Thank you to the views that I've gotten, and for the nice review from Hypergoddess (which honestly did make me grin like a fool)! I'll definitely add more soon, especially since I now have the third chapter written out. I hope you guys enjoy it, and I'm having so much fun writing it because I can be as eccentric as I want with Bastion. He's so adorable, don't ya think?

Once again, Bastion seductively used his tongue, this time to lick chocolate off of his fork that he used to eat the chocolate slice of cheesecake. He had a little bit of the chocolate sauce on the corner of his mouth, and now that I had noticed it, it sort of bothered me. "So, like, you never answered my question from earlier," he said, going for another piece of cake. He closed his eyes to chew, softly moaning when he finally swallowed.

Trying to distract myself from having to answer the original question he had posed, I shoved my hair back from my pale face, my foot bouncing habitually on the floor. I went for my drink again, and he caught that I was making an attempt to avoid his question. Even if he was from another world, having awkward moments was universally obvious. However, since he was from another world, I guess it didn't strike him to drop the moment and to move on.

"My last boyfriend, oh my goddess, he was fun." Sipping from his drink, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, finally getting the chocolate drop that I couldn't help but to stare at. "I would have rope burn on my wrists from where he would tie me up. He was about, mmm, two centuries older than I was, so he learned…methods." His voice was quiet and his eyes were mischievous on the last word. Removing his jacket from his body, which ultimately made me feel cooler since I no longer had to watch him in such warm clothes, he leaned back and exhaled. "I miss him sometimes. But, you know, life goes on, right?" Placing the fork in his mouth, he began chewing on it, looking like he was in deep thought again.

It still hadn't hit me that a wizard was sitting in front of me, and I was still convincing myself that this wasn't real. The fact that he had said that his last boyfriend was "two centuries older" worried me. How old did that make Bastion? He looked like an average twenty-three year old, but for all I knew about this mysterious man, he was three-hundred years old!

"Bastion, can I ask you a question?" I implied, not sure if I should ask him this or not. Then again, if he could ask me if I was kinky, I believed that asking his age was perfectly fine.

"Well, you technically just did, but ask all of the questions that you want!" His eyes were wide and wondrous, like he wanted me to ask him questions, and his eagerness made me want to laugh a little. There went that childlike attitude again.

"How…how old are you?" I squinted my eyes and furrowed my eyebrows, much like I had seen detectives do in crime shows. Right then was a better time to pretend like I was giving a skilled interrogation than any other time.

Humming, he tipped his head off to one side, tapping on his head a little, like he really needed to think about it. "Let's see. My birthday is in November, and that was six months ago. I was born in…." He stopped and stared at me. "Has anyone ever told you how androgynous you look? It's so cute!" Reaching across the table, he shifted hair out my face, the same locks that I always pushed back out of nervousness, and I wanted to push them back the second he touched my hair. All I could do was sit there and feel my ears turn red at such a compliment and touch.

Of course I had been called androgynous before. He was referring to my soft features that both of my parents had, like the gentle sloping nose and the pouty lips. I had a heart-shaped face, which my mother had, and wavy black hair, which my father had, and I even wore it like his: to my jaw line, and similar to that of a Victorian man's. The only thing I didn't get from my parents were the green eyes, which were bestowed upon me by my Irish grandmother. She said they were the eyes of a witch, but as a child, I had always ignored her. Now, as I stared into the jade eyes of Bastion, I realized that she may have been more right than I had thought.

"Um, I have another question for you, Bry-Bry," Bastion quietly announced, and if it hadn't have been that I had seen his lips moving, I wouldn't have known that he even spoke. His eyebrows were angled upwards, like he felt as though he would get into trouble for asking me. Reassuringly, I nodded twice and was tempted to put my hand on top of his, like my mother had always done to me when I told her that I needed help, but I resisted, no matter how fragile he looked. "You don't happen to know of a place that I could move in, do you? I've been living in a not-so-luxurious place for the past few days." Before I could ask where his living quarters were, he leaned forward to me, placing his face about six inches from mine. I felt his breath on my skin and loved how it smelled of chocolate and cherries. "I turned myself into a mouse and made a little hole in someone's wall. It's not fun being a mouse."

Stunned, I leaned all the way back in my chair, making an odd face, which obviously worried him. He had turned himself into a mouse…and lived in someone's wall…like a mouse. He had done this with magic. All with a wave of a finger, he turned himself into a rodent.

"I guess I could have stayed in a hotel," Bastion mused, cradling his head in his arms, "but where's the fun in that? There'd be no magic involved. That makes life fun!" With that, he bolted up, nearly knocking over the seat. "Where do you live? Do you need a roommate? I can even be a pet! Cats? Do you like cats? Or dogs?" He sat back down and lowered his voice a few octaves. "Just please don't make me be a mouse again. That's all I ask. It's not fun nearly being stepped on all the time."

His quick talking confused me, and all I really got from it was that he needed a house and that he didn't want to be a mouse again, which I suppose I couldn't blame him for. I wouldn't have wanted to be a mouse if I were him, and I was thankful that I wasn't. He was much more eccentric than I could have ever hoped to be, and frankly, it frightened me a little.

When I looked back to the standing Bastion, he was looking at his empty cake containers, his face completely void of emotions. "Bry-Bry, if I paid you however much you wanted, would you consider allowing me to stay with you? You see, I came here to visit and to…look for something, and that could take me a while. I don't want to be alone in this city, and you look and act so nice." He scratched his head, probably out of nervousness. "I mean, I can definitely stay in a hotel if you'd prefer it, but…." Smiling nervously down at me, he had a little glint of a light in his eyes. "You're so friendly. Nobody else would have sat down and talked to me like this, especially after I told you what I am."

All my life, it had been a personality trait of mine to be kind to people, even if they were a bit out there. Sure, it exhausted me and got me into situations that I didn't always want to be in, but no matter what, I was always the boy that people could rely on. Typically, people repaid me for being so kind, and I figured that, if Bastion had the money and could contribute to my apartment, then we could have worked something out with each other.

Nodding slowly, I smiled genially up at him. "Yeah, I guess we can work out a price. You can…." I exhaled, thinking if this was the right decision or not. After another moment of looking into his bright, hopeful eyes and gazing at that brilliantly forming grin, I knew that he would have made a great roommate, on one condition. "You can live with me, but-" I stopped and wiggled my finger, telling him to lean closer me to me- "I only have one bedroom, so you either have to turn yourself into a cat when you sleep, or get comfortable on the couch. Your clothes and things can go in my coat closet."

There he was again, bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was when he first ordered his sweets. This time, though, he about tackled me out of my seat when he went for a hug, practically cutting off my air with his shoulder pressed into my throat. Coughing when he released me, I put my hand out to stop him, which he looked like he wanted to high-five again. Restraining himself, though, he stood to his full length and grabbed his jacket and bag, still full of treats, threw away his empty mocha cup, and grabbed my hand, trailing me along behind him.

"This is so wonderful! It was so dark living inside of a wall, but kind of fun." His grip tightened around my hand as we traveled through down the sidewalk of St. George St., the two of us receiving odd looks from a few people, the brown haired, barefoot wizard leading the black haired Barnes and Noble manager that several of the people recognized. "You know, I'm going to be totally honest with you. I don't have a clue where I'm going!" He smiled at me when we both stopped, and I knew that this was going to be an interesting new task with taking him on as my roommate.

The cab trip to my apartment was a quiet one, other than the soft sighs and gasps from Bastion. His nose was pressed against the window, and condensation had formed from his breath touching the glass. The cab driver kept his eyes up front, ignoring the strange chocolate haired boy who would make a noise whenever we passed a building that looked older than three years. Every now and then, he would reach for my hand and point to something, usually a statue or another bakery.

I didn't live too far from St. George Street and was actually within sight of the old fort. The apartment complex that I lived in wasn't bad at all, and there were a few apartment buildings surrounding the area. It was in a gated community and had elevators, a lobby, and a small coffee stand right outside of the door, opened every day from five in the morning until three in the afternoon. My apartment was on the third story of building 4A, room 302. There wasn't much that was special about it-it had one room, two and a half bath, a nice, large kitchen that opened into the reasonably large living room and a little area for a dining room table. The walls were a light blue and covered in paintings, posters, and a few windows. The floors were all wooden, except for the bathrooms where it was tiled.

Bastion's eyes lit up when he saw the place and searched around it. He peered at all of the electronics, like the flat screen television, the glass top range, and steel dishwasher. Peeking into my bedroom, he made a whimsical noise and stepped inside, me following closely at his heels so that I knew he didn't touch anything. The windows caught his attention since they were so large, and he stared out of them, looking at the city that was in the distance. A smile crept onto his lips, and he whipped around to look at me.

"Bry-Bry, this is wonderful. I adore it here." Bashfully, he stepped closer to me, sucking on his lip. "I can't thank you enough for this. You don't know how much this means to me." Placing his hands on his hips, he wiggled a little before letting out a loud "woo!". Since he was taller than I was, and surprisingly stronger, he lifted me up from beneath my underarms and spun my some. "I feel like I did when I graduated from having to use my wand for magic! This is so great, Bryan! Thank you, thank you!"

Wishing he would release me, he instead held me to him, resting his head on top of mine. From my position, I was able to hear some of his heartbeat, and it was absolutely pounding away. Again, I noticed how warm he was, but it didn't want to make me shy away, just…meld myself closer to his body. That warm feeling rose to my ears and face again, and I knew that I needed to stop this embrace with such an odd man.

"So, what kind of luggage do you have?" I questioned, pulling away and standing about a foot from him. I didn't want to admit that the warmness radiating off of him was extremely comforting, especially since I've not held another person in several months.

Bastion continued strolling around the room, observing everything that he could. "Oh, a few bags. I won't be able to get it until tonight, though, because there's a…special way to get it to me." Turning to face me, he pointed at the wall nearest us. "I have to make a portal on one of your walls in order to get my stuff. It's still in my world, and I didn't have it come with me because I didn't feel like carrying everything with me." He pulled at the shirt he was wearing. "I can change clothes with magic, but I have to be careful with it and not get distracted, or else these jeans could have been mixed with, say, food. When my things get here, I don't have to worry about concentrating."

His words always came in a blur to me, but the more time that I spent with him, the more I was able to decipher. In ways, he started growing on me, which was good since he needed to sooner or later. Had I really accepted a complete stranger into my home, and was this as good of an idea as I was making it out to be? Deciding that I needed to stop worrying about this, I pushed it to the back of my mind and enjoyed the idea of having someone else in the apartment with me.

Grabbing both of my hands, Bastion searched my face, trying to figure out what I was thinking, I assumed. "Thank you so much, Bry-Bry. I was so worried about meeting someone so nice when I got here, and I'm glad that I stumbled upon you." When he stepped close enough for me to feel his breath again, I wanted to go back a foot to leave a greater gap between us, but he held my hands firmer and bowed his head. "Here, is it normal to thank people by kissing them?" he softly asked, which took me utterly off guard, yet slightly thrilled me to answer, and I couldn't possibly explain why.

"Uh, s-sometimes it is," I found my lips to be saying, and instead of moving backwards, I tried to close the gap between us. Leaning my face up towards him, I awaited the soft press of his lips, but my breath hitched in my throat, and I pulled back, realizing how close he was and how close I was to kissing someone I had met only recently, something I had never thought of doing. "So, uh, what kind of cat would you like to be?"

Questioning took him completely off guard, and he laughed minutely, but it was nothing like it had been. "I can be which every breed you prefer. As someone who has worked alongside other wizards and witches, I've been exposed to many different breeds since those who practice magic at a young age need some sort of medium to help them focus." He sighed, and I knew that he really did want to kiss me. I couldn't have let that bother me, though, because then everything would become extremely awkward, and as I was able to figure out, he couldn't get his way out of those kinds of situations. Releasing my hands, he walked back over to the window, staring out again. "My personal favorite is the Irish fold, though."

Nodding, I crossed my arms, suddenly freezing without him near me. "Yeah, they're cute. That'll suit…." Stopping myself before I could basically call him cute, I kept nodding. "The Irish fold is preferable, if you don't mind." Without him noticing, I kept my eyes on him, never once moving them. All the while, I imagined if his lips were smooth like they looked, how they'd feel on mine, and what sort of relationship I just put myself into with him.