"Guys, you really don't need to escort me there," I say as I walk down the street.

"It's not that far from my apartment," Lucas says.

"You're walking into an area you're unfamiliar with," Zane says.

They've been like this pretty much all day. Zane and Danny both expressed worry about me heading into the middle districts for a party while we were hanging out, and Lucas didn't want to push me to my limits during power training because "you might need the energy". I still used up all my magic at the end of the session like normal, so it's not like I'd have any power left.

That part kind of annoyed Lucas because he really wants me to be ready for a fight. Even if I hadn't used it up, he probably would have wanted to escort me, anyway. They both know that my martial arts skills are only developing, not exceptional. I do only have a few weeks of training, after all. I can hold my own in a fight with one or two amateurs, but not against someone with actual skill or in a group.

They'd also rather I didn't end up naked just to escape, especially not with how cold it is right now.

"Lucas," I say. "Your apartment is twenty minutes headward of Isaac's. Zane, it's significantly safer than the lower districts."

Also, I doubt Isaac would let me walk there by myself. He probably has a vigilante watching out for-yup, there they are. I'm not going to draw attention to them because it would probably make Lucas paranoid and Zane excited.

"I'll be fine," I say. "And it would take at least forty minutes for you to get back home, Zane. You're worried about me? Think about yourself."

"I'll just have Lucas walk me back," Zane grins. "I'm sure a strong, confident guy like him wouldn't have any issues walking me home."

"Sure," Lucas says, surprising both Zane and me. "Or I can just flash you back. It would take a series of trips, but it would be faster. Or you can stay the night in my apartment again. Not on my bed."

"I'll just sneak on during the night," Zane whispers to me.

"If I need to, I will bind you in chains."

"Is that one of your kinks?" Zane asks. "Can you do ropes of light instead? I'm not a fan of being tied up, but for you, baby, I'd give it a try."

Zane gives Lucas a wink, and once more I get to see how differently Lucas has treated Zane ever since I snapped at him. This time, Zane's teasing doesn't lead into a more relaxed bickering session between them. Lucas actually countered him, though it did fail a little bit since it's Zane he tried that counter with.

"I can make a cage out of light, would that satisfy you?" Lucas asks Zane.

"Awesome!"

"And then summon one of my light beasts and lock it in there with you."

"…not so awesome," Zane thinks for a few moments. "Ooh! But if I turned to stone, I'd probably be fine! You gonna join me in the cage? Without the beast, though. We can wrestle in it!"

The two of them begin going back and forth, and they do so all the way to the apartment building that Isaac lives inside.

"Alright, lovebirds," I say, and they both look at me. "I'll see you two tomorrow, alright?"

"Let me know when you're ready to leave," Lucas says. "I can take you to my apartment, and-"

"Isaac has a spare room," I interrupt. "He said I can spend the night there rather than heading back at night. Thanks, though. That's why I have my bag still."

I shift my bag a little to draw attention to it. If Isaac hadn't made that offer, I would have asked Lucas about coming to his place after the party.

"Are you sure?" Lucas asks. "You haven't seen him in years, right, what if-"

"Lucas stop," I hold up a hand. "If I get suspicious of stuff, I'll call you. I know you're probably going to hang around this area once you transform into Lumilxal, anyway. But I seriously doubt anything will happen. So go, shoo, let me go enjoy the party. Or suffer through it. Whichever will happen."

Reluctantly, Lucas and Zane leave, and I shake my head, then enter the apartment building and ascend the stairs up to the floor Isaac lives on. His girlfriend gave birth yesterday, so she and twins won't be there. In fact, he wanted to reschedule his birthday party so that he could be with her, but she pushed him into keeping it today.

So sadly, I won't get to meet his girlfriend today. I'd actually been looking forward to that.

When I reach Isaac's apartment, I knock on the door, hearing the faint sounds of chatter and music from within. These walls are pretty soundproof to contain the noise of a party. That, or the music is low and there aren't actually that many people inside.

The door opens and holy damn this guy is hot. He's around my age, I think, with platinum-blond hair and electric-blue eyes. He's lean and dressed in shorts, a tee, and sneakers, his face smooth and youthful and damn he's sexy. Just like Lucas and Zane.

Actually, there's something more sexy about him, and not just the electric sense I'm getting from him. It's like there's something about him that's just sexier than either of them.

In his right hand, he's holding a glass filled with red liquid. Punch, maybe?

"Hi!" He greets me, then gives a suspicious glare. "Name?"

"Uh… Kieran Wolfe?" I answer. "Isaac invited me."

"Nice to meet you!" He smiles. "Come on in! Sorry for the more hostile greeting, we've had a couple of people trying to get in uninvited already. I'll show you the room you can put your stuff in."

"Thanks," I tell him, entering behind.

Isaac's apartment is probably larger than Lucas's is, and that's just for the living room, kitchen, and dining room. There are probably forty or more people in here, male and female, most of them around our age but there are a few who are older. Are they all vigilantes? Or just his friends?

The hot guy leads me all the way through, a few people stopping and greeting me or asking him something, and we finally make it to the bedroom, which has a bunch of coats and jackets and hoodies tossed about. I drop my bag by the door and pull off my coat, tucking my gloves into its pockets, but I leave on my hoodie.

"Don't be shy here," the hot guy tells me. "I know you don't know anyone but Isaac, but just chat with anyone and they'll talk."

"I know Chris," I say. "I did see him on the way through."

"There are three Chrises," he grins at me.

"Erm," I try to remember his last name. "Isaw?"

"Aisal?" He asks.

"Can fly?"

"Yep, that's him," he grins. "I'm Theo, by the way. Theodore Spark."

"Spark?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yup," he holds up his right hand, blueish sparks dancing over his palm and across his fingers. "Kind of fitting, it matches my powers. I come from a line of people who can manipulate electricity and lightning."

Wait a second…

"Orwitz?" I guess, and he grins.

"The one and only!" He announces. "Isaac said you'd probably figure it out pretty fast! I'll give you a hint on something else: I'm like Isaac."

"So you're a guardian, too?" I ask.

"Yep!"

"That would make you… Zignarl, right?" I ask.

"The one and only!" He declares.

"So you can make sparks on your hand," I say. "As Orwitz, you supercharge yourself with lightning to move at high speeds and react quickly while making it difficult to touch you without getting a nasty jolt. As Zignarl, you fire off lightning to strike your enemies and stop attacks, including bullets. Are you a… lightning-shaper? Is that a thing?"

"It is," he chuckles. "But I'm actually a lightning elemental. First in several generations."

"Lightning elemental?" I ask. "That's pretty cool. Aren't elementals extremely rare? It's weird that I know two."

"They're pretty rare," he nods. "Most cities only have one or two, according to the Patron. We have seven, though we did have two more in our lives, but the Patron won't say what happened to them. It's before my time being in contact with the guardians."

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"They were guardians?" I ask.

"Dunno," he shrugs. "No one really knew about them outside of comments the Patron made. We think they were lovers, but we aren't sure."

"Oh," I say. "How many people here are a vigilante or guardian?"

"Only Chris, Isaac, and I are guardians here," he tells me. "Sasha would have been a guardian here, except, y'know, the babies. The other guardians are either working or declined to come due to the crowd or mass of strangers. Everyone else is a vigilante that Isaac's become friends with over the years. You're the only one who isn't – but you might be joining the ranks soon. Which only we guardians know about, by the way. As far as everyone else here knows, you're just a childhood friend Isaac recently reconnected with."

"Alright," I say.

"So!" He puts and arm across my shoulder and turns me to the door. "Let's rejoin the party!"

Theo leads me out of the bedroom and back to the party, over to a game he calls Foosball. Theo starts playing against a girl who looks a few years older than us, whose power seems to be superspeed. Or at least, the one she's using. Theo competes against her using his lightning-enhanced speed, the little ping-pong ball shooting across the playing field as the 'players' they're controlling spin rapidly. How the game doesn't break from the speed, I have no clue.

I watch them for a few games, but trying to keep track of who's winning and who's losing gives me a headache, so I step away after a bit and try to find something else to do. While Theo said to just talk to someone, everyone here seems to know each other and I don't really know how to socialize when I have to initiate it with a strange.

"There you are!" A hand clamps down on my shoulder. "Hi, Kieran!"

"Hi, Isaac," I turn and face him. "Thanks for inviting me."

"Thanks for coming," he grins and releases my shoulder. "Do you want to see a picture of the twins?"

"Sure," I answer, and he pulls out his phone and shows me a picture of a pair of babies wrapped in light blue blankets, staring up at the camera. "They look like babies."

"Yeah, they do," he chuckles. "Sasha's staying in Kathy's apartment during the party, to watch the babies. I was down visiting them when you arrived. Have you talked with Chris?"

"Theo says there were three of them."

"The one you know!" Isaac laughs. "I know you said you think he'd make a good friend but not a good lover, but he's a great guy, single, and looking. He also thinks you're really cute and said he had to resist the urge to kiss you because he thought you might stab him."

Do I really give off the impression I'd stab someone for kissing me on impulse?

"I don't even have a weapon," I roll my eyes. "Besides, I really don't feel attracted to him. Like with you or Danny or Todd – two other guys I know – I can admit he's attractive, but he doesn't have that 'draw' that Zane or Lucas does. Theo does, though."

"Theo?" Isaac raises an eyebrow, then looks towards Lightning Boy, who's in the middle of an arm-wrestling game with another guy, this one a bit more muscular than him. "We're pretty sure he's asexual and aromantic. He's never shown an interest in anyone. Sasha even tried nudging him towards some people and he just chatted with them."

"He still holds more sexual appeal to me than Chris, sorry," I say.

"Things are as they are," he shrugs. "Though that's interesting… anyway, I'm going to go mingle. Try to have fun, yeah?"

Something tells me that if I try to ask him what's interesting about me being attracted to Theo, he won't answer.

"Yeah," I say. "Happy birthday, Isaac."

"Thanks," he responds, then walks off.

I head to the kitchen and grab a glass from the table, then scoop some of the drink in the bowl into it and take a sip. This is fruit punch, right? It has something… sharp? I don't think that's how it should be described.

"Ever had punch before?" Someone asks, and I turn to face a girl a little older than me. "Isaac mentioned you were a friend from before he joined our ranks."

"Never had most of this stuff before," I say. "Or if I have, it was when I was little."

"The punch," she says. "Has lemon-lime soda, fruit punch, and sherbet."

Ah, the bite or whatever must be the soda. I'm not feeling much fizz, though.

"Okay," I say.

What do I say?

"So what do you do?" She asks. "I mean as a job, though you can share your power, too, if you want."

I probably shouldn't share my power at the moment since the only one that I can really play with is meant for my guardian life, so it'll probably get censored by the Patron, even if they researched me later. Though I could probably mention how I grow stronger in darkness?

"I work through a temp agency," I answer. "The pay's decent, especially after moving to a better one recently. As for what I can do, um, we're keeping that under wraps at the moment."

Though now that I think about it, how will me using my shadow-walking as a Sivalshi Guardian not get connected to me as a person by those who already know me? Or will that be done through more interference by the Patron?

"No worries," she says. "Haven't decided which will be your civilian power and which your vigilante?"

Are they assuming I'm going to be a vigilante? Or do they actually know for sure that I'm going to be one?

"I get stronger in darkness," I tell her. "Little bit faster, recover a little bit quicker."

"Haven't branched out yet?" She asks.

"Not really," I shrug. "Have a few ideas on what to go for."

"Well," she says. "If you wait until you're made the official offer, the Patron will tell you what would work best for the persona you'll have."

The Patron talks with his paid vigilantes? Or is it just for the offer?

"We don't pick the personas?" I ask.

"We do," she chuckles. "He bases it on our personalities already and our fighting style. I think Isaac mentioned you're a case that will have a few months to prepare yourself after being officially made one, to go through certain training and education first."

Probably so that a guardian and a vigilante with shadow-based powers don't show up at the same time. Finding out that the Patron tends to tell vigilantes new powers to use is interesting, though. I'll assume he does that for guardians, too.

"We're getting ready to play poker," she tells me. "Join us if you want, anyone can jump in."

"I'll think about it," I tell her.

She refills her punch, then walks off to join the game, and I walk over to one of the two couches facing the coffee table and take a seat. For the next couple of hours, people join me to talk for a few minutes, then step away, and I get the feeling I'm not being very good at being social here. It's so much easier when I have two of my current friends with me because they handle everything on their own, I just hang out and give occasional input and comments.

Around one in the morning, Theo plops himself down on the couch beside me, his half-full glass of punch nearly spilling as he does. His hair is ruffled, probably from some game or another he did, and it only makes him sexier.

"You look like you're not enjoying yourself," he says.

I look into my glass, mostly to avoid looking at him because he is really sexy, and I didn't get off in the showers at the center today because I knew Lucas and Zane were going to be impatient and one might have walked in to see if something was going on. Don't get a boner, Kieran, if he notices, he might get upset.

"I'm enjoying being here," I tell him. "I'm just not good at being social. That probably comes from years without social interaction. I'm getting better."

"Everyone has their types," he chuckles. "Me? I go both ways: social or antisocial. Depends on the crowd and how active I've been that day. I'm actually rather tame right now because I was doing a job before and burned up a lot of energy. That hyper movement I do as Orwitz? Yeah, I do that even without being in the mode. Just slower since I ain't charged through with lightning."

"That must be fun," I chuckle. "Have any hobbies?"

"Playing video games when I'm calmer," he answers. "Or doing something active like shooting hoops, running laps, or just training when I'm not. What about you?"

"Well, I didn't really have any, to be honest," I tell him. "My apartment was too cold all the time, so when I wasn't working or sleeping, I was just walking around town. I've begun hanging out with new friends I've made, though, and one is trying to get me into this game he plays on his phone. I'm thinking of finding a game he doesn't play for me to so I can screw with him."

Theo snorts at that, then asks what game my friend plays, and we start chatting for a bit. I have to really, really try to keep my gaze off of him because every time I look at him, it's like looking at Zane or Lucas. Not only that, but he's friendly and nice, just like them.

"Can I ask if I'm boring you?" Theo eventually asks. "Every time you look at me, you quickly look away and you seem not that interested."

"You're good," I look at him. Damn, those eyes are beautiful. "I'm just bad at socializing, like I said. And, um, I was power training before I came here and didn't get to, erm, jerk it before leaving. And you're incredibly sexy. I'm trying to not get hard because I don't want you taking things the wrong way, especially since Isaac said you're asexual and aromantic."

He's quiet for a few moments, and just as I start to worry that I did upset him, he scoots so that we're touching, moving an arm across my shoulders and leaning in.

"I'm gay," he whispers. "Elementals just tend to have very specific tastes, and I haven't met someone before who met them. That said, the reason I came back over wasn't just because you were looking kind of bored and to invite you to join us for a game of punch pong – which I forgot to do, by the way. It was because you meet those tastes and I was hoping to see if you were a nice enough guy to ask to my apartment after we leave the party."

Patron help me, if he's serious send me a turtle.

Something catches my attention, and when I look up, I see a turtle sitting on the coffee table, staring at me. For a few moments, we just stare at each other, then I hand Theo my glass.

"Um… thanks?"

I pull out my phone and take a picture of the turtle.

"Wait, is that a turtle?" Theo asks.

"Ninth one I've seen since Monday."

"Holy shit, Isaac wasn't kidding when he said you were seeing them."

"Nope," I confirm. "I've taken pictures of all of them, see?"

I show him the pictures on my phone to give myself some time to think over his offer. I'd rather go with Lucas or Zane, but Theo is definitely someone who has it all there, he's a freaking Sivalshi Guardian. The turtle showing up now can't be a coincidence, which only adds to my theory that the Patron has just been screwing with me for talking to Sivalshi. Then suddenly decided to send me a sign? Is the Patron reading my thoughts?

The turtle raises its left foreleg. Which is what I'd said to do for 'yes' when talking to Sivalshi the other day…

Well, that confirms it. The Patron is officially screwing with me.

"The Patron has got to be screwing with you," Theo says. "We all go through it, but usually after our one-year mark. You must have done something that made him to do this."

"I tried talking to Sivalshi the other day," I tell him. "Like, on-the-turtle's-head kind of talking. Personal reasons."

"That would do it!" He laughs.

"Mind if I ask what your verdict was?" I ask.

"On?" He asks.

"Me."

"You?" He smiles. "You're cute and nice. I know we just met, but I'd be happy to sleep with you. Sexually or non-sexually."

"I'm kind of interested in two guys at the moment," I tell him. "Though they are taking awhile to feel comfortable enough with themselves to date me. I wouldn't mind doing hookups, though. I've told them that I'm not necessarily going to wait for them, so it's their loss on not being my first. You being a guardian tells me enough about you to know you're a good guy."

Then there's the fact that he is literally my vigilante crush. This even came up recently, too, back when Danny and I were talking about vigilantes we'd have sex with if we could.

"So hookups with a possibility of more snuggles and actual dates?" He asks.

"Sure," I answer. "Not to be rushy about it, but… now? I'm kind of horny, like I said, and I think I've been in a party for too long already. It's starting to overwhelm me."

"Let's go," he sets our cups on the coffee table. "Huh. The turtle's gone."

"Yeah, they tend to do that."

Theo extends a hand, helping me to my feet, then beckons towards the door.

"Come on," he says. "My apartment's the one below this one, so it's not that far."

I'm both excited and nervous for this.