"-and the boy waved goodbye to the icesoul wolf who had helped him through the blizzard. The wolf dipped its head to him, then faded into the snow as if but a memory. Later, when the blizzard had ended and the boy was tucked in for the night, he wondered if he might ever see such a great beast again."

As I finish the translated tale, the children who've gathered in front of me begin clapping. The lantern is closer to me, to illuminate the pages of the book better. That lights me up well but the small audience is a little bit outside of its range as it's a lantern only meant for a small space. With the thick clouds which have begun to form overhead and them sitting a respectful distance away, most of my audience is cast in shadows.

Ryan joins in, his applause more soft than the children's. He was sitting beside me, but moved in front once the children began asking their parents if they could sit and listen. Now, he's got children grouped up to either side of him and a few in front. One of the kids even climbed up into his lap to listen in, and that one's clapping quite enthusiastically.

Seeing the kid climb up into Ryan's lap was kind of funny, but years of telling stories in the children's section of the library kept me from losing my composure. Ryan looked absolutely clueless about what to do when the four-year-old decided he was a seat. Colby usually picks either my lap or his dad's at the library, but it seems Ryan works fine for the purple-haired boy. Aster sitting in my lap is probably the reason Colby picked Ryan tonight.

This is his fourth time hearing that same story from me this year, but he claps just as enthusiastically as always, his grey eyes filled with excitement.

"Are you gonna read another, Mister?" A six-year-old girl asks once the clapping stops, and several of the other kids start asking.

"Not tonight," I set the tome down beside me. "I think your parents might want to take you home before it gets too late. But see the library over there?" I point at the library. "They do readings for children's stories, fairy tales, and more every Wednesday at seven in the evening. I'm the one doing the reading this week, and I always read translations of tales from tomes found in Dungeons. If you ask your parents, they might take you to listen this week."

Now that story time is over, the parents and older siblings start collecting their kids, several of whom immediately ask if they can come listen to me on Wednesday. Colby remains on Ryan's lap as the others leave, then gets up and walks over to me, his dad watching from a distance. The kid looks down Aster for a moment, then looks at me.

"Aster?" I rub the pup's head. "I think Colby wants to know if he can pet you."

"Woof!" Aster softly responds.

"Go ahead," I say as Ryan shifts over to sit beside me.

"You know him?" Ryan asks.

"I babysit him sometimes," I explain as Colby starts petting Aster. "He's a bit shy, so I was surprised when he climbed onto your lap. His dad's a Rank 5 from another part of the city. Hey, Barry."

"Hey, Evan," Barry says as he sits with us. "Is his fur soft, Colby?"

Colby nods to his dad, not taking his hand off of Aster. Barry is the one Colby draws his appearance from, with the two having the same deep purple hair and grey eyes. Barry's dressed in black shorts, a grey sleeveless, and sneakers, an outfit his son's imitating. The last few times I've seen them, Colby's been dressed as a little mini-Barry.

Something I've learned is very much on Colby's end. He's entered the phase of wanting to be just like his dad.

"What brings you to this district?" I ask.

"Colby asked if we could get that book so I could read him that story," Barry chuckles. "This is the only store which has it in stock right now. Wasn't expecting to see you sitting out here, reading it to a group of others."

"That's my fault," Ryan says. "I'd heard about him having a good reading voice and wanted to hear it… and didn't believe him when he said it would draw a crowd."

"They stopped announcing who the reader is at the library because of him," Barry chuckles. "And being a little bit more strict about the section's guest limit, too."

Which will probably be reached on Wednesday since I mentioned I'll be there, so I'll let the staff know so they're prepared. I'm not forbidden from telling, they just ask I don't do it too often and give them warning if I do. They understand I might sometimes reveal it in a situation like this.

"Those aren't just rumors?" Ryan asks, then leans back a little. "Well, after hearing your reading voice for myself, I can understand. It's rather nice. There was something soft and soothing about it as you read the story."

"And you couldn't help but hang on to every word," Barry smiles a little. "Even if most of the story wasn't full of action or danger. Name's Barry."

"Ryan," Ryan introduces himself. "You're from another district? Can't be too close to this one, I know almost all of the Rank 5s this half of the city."

"Colby and I live on the other side," Barry tells him. "I moved there a few years ago, after his mom passed away," he ruffles his son's hair as his son manages to move Aster so he can sit on my lap and the pup can sit on his. "Her parents have been helping me with taking care of him."

"So you grew up around here?" Ryan asks.

"In Green Hill District," Barry names the district directly north of this one. "Evan and I started as scavengers at the same time, though I usually went for meat while he preferred reagents. I don't know if we ever ran the same ones."

"I think we have a couple of times," Ryan says. "I do remember a purple-haired scavenger with grey eyes from a few of them years ago. Still a scavenger?"

Some eye colors are on the rarer side, such as grey and purple. People tend to remember those of us with them a little bit more easily as a result.

"A hunter now," Barry says as Colby looks up at me. "I Awakened not long after his mom passed."

They talk a little as I pick up the book and open it up to show Colby the pictures. The kid turns his attention fully to the book to examine the pictures as I slowly flip between the pages.

"We should get going now," Barry says after a few minutes. "Come on, Colby. Let's go get our copy of the book."

Colby holds his hands up and out, and I move the book to the side so that his dad can pick him up. As he does, Barry whispers in my ear.

"Are you two dating?"

"Early stages," I whisper back. "This is part of our first date."

"Sorry for intruding," he says, not whispering as much now as he stands, Colby held against him with his arms wrapped around Barry's neck, head resting on his father's shoulder.

"No worries," I say.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"It was nice meeting you," Ryan tells him.

"You two have a good night," Barry says. "Colby? Do you wanna say bye to Uncle Evan?"

"Bye," Colby softly waves to me, then gives Ryan a wave.

Barry leaves, and Ryan takes the book and places it into one of his bracelets before sitting beside me.

"You really do have a nice reading voice," he says.

"Thanks," I lean my head against his shoulder. "If you want to stay here a little bit longer, we can. Or we can leave now and be in shelter before the rain starts."

"The rain?" He looks up. "Hm… maybe forty minutes or so? We've got time before we'd need to leave to avoid the rain."

"So you want to stay?" I ask.

"Maybe a few more minutes," he looks around. "Before we go, I wanted to ask you about expectations and stuff."

We're both already aware that there's going to be sex once we go to either my place or his so I'm sure he's not wanting to discuss that expectation but something else. That's just a part of dating and we've already discussed that side of things for this part of our relationship. There are a few different things which I can think of that he might be wanting to discuss right now, but I'm not sure which it is.

"What sort of expectations?" I ask.

"Three things in particular," he says. "First being about what happens after sex. I know some people have different rules for it depending on if they're single, dating, or exclusive and wanted to ask about your preferences."

Oh. This is something I pretty much never think about until it actually comes to that, but it's probably good that he's thought of it now so that the expectation for when the time comes is the correct one.

"I don't fall asleep with someone unless I'm in an exclusive relationship with them," I tell him. "Sex is more for bodily satisfaction than emotional for me, while sleeping in the same bed with someone I'm interested in is more for emotional comfort. It's a bit too intimate for me unless I'm exclusive."

"Fair enough," he says. "I prefer to snuggle at night even in the non-exclusive dating period, but am okay if you don't want to do that until we go exclusive. That leads to the second part. Do you have a period of time you prefer to be non-exclusive before deciding that we're a good enough match to go exclusive or that we won't work out? I don't really have that, it's more of a 'when it feels right' to me."

"I cap it at three months," I tell him. "If I haven't determined that the relationship is working and it feels like we're a good fit by then, then I doubt we will. So no more than three months.

"However," I add. "I've been… informed that I apparently stop hooking up with others when I start to develop those deeper feelings. And I don't realize it. So if you notice me not letting you know I'm meeting up with others for a week or two, it's not that I've stopped telling you, it's that I've stopped being active with others."

"I'll keep that in mind," he says. "Third of them is something I have an expectation of. If I ever do something which crosses a line or makes you uncomfortable, let me know."

"Same applies to you," I tell him. "That's sort of a given."

"Nick and Wyatt," he says. "Both said that you've never vocalized if something made you uncomfortable, they always had to ask."

So he's talked with my exes about dating me, then.

I use my left index finger to draw a line in the air, a trail of golden light following after it. In the light of the lantern, I can make out a small frown on Ryan's face as I make a second line about six inches below the first.

"Think of things as a scale," I point in the section between the two lines. "If something is a little bit past my boundary, it's above the first line. It'll bother me in the moment but not long-term, so I won't say anything.

"When something goes above that line, however," I point above the line. "That's where it's bothering me too much or making me too uncomfortable. Not a single person I've ever been in a romantic relationship with has crossed that second line. When they ask me, it's usually something that's gone above the first one but isn't at the second. That's why they've never had me say something directly – they've never gotten to the point where it'll bother me long-term or really make me uncomfortable.

"It's a trade-off," I tell him. "Or a compromise, I suppose. I'm able to put up with a little bit of discomfort or bother when it's minor and won't last very long."

"Alright," he gives me a kiss. "Want to head to my place or yours?"

Since Ryan didn't drive to my place, one of us will definitely need to walk back on their own after, since the incoming rain was unexpected. There was nothing in the forecast about it but we can both tell there's going to be plenty. I'm not sure what Ryan's thoughts are, but I have an easy solution to it using the truth.

"I never have sex in my house unless I'm official with someone," I tell him. "It's… a weird hangup, I guess."

"It only takes about ten minutes to get to my place from here," Ryan stands, then extends a hand out to me. "We didn't get dessert before reading. Want to get something for the way there?"

He lives that close to me? Even if it's in the opposite direction from as my place, that's still not too far.

"Sure," I accept his hand after nudging Aster off of my lap and he helps me to my feet, then he turns off the lantern and puts it away. "From one of the vendors or somewhere along the way?"

"There's a good ice cream spot," he says. "It'll add a few extra minutes to the trip, but they're pretty good."

I think I know the place he's talking about, and they do serve rather good ice cream.

"Alright," I say.

Ryan takes my hand into his as we walk, reaching the ice cream store a few minutes later. They're open twenty-four hours so we didn't have to worry about that, and we order a pair of cones to go. As with everything tonight, Ryan insists on paying for it, then we eat them on the way to Ryan's place. I got mine with chocolate, caramel, and sprinkles, while Ryan got his topped with chocolate, strawberry sauce, and nuts.

Aster seems disappointed that he didn't get to eat anything, but Ryan ordered a small cup of strawberry sauce for him to enjoy once we've arrived at our destination.

The building Ryan lives in is a high-end ten-story apartment complex where each floor is an apartment with a small lobby the elevator lets out into. Ryan lives on the tenth floor, which apparently comes with exclusive access to the roof, which has a pool.

"And that's only for the top-floor resident?" I ask as I close the door behind me once we've entered.

"Yeah," he begins removing his shoes. "Though every apartment comes with a balcony on the northern end, set into the building. That has a hot tub for the resident to use. But the rooftop is exclusive for the resident of the top floor."

"How'd you swing this apartment?" I ask as I set my shoes beside his. "I'd have thought something like that would get snapped up by someone wealthy as the place got built."

"That's exactly what happened," he chuckles. "This place was finished when we were sixteen, and the owner had a preference for active hunters. When I applied and requested the apartment with access to the roof, I was the only Awakened to have applied for an apartment here. That put me right at the front of the line for this one, and being Rank 5 ensured I stayed there."

"Oh," I say, and he pulls me in for a kiss.

"Woof!" Aster starts running in circles around us.

"Let me get his treat," Ryan chuckles, then pulls out the container and opens it up. "Slowly, little guy."

Aster ignores that and gets right to work lapping up the sauce and strawberry bits in the container. Once he finishes, I pick him up and look at Ryan.

"Mind if I wash his mouth?" I ask as the pup licks his lips.

"Go ahead," Ryan chuckles. "He really likes that, doesn't he?"

An idea comes to me. While I can't find anything on mythical beasts having informational windows, Aster seems to be something else entirely, with a different set of rules regarding him.

"Check him like he's an item," I tell Ryan, and a moment later, Ryan's eyes widen.

"I've… never heard of that before."

Since he can see the informational window for Aster, that means it's not restricted to just me. The windows I've seen for mythical beasts… could it be that the reason no one else knows about them is that they can only be viewed in a Mythic Forest? That would explain why I can see those ones but there's not a record of such a thing.

It's possible those who discovered it just kept it quiet or weren't believed. As such a thing wouldn't have been easily verifiable, it wouldn't be in any normal record about Mythic Forests or mythical beasts.

"Me, neither," I say as we move to the kitchen so I can use the sink in there. "But it seems that a being with access to the System's informational windows used it to take notes on Aster."

"If they've done it for one," Ryan says. "They might have done it for others."

"Yeah," I say. "But since we've never heard of it before… it might be only for creatures in that book."

Ryan pulls out the tome we got at the library, the one which might have information about Aster in it.

"Do you want to see what it has to say about him?" Ryan asks as I finish washing and drying the pup's mouth.

The fact that he's asking that now makes me a little bit glad, even if we came here to have sex. It means that's not all he wants to happen in his home, and I don't have an issue with doing other stuff. We're spending time together, and that's what matters here.

"Sure," I look down at Aster. "What do you say, little guy? Want to see what Dungeons have to say about you?"

"Woof?" Aster tilts his head to the side a little, his tail wagging.

"He has no idea what we're talking about," I tell Ryan. "Apparently, he didn't pay attention while were in the library."

"Alright," Ryan chuckles. "Let's sit on the couch."