Moving Atreyu to Odoka's house was alarmingly simple. A shopping bag of clothes and toiletries and a sword. Tegau couldn't think of an odder combination. Nor a more welcome change. He didn't envy Odoka for the next few days. She seemed up to the challenge. She had told him she and Atreyu would try the beach tomorrow, being Sunday. Tegau wondered if hybrids even swam. Probably not, considering the concept of fun had escaped the entire planet of Touchstone. With Odoka's pool party coming up in a week, he decided it would be a good idea to introduce Hylika to the idea of swimming. Maybe a trip to the beach for them after work one day next week. Maybe Thursday, after Dakota got back from Harvard, and school. Of course, it would also mean shopping for a swimsuit for Hylika. Actually, that wasn't too bad of an idea, either.

Dinner that night consisted of order-out pizza, something of a celebration for the departing of the former commander. Not that Tegau had anything against the guy.

It was an odd sight, seeing the worn brown chair in the living room vacant for once. But not for long, he knew. Nasrin had her eye on it already. He sat down beside Hylika on the couch, handing her a plate as she opened one of the pizza boxes.

"Tegau," she started quietly. "I --"

"You don't need to eat, yeah yeah, I know," he said. "Just have some."

"Only one slice."

And so Tegau served her two pieces, got four for himself, and sat back as he handed her her plate.

She knit her brow, frowning at her plate. "I said only one."

"Two's fine."

She couldn't follow his reasoning, but decided not to question it, her attention turning to the hockey game on the television.

"If Edmonton wins this game, they're only one win away from the Stanely Cup," he said, and she nodded in agreement.

"The fans at that arena are the loudest I've heard."

"Yeah." He swallowed his bite of pizza. "They're always loud in Rexall Place."

It took about eight minute for him to finish his first helping of pizza. Hylika knew; she'd timed it. When he'd went for two more pieces, she'd eaten her own, taking her plate back to the kitchen. Then she returned, glancing to the television for a moment before taking her seat. She drew her legs up onto the cushion, flattening her skirt as Nasrin jumped upon the couch. Tegau sent her a look, but it was ignored as Hylika pet the feline's head, and it settled in the small space between them.

"You know," Hylika said, rubbing the cat's chin. "You should let me go to Shambala."

He shook his head. "We already went through this, Hylika."

"But I don't have to fight. I could --"

"No," he said. "You can stay here. Dakota will be home by then, you'll have company."

"But Tegau --"

"There's no reason for you to go. Atreyu and I can take care of it. You don't have to fight anymore."

Petting Nasrin's neck, Hylika sighed. She'd hoped that with Atreyu out of the house, Tegau would concede. But it was just like the time when he was still recovering from the wounds inflicted by Sedin, when he'd been determined to play his game that night, completely ignoring her warnings. And, of course, nothing ill had resulted from it. He was just stubborn. But she had a whole week to convince him otherwise.

He finished dinner, asking if she wanted anymore before he put the half-empty boxes in the refrigerator. He kicked Nasrin off the couch the next time he sat down. The hockey game was tied, two to two. The first intermission had begun, and a commerical for synthetic motor oil played on the T.V.

"What you said to Celvie earlier," he began, "the thing about twins being common in your family. Is that true?"

"In my family, no." Hylika had thought he'd forgotten about the conversation. "I'd gotten ahead of myself, I suppose. Twins are common among hybrids, but I forgot about Celvie not knowing of hybrids."

"And the identical part?" he asked. "That true, too?"

"I've never seen identical twins before. It was unheard of in Touchstone." She scooted closer to him, the spot where Nasrin had taken now open. "Tresca had a twin sister, I believe, Endymion and Taber are twins, and Atreyu once told me that his mother had a twin sister."

"So then. . ." He wasn't sure how to voice his inquiry. "Hybrids have a lot of twins?"

"Each pregnancy, it's a fifty-fifty chance. Maybe it's seventy five, twenty five. I don't recall exactly."

"Oh." He nodded, slowly, then looked back to the television. Either way, that was a lot of twins. He wondered why she'd never mentioned it before. "You're an only child, right?"

"Yup. Most of the upper class families only had one child, two at the most if it was twins." She sighed. "Are you giving Atreyu a ride to work on Monday?"

"Odoka's driving him to the first job site," he said. "It's on the way to the YMCA, anyway. I said that I'd drive him home on the days she worked longer hours."

"Where is it at?"

"About half an hour away. Twenty minutes before Silk Rock. There's a new subdivision of houses that need roofs."

Hylika tilted her head, smiling. "Roofing? On your first day?"

"Yeah."

"You can barely manage the roof here," she mumbled, teasing. "Are you sure you can handle being on one all day?"

He grinned. "It's just practice."

"Hm?"

"For when I fix our roof," he said. "You've probably noticed it before, there are some spots that need new shingles."

"True." She nodded and rose to her feet.

"Where are you going?"

"Just upstairs for a minute." She ascended the stairs, looking back over her shoulder to him as Nasrin ran up ahead of her. Flicking the light on in her room, her eyes fell to the opaque bag beside her bed. Picking it up, she glanced out the door, then sank onto her bed. Nasrin hopped up beside her, rubbing up against Hylika's back as she took the only remaining item out of the bag.

Odoka had talked her into it. As much as Hylika had protested it, she'd given in at the end. She liked her fuzzy pajama bottoms. She always had. But Odoka had mentioned the warming weather, and that it would only get hotter in the coming months. She hadn't noticed it so much in the years past, when she spent most of her time in her smaller form. Dakota would find it odd if she didn't wear pajamas, and her old ones, now dubbed as her winter set, would be much too warm.

Hylika held the green satin-like tank top and matching shorts up to the light, frowning. The last thing she wanted to do was showcase her scars. Dakota was bound to notice if he ever got close while she was wearing it. Odoka had told her not to worry about it. And yet, she wasn't entirely convinced.

She closed the door most the way, sighing as she looked back to Nasrin, who'd taken over her pillow. She stared at the clothing in her hands for a moment, still unsure. "What do you think, Nasrin?"

The cat made no indication of hearing her. Instead, it yawned, stretching its legs across the pillow.

Hylika bit her lip, glancing over at the large mirror mounted above the dresser. She took a deep breath and shut the door completely. She whisked off the skirt and short sleeved shirt, then turned back to the mirror. The thin lines at her arms and shoulders were faint with time and just a shade darker than her skin. A little time in the sun would hide most of them, Odoka had told her. She pulled the tank top over her head, the smooth emerald green folds settling around her. She estimated the thick material, then pulled it off and found the plum camisole in the dresser drawer. She straightened it over herself, then added the tank top. Much better, she decided. The lounge wear was of a heavy grade, but a bit too delicate to go solo in mixed company. She untwisted the camisole's spaghetti-thin strings that peeked out from the tank's wider shoulder straps. She pulled on the matching green shorts, pleased with the soft feel against her skin. She tugged at the tank edge, judging the four inches between where the hem ended and the shorts did. They had seemed longer in the dressing room mirror. She wasn't entirely sure why the new pajamas were such an issue -- after all, she'd been sitting around in pajamas during the winter months -- but they were. At least, to her it was suddenly an issue. She heard Tegau yell something from downstairs about the game coming back on soon.

She put her day clothes into the hamper in the bathroom, pausing to brush her hair at the mirror there. The new clothes hadn't gone unnoticed, even if they were frillies. A few times she had noticed Tegau's attention lingering on her, his eyes averting as soon as she caught his stare. Odoka had been right about the whole discussion of shape versus support. The new bras certainly added a different element to her clothing.

She was halfway down the staircase when Tegau had decided to come up looking for her. Both stopped midstep, then he whistled lowly as she took a step back.

"Wow. Legs."

Hylika turned and sprinted up the stairs, her mind changed.

"Whoa, whoa. Wait." Tegau resisted the impulse to grab the edge of green material that flashed before him, but he did beat her to the bathroom doorway. "Where you going?"

She pressed her back to the wall. "I don't know. Just . . . Maybe I should change." She took a step toward Loki's old room.

"No. Let's see."

"Tegau . . . "

He took her hand and held her at arm's length, smiling as his eyes went slowly over her.

She tried to pull her hand from his. "Okay. You've had your see."

He nodded. "Nice. You look more," he searched for the right word. Several came to mind, but they weren't ones to use aloud. "Comfortable," he decided. "Where'd you get that?"

"With Odoka."

"And you're just now wearing it?"

"It just now got warm enough." She tried to hide the smile creeping over her. "The game's back on?"

"Yeah. Come on down."

She nodded and they went back down to the livingroom couch. Hylika found herself verging on self-consciousness as she sat beside him, extremely aware there was a lot less fabric between her and the upholstery. Tegau noticed she kept alternately pulling at the tank top hem and adjusting the camisole straps that fell out. He tried to ignore it until halfway through the second period, and then reached for a throw pillow in the brown chair.

"Thanks," she said as he offered it to her. She hugged it to her chest, feeling both like a child and very much like the teenage girl she resembled. He had said little, except for a few comments on the penalties Edmonton didn't deserve. She sighed. "You think I should change?"

When he looked to her it wasn't with a condescending or tolerant expression. "No. I like it." He grinned, trying to figure the best way to not say what he meant. "I like it lot. I like it more without the pillow, but the pillow's okay, too."

She shared his smile, then, after a few minutes, eased the pillow to her lap. Most of the of the period passed and they watched as Edmonton pulled away by two goals. Hylika glanced at Tegau. "Why aren't you wearing pajamas?"

"I guess I could."

She waved her hand. "Hop to it."

"No more phrase book," he mumbled, getting to his feet.

While he was gone, she watched as the score tied again and two more penalties began a five-on-three man advantage for the home team. When Tegau emerged, he began to sit down, but she threw a leg across his spot on the couch.

"You don't wear a shirt to bed."

He looked down at the tee shirt and navy pajama bottoms he wore. "How would you know?"

"I see you when I go out the window."

"Figures." He pulled off the shirt, dropped it onto the brown chair, and held his arms out. "Now?"

She moved her leg and patted the space next to her. He dropped down beside her and she put the pillow at the opposite end of the couch. She could understand sleeping -- humans had to do that, and it did provide a nice, quiet time when the house was hers. However, the whole concept surrounding sleeping, the where, with whom -- or not -- and the attire, this was all confusing. But it seemed important to get the concept right, so she was willing to learn it.

"Odoka's party will have people at it you don't know," he said after a moment, watching as she drew her knees up. "Don't worry about not remembering all their names. They won't expect you to."

"Okay."

"And Shiloh will be there," he added with a sigh. "If he says anything off-color or offensive, let me know. I doubt that he will, but just in case."

She nodded. They watched the game until the next intermission started, both agreeing that the referreeing was lopsided in favor of the visiting team. Hylika started to stand up to get him a soda, but Tegau held her hand, insisting he didn't want one. After fifteen minutes of commercials and interviews with assorted players, the game began again.

"When are Loki and Dominic coming over?"

He mentally winced at older woman's name. "The Tuesday after Shambala."

"You don't sound very happy about it."

"I'm not."

She settled closer, trying to see him better in the dim light from the television. "You're still mad at her."

"Yeah, but I don't want to punish Dakota. Or Dominic. I'd kind of like to see the kid." He looked down at her hand in his, his thumb slowly rubbing over several fingers. "Bianca sure liked you today."

"I think she was just sampling everyone's bowl." She smiled up at him. "I liked her too."

"She's a cutie."

Hylika frowned at the game. "You said that married people had children."

"They do." He looked to her when she grew quiet. "You mean, why does Loki have a child when she's not married?"

"I understand how it happened, Tegau," she clarified, holding his gaze. "But with what you've said about the importance of humans choosing their spouses, and the commitment that comes with it. I mean, your family, you and Dakota, you're vastly different than the family units in Touchstone. Loki didn't marry that man -- Shiloh's brother -- but she left your house to stay with him. If he was so important to her, then why did they not marry?"

Great. His own sister had decided to demonstrate the fickleness of human nature and the slide of morality. This was one reason why he didn't want Loki hanging around. "She screwed up big time," he said with a sigh. "And she's a lousy example of how it's supposed to work. So is Benji." Largely, he thought, because they weren't making itwork.

"So, it doesn't always work out right?" She studied him carefully.

This wasn't an issue he wanted to discuss with her. He wanted to talk about all the times it did work. Shiloh's parents, and Teddy's parents, and his own. "Sometimes, no. That's why it's so important to know the other person." Why hadn't Loki hung around for this conversation?

"I thought Loki knew Benji for a long time."

What an example Loki was proving, he thought wryly. "She did."

"How long is long enough?"

Good question, he thought. "Well," he began, sighing, "sometimes people, uh, get to be good friends quicker than at other times. Usually they date. You know, go out to places with each other, and do fun stuff. That's all okay." That's the way it was supposed to happen, he reminded himself. "But I think it's better for people to know about each other in the hard times, too."

He saw her attention focus on his hand, her finger pausing on the scar he'd received from Sedin. She was quiet for a few long moments, her eyes staying on their clasped hands resting on his leg. "I think you're right," she said after a moment. "I think that's best."