"What was wrong?" I ask as we begin the short walk to the training center from the restaurant.

"What?" Lucas grunts.

"You were grumbling about something while we were eating," I say. "What was it?"

He also kept making aggravated movements, such as setting his silverware, cup, and napkin down a bit more heavily than he should have. The fact that he didn't make a complaint to the waitress or manager surprised me, and I'm guessing it was because I was here. Possibly because I'd slept against him at the theater. Lucas's grumpy mode is definitely one that complains if there's an issue, and that's something his Aunt Tabitha has told me is a sure fact when he's not getting laid.

"My salad was warm," he grumbles. "And my fries weren't that warm. They'd been sitting out before they were served."

"Ah," I say. "Mine were, too. They're not supposed to be?"

"Uh, no," he says. "Fries should be hot, not cooled. You have noticed that the ones you've had that were hot were better, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "And less floppy."

"And salads should be cold and crisp, not warm and limp," he complains. "What idiot doesn't keep salads cold until it's time to serve? I should've asked for a discount. Or for them to remake it right. Don't serve customers stuff that's been sitting out. Ever."

"I don't plan on it."

Lucas gives me a confused look, then sighs, rubbing his temples.

"Want me to grab your bag for you, or are you going to head back home after?" He asks.

"Would you be kind enough?" I ask.

"Sure," he answers. "I'll do it when we get to the center."

"Okay," I say, then look up at the dark clouds filling the sky. "I've wondered, but how much does something like night or a cloudy day affect your light-walking ability?"

"Depends," he answers, then stops walking a little before the rectangle of light from a building's window on the sidewalk. "I could light-walk right here, despite not being in obvious light. However, the cost is greater for me. But if I took a step forward…"

Lucas steps forward, into the rectangle of light.

"The cost goes back to normal, since I'm in direct light," he tells me. "A shadow-walker, on the other hand, becomes more hindered."

"Because if we have a light source directly on us," I say. "We're in 'light' and can't travel."

"Yup," he confirms as we resume walking. "You have to be in darkness or in the shadow of something to move. At the center, sure, there's light everywhere and you can see just fine. But the room is set up so that there are shadows cast around, even with the light. So you can just step into one and move."

The lighting setup is weird in the blocks room. Logically, there shouldn't be that many shadows in there. Yet there are, cast despite lights being aimed in that direction from above as well. When I asked Tabitha about it, she said that it's something the grandfather or whatever, I can't remember, managed to get set up, and they've never learned the how of it, but they know it was to help light-walkers.

In a room like that, there are places they can't travel, as Lucas has shown without mentioning. The power is weird. He can't travel in direct shadows, but he can travel in darkness as long as there is light nearby.

By using a room with shadows everywhere, it forces them to be selective about where they travel to, rather than allowing them to just travel everywhere like in a well-lit room.

No doubt it's something that was arranged with the Patron by the great-grandfather who was a Sivalshi Guardian. It would explain the lack of logic behind the cast shadows of the room: the Patron used his powers to create that effect. It's done through magic or divine power or something.

We continue our walk to the center, then I check in and Lucas flashes out of here. Since he'll know where to find me, I make my way to the blocks room we use for my power training, then sit on a bench and wait for his return. It takes a few minutes longer than I expect, Lucas looking somewhat annoyed when he finally arrives, my duffel bag slung across his chest and resting at his right hip.

Oops.

"Sorry for moving on you," I apologize. "I figured you'd know I was here as soon as you saw me-"

"I'm not annoyed at you," he says. "I wasn't going to expect you to wait around for me in there rather than use the time to get here. It's something unrelated to you, don't worry about it."

"Okay," I say as he pulls off my duffel bag and hands it to me. "Thanks, Lucas."

"No problem," he says. "Now, I'm going to go change and do some training before my shift starts. See you."

Lucas flashes out of here, and I strip down to my underwear, stuffing my clothes into the bag. I'm not planning on doing power training today, just some warm-ups in here followed by some time in the trampoline room. After that, I'll return to here for some more light exercises to help relax my body after the trampolines, and then I'll do two laps across the blocks before heading to my martial arts lesson, since I'm doing laps in here on these days now.

Just as I reach for my shorts, the door to the room opens, and in walks a cute, lean guy about 5'8", with sandy-blond hair and brown eyes with glasses, dressed in black shorts and a red sleeveless shirt that hugs his body a little well, showing his arms. They're not muscular, but they're still toned.

This guy is definitely attractive, and I know I start showing it immediately. Training my powers these last couple of weeks has definitely begun to wake that side of me up for sure. Hopefully, he's focused more on the fact that I'm changing and doesn't stare at my crotch.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Tucked under his right arm is a basketball, and he gives me a surprised look.

"Kieran?" He asks. "I thought you didn't show up until closer to your training sessions?"

Only once he speaks do I recognize him.

"I honestly didn't recognize you out of your uniform, Todd," I answer, and he chuckles. "Don't you not get in until halfway through my training? It's only one in the afternoon. This seems a fair bit early, even for a post-shift training."

"Yeah," he taps the ball with his left hand. "Training."

"Sanitizing mist training with a basketball in Block Room 4?" I raise an eyebrow. "I know it's only been a few months since you started here, but I doubt you got lost, especially since the basketball court's in a different section of the center."

And since he's not in his uniform, I know the training is for him and not as a personal trainer. Plus, he told me Monday that he's not a trainer, just the guy who cleans rooms like this after use. Could he be here to train with a friend, then?

"I'm not lost," he confirms. "I was looking through some stuff in our family, and found that the mist isn't just a sanitizing thing. That's just the ability my mom and I both awakened first. Her dad had a mist that let him move objects, and Mom had assumed that he'd gotten with someone who had some sort of healing ability, which resulting in our cleaning mist. Working here, I've learned that abilities aren't exactly single-focused…"

"So you figured," I say. "That you probably have a mist that can move objects."

"Yep," he holds up the ball, and a mist begins to flow out of his hand, gathering underneath it and lifting the ball up. "I'd found Gramps' journal mentioning his ability this morning, and after some testing, managed to figure it out."

With skill betraying his new discovery of the ability, he moves the basketball to me, letting it drop in front of me. I catch it and examine the ball as the mist fades away.

"You just discovered it this morning?" I raise an eyebrow once more.

"Yup," he answers. "I've been training its base, a mist, since I was six. So it's not at its base."

"Right," I remember that part of powers now. "It's grown stronger over time, even without you having used it, because you were using a similar power. And some of the skill translates over."

"Bingo," he points at me for a moment. "With the cleaning and sanitizing mist, I can manipulate and control its flow if I want. That skill translated over to this ability. Something else I realized while using this new ability, I can actually get a vague sense for what's around the mist. And that brings me to here."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Throw the ball into the arena," he tells me, and I raise an eyebrow. "Just do it, you'll see."

Turning, I throw the ball into the arena of blocks. It lands somewhere in the front-left quadrant, mostly because my throws are just as terrible as when I threw a ball for Sophie last week.

"You are definitely working on your throws at some point," Todd snorts. "Watch."

He holds out his right hand, and a mist flows out of it, condensed into a sort of stream of mist rather than just billowing out like when he sanitizes things. It flows into the arena, and about a minute passes before I realize it's begun to flow back toward him, dissipating as it reaches his hand once more. Soon, the ball comes into view, supported by the mist that's gathered underneath it.

Using his ability, he can search out an item, grab it, and bring it back to him.

"That's… pretty freaking awesome," I say as he catches the ball, the last of his mist fading.

"Yep," Todd says. "So I figured, I could come in here, toss the ball somewhere, then use my mist to find it and bring it back. Right now, the ability to sense or see around the mist just gives me a fuzzy sense of things. With training, I can probably sharpen that up. It will also help me push the limits of how long I can support it or how far I can bring it. I'm pretty sure of the ability to increase this since I can sense anything that's in contact with the cleaning mist, and the image of it sharpened up over the years to the point that it's crystal-clear."

Does that mean that when he used it with me in here, he received a visual of my naked body? I mean, it's not like he hadn't already seen it, but I'm sure it's different getting it through the sense of the mist. What did he think? Yeah, yeah, I know, he's probably straight, but that doesn't mean I can't be curious what he thought.

Has he ever used it on someone he was attracted to in order to get that sense of their body? I wouldn't do something like that, but I've known plenty of people in my life, even if just as coworkers or customers at my temp jobs. Plenty of people are perverted, even if secretly or only slightly, and many of them wouldn't hesitate to sneak a peek when they know they won't be caught.

I'm pretty sure Zane is one of those people.

"Neat," I pull on my shorts. "I was just going to do some warmups in here before heading to the trampolines for a bit, but I wasn't going to be doing that for four hours. Mind if I watch?"

"Sure," he answers. "If you want, you can help, too."

"Help?" I ask. "How?"

"You toss the ball," he explains. "I retrieve it and give it to you, repeat. You'd just need to stand in the center and toss it in some direction. I was originally going to do that, but this way, I can move around a bit, too, and not be using the same starting point each time."

"Alright," I say. "I can do that until my arm gets sore."

"Alright," he chuckles.

I walk over to the barrier and climb over it, and he tosses me the ball. After catching it, I make my way to the center of the arena and climb up onto a block that's tall enough for me to see him over. Not one of the tall ones that would have me completely visible, just one where my chest and up is visible while I'm standing on it.

"Ready?" I call out.

"Yep!" Todd calls back. "Throw the ball!"

I throw the ball to the front-left quadrant when facing him, and after it lands, Todd begins manipulating his mist to locate it. A few minutes pass before the ball returns to me, carried by the mist, then the mist retreats. I wait until Todd gives me the all-clear, then toss the ball again.

We do this for nearly half an hour, with me throwing the ball in various directions and Todd retrieving it, then bringing it to me, before Todd says he's almost out of magic and doesn't think he can do another round. I hope off the block and return to Todd, tossing him the ball before climbing over the barrier.

"That's impressive," I tell him. "You were using it with very little breaks, yet your cleaning mist doesn't even last a minute."

"Yeah," he chuckles. "How effective my cleaning mist is depends on how much power I put into it, so I've built up quite a bit over the years. I also regenerate it at a decent rate, and this doesn't cost too much."

"Speaking of the cleaning mist," I say. "You said that lets you see anything it comes into contact with, and you get a crystal-clear image of it?"

"Yeah," he answers. "It's not in color or anything, more like a sense of the form that's extremely sharp in my mind. I-ah. I used it on you last time."

"Yeah," I answer, and he snorts.

"Don't worry," he says. "I'm not a creep, I don't use it to check out people's bodies or anything. I don't normally mention that part of the ability because people tend to judge me when they find out I'll use it with people around."

"I wasn't judging," I tell him. "Just curious what you thought."

"Ah," he snorts. "Assuming I'm into men?"

"Assuming you're like most people and will make comparisons or judgments about bodies," I say. "Especially when you get the full nude view, which I know you'd gotten then."

"Maybe if you'd been hard, I'd be comparing," he tells me. "I did think 'damn, he's even skinnier than he looks', though."

I snort in response to that, and he grins at me.

"Going to head to the trampolines now?" He asks as I pull on my workout shirt.

"Going to do some warm-ups first," I answer. "Then yeah, I'll head to the trampolines. Going to train your power some more?"

"Maybe in a bit," he tells me. "Mind if I join you for the trampolines? I've never really done them before and have been curious."

"Sure," I tell him. "Just know that your legs are going to really, really not like it the next few days."

That's part of why I'm planning on taking a rest and doing some stretches after: Lucas told me that doing so will help decrease the soreness and stiffness that will come after, especially if I'm planning on doing it only once a week.

"I've heard," he nods. "So. What kind of warm-ups do you do?"