kissing under the abandoned energy tower Magatsu was heading to.

Speechless, Magatsu tries to silently walk away. Too late. Both siblings caught his movement with the corner of their eyes and immediately twisted their necks to better see him.

Magatsu had to dodge several punches from a strawberry red-faced Vanessa. Good grief she wasn't actually trying to hurt him and that Ramon was there to stop her. Three minutes had passed before they could start their conversation like normal humans.

– Tell me I'm hallucinating. – Magatsu starts. – Did I just see you two kissing?! – Neither of them wanted to look to Magatsu in the eye, so he took that as a yes. – But... why? I thought you were...

– We're not siblings, Magatsu. – Ramon cuts him short. Magatsu furrows his eyebrows with confusion before sighing.

– No wonder you were making out like that... And I assume no one else knows this.

– So far, only our families. – Ramon answers. – Listen, it's a long story and we're not in the mood to tell it. Could you just, like, forget you even saw us today? If you promise me you won't tell anyone, I'll give you some explanations as soon as we get to chat in private again.

– Deal. – He extends his arm for a handshake, one Ramon takes with pleasure. Just in time too, Magatsu thinks as he hears his friends approaching his behind from a fair distance. – You two better get going. I'll make an excuse as to why I saw you here.

They don't waste their time and leave as soon as possible while avoiding eye contact with the recent additions to the group. Once Shinda and Sasha get near enough, Magatsu lies to them by saying they were passing by and he decided to greet them and sort things out from earlier. He was pretty vague about the details, signaling some red flags inside both of his friends' heads, but they drop the thought and decide to enjoy the rest of the day there.

Once up there, Shinda challenges Magatsu to a quick match of tag, saying they could use the entire building to move around. Both boys almost fell more times than once. Sasha could only facepalm at the thought she had: "How can I lo... like someone like him?"

At the same time, at Juno's room, said girl turns her pc on and opens a program that grants her access to a handful of cameras scattered all over the house, including the dojo. One of them had a clear view of the street in her front door.

While looking at her monitors, she punches herself in the gut a few times for being such a bad liar.

She had to improve that to make sure no one, especially Magatsu, would figure her out.