By the time lunch rolled around, the knot that Aida had nearly forgotten in her stomach had loosened. Lily couldn’t stop gushing about Aida being a weed: overlooked and unappreciated, until one day she commanded the whole garden. Sue was indignant on Aida’s behalf, insisting she was a flower instead of a weed. Aida, however, was amused by Lily’s analogy.

“I don’t mind being a weed,” she told Sue. “Weeds are indestructible.”

Lily clapped her hands, pointing at Aida in triumphant approval. “She gets it!”

Vanita, Lily’s tall brunette friend with sweet brown eyes, smiled at Aida. “At least you’re a plant of some kind. Lily calls me fertilizer.”

“That’s because you’re the most generous and nourishing individual I’ve ever met!” Lily said loyally.

“Well…I guess fertilizer is also composed of organic matter, so you would encompass all plants?” Aida offered tentatively.

“YES,” Lily cheered, clapping her hands and dancing around the group. “Only Aida gets me!”

“Ladies, please, let’s not talk about fertilizer while we eat lunch,” Levi said soothingly. “What are you all planning on working on for the rest of the day?”

“More weeds,” Lily said promptly, albeit sourly. She glared at Levi with mock venom. “Watch your food.”

“Bring it on,” Levi shot back. “More training for me.”

“What time did you want to train?” Aida asked Levi. She glanced at Caleb. “Caleb and I are going to do more squats in the evening, I guess.” Caleb nodded affirmatively, eyes gleaming with excitement.

“We can go after lunch,” Levi said. He turned to Sue. “What are your plans?”

“I’m going to borrow Caleb,” Sue replied thoughtfully. She turned to Caleb. “Is that okay? Were you planning on doing anything after?”

“Uh, no, not at all,” Caleb stuttered. “What…were you planning on working on?”

“I was hoping we could practice grappling,” Sue said matter-of-factly. “Just basic techniques, no mana involved. I’m certain that’s what it will take to beat Ezra this year,” she finished darkly.

Aida swallowed her lips, keeping the smile from her face. By her count, Sue was soon to trigger her third romance event with Caleb. Levi was still at two, and Ezra was at one. Caleb looked even more flustered at the thought of grappling with Sue, though the confident musclehead part of him pulled his shoulders back.

She glanced inquisitively at Vanita, who seemed to be perfectly content being on the edge of the conversation. Catching her gaze, Vanita reached out and planted her hand on Lily’s head, grounding the spinning girl. “I’ll be with Lily, trying to create a soil composition that her weeds won’t grow in.” Lily nodded smugly.

Since they had a larger group than usual, they took one of the big tables in the center of the dining hall. Aida looked around at the merry band she was now part of. Everyone was so light-hearted, tossing jokes and roasts back and forth. Aida blinked back wetness. She hadn’t thought about her high school years for so long, it felt like another life - it literally was another life, Aida reminded herself. A life where rent and bills were academically understood as being a burden, but hadn’t leeched into every corner of her life yet. A life where casual decisions weren’t made based on opportunity costs, and were instead influenced by what sounded fun.

Levi belched delicately into his fist. Lily scrunched her face in exaggerated disgust and Sue wrinkled her nose. “Excuse me.” He looked at Aida’s near-empty tray. “Shall we?”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Did you ever get rid of the stimflowers?” Aida asked as they picked their way through the forest.

“Oh sure,” Levi said amicably. “I actually handed the task off to Lily. She said they were low quality, but she still took them.”

“Is it necessary to be all the way out here?” Aida continued, trying to keep the whine out of her voice. She was still tired from exhausting all of her mana on Levan.

“I just wanted to make sure we’re far enough from the school for some privacy.”

“Is training Mana Resistance something that requires privacy?” Aida asked slowly.

Levi sighed. “You really need to be more aware of the things you say, Aida,” Levi said softly, finally turning around to face her. The intensity in his face, along with the emphasis on her name, sent chills down Aida’s spine. Standing under the dappled light of the trees, Levi looked like a dangerous - and beautiful - predator.

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Aida licked her lips, hyper conscious of how her body was positioned. She had stashed her wand in her track pants’s long pocket, and wouldn’t be able to get it out in time. “What are you saying?”

The corner of Levi’s mouth lifted in a slight smirk. “I’m not saying I know anything. I just have observations.” He turned away from her, placing his hands on his lower back as he stretched, wholly at ease. “And my observations lead me to conclusions that don’t quite make sense.” He turned to a fallen log and sat down, gesturing for her to join him. “Come, sit. Let’s talk.”

Cautiously approaching the log, Aida sat on the far end, facing him. He was clearly trying to put her at ease with his body language and invitation to sit. He straddled the log, leaning back against a tree trunk. Deliberately making it tedious for him to make any sudden movements. His fingers were loosely clasped on his belly, in plain sight. “You can have your wand out, if you want. But I promise I just want to talk.”

Slowly easing her wand out of her pocket, Aida kept it pointed in his general direction as she tried to relax. Not that she had the mana or ability to actually stop Levi if he attempted anything.

They stared at each other, ocean blue eyes into glinting bronze depths. Levi finally broke the silence.

“Let’s start with the basics. Feel free to interrupt me if I’m wrong.” Levi slowly released his fingers, resting his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward. “For the past two years that we’ve known her, Aida has shown herself to be - dull. So dull most of us wonder how she entered Maglica Academy in the first place. She’s not utterly incompetent,” he added. “Her effort and focus is commendable. Too commendable,” he admitted, wincing. “She is so oblivious when she’s focused. But she just doesn’t get it. No matter how many explanations she receives, no matter who helps her…” his gaze sharpened. “I find it hard to believe that someone can mentally mature in such a short period of time.”

Aida remained mute. Levi continued when he saw she wasn’t going to say anything.

“It’s not just that either. Let’s say she received the bestest, most intensest tutoring during break. Why would she forget basic, elementary concepts of mana, in order to…for lack of a better word…become smarter?” This time Levi was expecting her to say something.

“Nobody else seems to have a problem with it,” Aida said softly. Her stomach relaxed. She was no stranger to giving satisfactory nonanswers to customers demanding answers to unanswerable questions. Levi was asking questions she didn’t know the answers to, so there was no web of lies for her to keep track of here.

However, what was the right move? She had never been good at lying - always paralyzed by fear whenever someone called out something she did that she knew would land her in hot water. Unable to act on her sense of self-preservation, despite the impending doom.

“You’re right,” Levi agreed. “They’re letting Aida’s inherent idiocy blind them to something happening.” He looked up at the trees thoughtfully. His next words were more of a soft musing to himself than anything else. “I’m convinced you aren’t the Aida Loreh we know, but I don’t know what happened.” He looked back at her, his usual charming smile back in place. “Great talk! Let’s try to bring your fundamental knowledge base up so you don’t draw anyone else’s attention.”

Aida gazed at him in disbelief. Levi had gotten to his feet, leaning into comical body stretches. The predator in him was completely gone. Her mind whirled at the whiplash from feeling cornered, trapped, dragged inexorably down a whirlpool - to being freed.

“Hold on, that’s it?” Aida demanded. “You level this outrageous accusation against me, and then just decide to drop it?”

Levi folded his arms. “Would you tell me the truth?”

She struggled. Obviously she wouldn’t tell him the actual truth - but she couldn’t come up with a red herring on the spot for him either.

“…No,” Aida admitted. She sighed, annoyed. “People like you are so obnoxious.”

“Because of how practical we are?” Levi grinned. Aida scowled at him. She felt a lot more sympathetic towards Lily. She paused, frowning. The sense of relief she felt just a moment ago froze over as she finally caught up to the abrupt shift in Levi’s behavior.

“But…why did you tell me this? And why are you helping me?”

His grin broadened. “If there’s one thing I like more than deciphering a mystery - and you are still a mystery, but I’ll get you eventually - it’s keeping a secret.” Levi stood up from his side lunges, stretching his hand out towards her. His eyes glittered in a way Aida couldn’t interpret.

She hesitated. She was out of her depth. She felt like Levi intended to use her, but she couldn’t imagine how. Levi saw her reluctance.

“Think of it this way. You can trust me to help you, and not to hurt you. Or you can go back to school right now, continue to meander around asking silly questions like a child, and pray everyone continues to take pity on you and ignore how drastic your change is.”

Aida glared at him. One and a half weeks in, and she was already being forced into making a choice she didn’t understand the full ramifications of. “Is there a contract of some sort?”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “Contract?” When she nodded, he burst into laughter. “Skies, I almost believed you were our lovable Aida again.” Wiping his eyes, he looked back at her seriously, his voice low. “You understand that you have no leverage here, right? It’s only a matter of time until someone else notices you’re not Aida. And it really doesn’t matter to me; I can enjoy the fallout from a distance.”

She hated how right he was. Levi might be the first to notice, but he certainly wouldn’t be the last - if she tried to spread out her contextually odd questions among her classmates, that would lead to increased likelihood that people would start putting the pieces together - while if she trusted Levi at his word, that he would help her, then she could contain her lack of knowledge to just one person.

Just because it was the best move didn’t mean she had to like it.

Aida punched his arm as hard as she could without using mana. “You could have humored me,” she muttered. She strode away from the log, folding her arms as she looked at him defiantly. “You have yourself a deal. I’ll trust you to help me in the interim. But since you never specified what you want in return, I reserve the right to say no when you ask for something from me.”

“That’s not how deals work,” Levi protested, feigning hurt. He rubbed his arm, looking at her with wounded eyes. “You know I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I care about you!”

Aida picked up a stick and hurled it at him. She missed in her fury, but she got her point across.

“Okay, okay! I accept your ‘deal,’” Levi yelped, overexaggerating his avoidance of her projectile. “Let’s talk about mana resistance and penetration…”