"I become rock-hard!" Zane cheerfully answers.

"Is that supposed to be a jibe at me?" Lucas growls. "Just because I'm-"

"I mean literally," Zane grins. "I can turn to living stone, though it does cause me to become rock-hard in more ways than one. Not just from the usual issue power users deal with, but probably as some quirk of our power to prevent issues. I don't know, we've never really figured it out. Even my great-grandpa, who lived to a hundred and ten, couldn't figure it out. Something to do with how our blood is also living stone? That's about all we know."

Their blood is also living stone in that form? What on Earth does he mean by that?

"Alright," Lucas sighs. "Let's get you signed up for the assessment and I'll let them know I'm staying a bit later. We don't… really have someone with an ability similar to that, and I've never seen one. I'll need to call Grandpa and see what he says. You good waiting for us, Kieran?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Just leave the balls in here and I'll be fine."

"Okay," he puts a hand on Zane and light-walks them away.

When I stand up, they're gone, but I'm assuming Zane dressed before they left. As I walk over to the barrier, I realize that Lucas might be right about what he told me, too. I can't remember the last time I was horny, yet I'm definitely a little bit right now, even if I'm soft. Does using powers really have an effect like that? Could it be linked directly to our libido, too?

At the barrier, grab the balls, then start tossing them a short distance before attempting to catch them. While I know that I won't receive an extra benefit to training my power today, I do work on my skill with it every few minutes.

Once I can shadow-walk five and a half feet, I toss the ball towards a shadow within the range, then shadow-walk into the shadow and attempt to catch the ball. This is a form of skill training, too, though it's one I came up with on my own. I'm sure Lucas would have suggested it to me eventually, but he seems to prefer training that involves more action.

There are three things this works on.

First, it helps me with more precise shadow-steps, as I'm attempting to appear in the right spot to catch the ball. In order to make better attempts at catching the ball, I have to aim myself for more than just the shadow, but for specific spots in the shadow.

Second, it's helping me move for the ball right after. Instead of lunging for the ball like I have to with Lucas's training, I'm able to simply catch the ball – or try to – by reaching out without moving my body much. A smaller movement rather than a larger one.

Third, it's helping me with navigating the blocks, too. This part doesn't come in when I make the shadow-steps every few minutes, but rather, between those times. I still don't toss the balls very far, but it's far enough that I do need to hustle.

It only takes me a few minutes to work out how to toss the balls so that I still have time to catch them, even with a short distance. To do that, I need to toss them high, so that they're coming down about when I should be arriving.

Training without Lucas encouraging me on isn't much fun, though, and I find myself bored rather fast. There really is a difference between training alone and training with a friend. I only manage half an hour before deciding to stop out of lack of motivation.

This extra session has confirmed to me that there is a connection, like Lucas told me, because even though I focused solely on this training, I find myself hard again. Hard and actually wanting to take care of it.

Sitting down, I try juggling three of the balls instead. My attempts at this are a bit more entertaining to me, though I only manage to do this for a short while before Lucas and Zane return.

"Done already?" I ask.

"I really can't do much," Zane shrugs. "I turn to stone, and that's about it. I'm stronger, tougher, and heavier in that form, but also a bit slower. Lucas says that he thinks we can work on the slower part."

"According to what Grandpa said," Lucas says. "Your normal strength, speed, and flexibility will translate over into the altered. The former will enhance, and the latter two are lessened, so you have to train the normal in order to increase them for the altered."

Zane's less flexible as well?

"So your grandpa knew of the ability?" I pull on my shorts and shirt.

"Yeah," Lucas answers. "He said that the only ability he knew of where the body changed into an element was if the power user was something called an 'elemental'. They can turn into the element, manipulate it, sense it, and several other things. So like an advanced version of what we do."

"I can't do any of that," Zane says. "But I supposedly will be able to if I work on it. I signed up for the full package."

"Grandpa agreed to let him into the gold membership," Lucas tells me. "Due to having the same circumstances as you."

I'm pretty sure they're not exactly the same circumstances as me, but it's close enough.

"I'll be coming in at the same time as you," Zane tells me. "Though I'll be doing martial arts in his grandpa's class while you're in the lessons with Lucas."

"Since he already has training," Lucas says. "It's better for him to train with people who have some as well. I've set him up with Thomas for his ability training for now. I don't have the patience to deal with him."

Lucas's tone and Zane's grin tells me that Zane probably pushed at Lucas's patience during the assessment and possible tour. There's a good chance a fair bit of it came while Zane was using his power.

I really want to ask Zane if I can see him use his ability, but I'm worried that will come across the wrong way. While I am curious about 'that', I mostly just want to see the ability itself. What kind of stone does he turn into? Can he really move around with only some decrease to his speed and flexibility? What happens to his hair when he turns to stone? Can he transform only part of himself?

Well, I'm assuming not the last one based on what he said. But the rest of those aren't things I can simply assume. Maybe once we know each other better, if we're still hanging out, I'll ask him about it.

"Alright," I say. "I'm going to go take a shower, then I'll meet you two up at the desk."

"See you," they say.

I head to the showers and scrub off the sweat, then make sure to thoroughly dry myself and to dry my hair as best as possible before getting dressed. Zane hasn't acted like that with me, but it seems like he's intent on antagonizing Lucas. Or is that just his real personality, and he's suppressing it with me in an effort to win me over?

Once dried and dressed, I make my way up to the front, where Tabitha and Betty both look like they're doing their best to pretend Lucas and Zane aren't there, and the guys themselves appear to be a little more relaxed, chatting about their experiences when they were in high school. Even though they grew up so close to each other, they were in different districts.

"Ready?" Lucas asks as I approach.

"Yeah," I answer. "Same place?"

"Yeah," he answers. "I prefer them after training."

"Okay," I say. "Let's get going. I'm starving and we're already heading there past nine. The later we're out, the riskier it'll get."

The three of us leave the center and make our way down to the diner, and Zane and Lucas both sit first. Zane sits in the middle of the booth on one side of the table while Lucas scoots over close to the window. That's kind of strange, I would have expected Zane to try to get me to sit beside him. And why did Lucas sit as if expecting me to sit beside him?

I sit beside him as Sandy approaches us, since we're the only customers right now.

"Hey, boys," she says. "How are you tonight?"

"Hungry," Lucas answers. "Can we get three power up specials?"

"Sure thing, hun," she answers. "And to drink?"

"Still able to make the citrus twisters?" He asks.

"Sorry, hun," she says. "Out of lemons. I do have orange juice I squeezed up, though."

"We'll have those," he tells her. "They're still selling fresh oranges? That's odd, the supply sent to each lower district usually only happens for a week."

Even with the domes letting us grow any type of crop all year-round, there's still only so much space. Sure, the domes have three to five levels of farms and fields and orchards and vineyards, but they can still only produce so much.

There are twelve million people here that they try to feed with what's grown or raised there and the fish that's caught around us and the supply really isn't that great for premium item like fresh fruits.

In the Old Society, that wasn't an issue. They could cover much more land, grow in multiple areas, and import from all over. We're stuck with trying to produce all of our food on multi-level farming domes at the center of our city.

So it's better that they rotate which of the lower districts are receiving what on premium items. This way, they all get a chance at buying them.

"I don't know," Sandy tells Lucas. "Just that we're still able to put in orders and they're still delivering even after a week and a half. Maybe they have a little extra supply and can't get the rich folks to buy them? Who knows? I'll go get your drinks, boys."

Sandy heads back, and just after she disappears through the doorway, everything lurches, sending me slamming into Lucas and pinning him against the wall.

"That is the third time I've been thrown into you," I say as I scoot back over.

"Wait, the third time?" Zane asks.

"Yeah, why?" I ask.

"I dunno," he says. "It's just that these lurches started after you met him, right?"

"Yeah?" I say. "Why?"

"It's happened what, three times?" He asks. "And all three of them, you were thrown into Lucas? It's kind of funny that Sivalshi is coincidentally doing it at just the right time for that. So were you naked either of the other times?"

I feel my face heat up a little, and he grins in response.

"Lucky boy," he tells Lucas. "It's as if fate is working for that."

"Yeah," Lucas mumbles, fiddling with the roll of silverware in front of him.

Okay, I am officially confused. It seems like Zane has shifted to being okay with Lucas's crush on me? Before I can ask them what's going on, Sandy returns with our drinks, and by the time she walks away, I decide to observe a little more.

"So, Kieran," Zane says. "What kind of stuff do you like to do in your free time? When you aren't working or training, I mean."

"Keeping warm," I answer.

"Anything else?"

"Living by myself," I say. "Without a roommate, I can't afford hobbies. Most of what I do involves walking around the area I live in or just wrapping myself in my blankets at home."

"What about hanging out with friends?"

"I don't have any," I tell him. "You two are the first people I've hung out with since my parents died."

He looks as shocked and sad over this as Lucas was upon finding out about this.

"Well," he says. "I know we talked about it earlier, Kieran, but if you'll allow me, then I'd be happy to be your friend."

I thought it was my boyfriend, and with how confidently you asked me out earlier, Zane, I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention that. You didn't seem to have any issues with comments that might annoy Lucas before.

What in the world is going on?

"Just remember that I don't have 'fun' funds right now," I tell him. "So if we're hanging out, it needs to be without that. I know of a few things, but haven't done them since I was little."

"No worries," he says. "I know all about playing games. As long as you can get the stuff, you're good. And we can get a deck of cards for three dollars, but even without those, we can still just hang out and relax."

"Yeah," I say. "What kind of things do you do in your free time?"

"I play the guitar," he tells me. "Or if my fingers are too cold for that, I'll play cards by myself, read at the library, or find some people on the street to kick a ball around with. What about you, Lucas?"

"I either play with my brother, sleep, or hang out with my friends," Lucas states. "If I have time to myself and I'm not training, then I usually play a game on my phone."

Lucas and Zane start chatting about the various phone games they play, and I start to feel a little left out. I didn't even know that there were games to play on phones, and here are the two guys interested in me having something like that in common.

It's just another reminder that even if we're all in the lower districts, some of us are better off than others, especially those living closer to the middle districts.

A few minutes of them talking passes before I feel Lucas touching my arm under the table. Just a little, as if to let me know he hasn't forgotten about me. That makes me feel a little bit better about this.

When our food comes, the discussion ends as we all dig in, starving. As soon as it's time to pay, though, Lucas and Zane start arguing over who pays. Zane said he'd cover all of us, but Lucas doesn't want him to have to pay that much because Zane had mentioned he didn't have too much fun money left.

In the end, Sandy splits the bill in half without consulting them, setting the two tickets down. Zane pays for his meal and half of mine, and Lucas pays for his meal and half of mine.

Deciding to stop arguing about who pays, the two of them hand her their payments, and once they have their receipts, we leave the diner.

"Thanks for introducing me," Zane tells me. "I look forward to training a bit. I'll see you around, then."

He steps forward and speaks quietly into my ear.

"I'll pass for now, but I'd still like to be your friend."

As I try to figure out what he means by that, Zane wishes us a goodnight, then sets off.

"Well," I look at Lucas. "I should get going. It's pretty late and I don't feel comfortable being out this late. Even if it used to be safer until after midnight… with us going towards somewhere colder, you never know what other changes are happening."

"Yeah," he says. "I know you refused the other day, Kieran, but mind if I walk you home? I'd feel much better if you didn't go home unprotected. One person alone is more likely to get jumped than two. I want to talk with you about something, too."

He wants to talk with me about something? What? I guess I can accept his offer. It's probably the smart choice, anyway. Besides, I'd be happy to have him keeping me company on the walk.

"Sure," I tell him. "Let's get going."