TRACK 4

I'm worse at what I do best

And for this gift I feel blessed

Our little group has always been

And always will until the end

Hello, hello, hello, how low

(Smells Like Teen Spirit-Nirvana)

********

The caffeine had been a real panacea. Strong enough to restore his energy to keep him from feeling lethargic with every little movement. And the taste of coffee still navigating his taste buds had improved his mood drastically.

Part of him -the one unconvinced by having taken only the books and the map- after the talk he had with Merlin, had only wanted to put his hands in his hair and to scream, because seriously, it seemed that he didn't matter.

Why exactly was he there if Master didn't want his help? Just for the presence? To smile, mentor and babysit? Not that he thought they needed it, but he would not have been surprised if Merlin, on the contrary, thought they did. He probably thought he needed one, counting that the only order he had given him was not to break stuff. And yes, he had a talent for dropping or destroying objects unintentionally, but... What the fuzz ? Was that all he had been able to say to him? Not even a request to help him with the research? Not even a ' when I call you, come immediately '? -He didn't want to think that he had already broken a rule of those that Master gave them, bloody hell- But almost all the stress had only slipped out with the hot drink, with Archie's thoughts, and with the notes of Nari's Magic.

They reminded him, in sound, of those of a violin. And they had caused him to bring to mind a Lindsey Stirling song he had heard not two weeks earlier, Master of Tides. Just thinking about it had made him want to pull out his phone and listen to it all over again -that tune screamed pirates, fun, and adventure, a mixture that filled him with adrenaline and made him feel the smell of the open sea fill his nostrils- He had managed to stop himself from doing so, however, more out of politeness than anything else, letting himself get lost in the noisy interactions of the Guardians.

He had listened to a few of them, then the rest had drifted in and out of his ears, as his mind had focused precisely on the thoughts of the books he had managed to take from his Master's study, of which the second part of him had been quite satisfied.

He wanted to review the Red Revelation , to see if he had forgotten important details or even missed a bit of them. The volume was not the same, so it could also be that there was new information in the case. Maybe the kind that would have made him analyze the situation even in different lights, maybe not. He would not know until the reading.

But most of all he wanted to analyze the Daoist Magic book, since aside from the little details that had been said and little else, well, he knew absolutely nothing about it.

In his nine hundred years he had focused more on Mostrology, Demonology, survival methods, and, of course, skills he could learn to be stronger and prepared for all kinds of situations. Studying Magic of the East had been a thought that had flashed through his mind from time to time, but nothing important in his eyes, not before that moment. He felt a little silly to have defined it as such, but he knew full well that having gaps was a fairly normal thing. Knowledge had no real end, the important thing was to try to close as many holes as possible and let instinct do the rest.

Before he even realized it, Nari was back on her way to Merlin's study -making him realize that he had not asked her anything about the weird kind of spa she had created-, while he and the group were returning to the room they had sort of chosen as their base, at least for the time being. He could never know if they would change their minds, and since they were not exactly used to the castle and its structure, they would ask him to list a few of them, closer to rooms with bedrooms, and then choose the one that convinced them the most.

It was toward the last corridors that Douxie crashed into Sir Galahad while turning. He almost lost his balance from the impact but managed to hold himself up, albeit staggering.

The echo of the crash seemed to brand his skin like ink on paper. Discomfort immediately followed, along with a slight feeling of fear that he tried to silence, but which nevertheless seemed to descend until it even reached his insides. For an all too-long series of moments, he felt his breath coming short.

' He didn't notice anything. Take it easy, don't get caught up in unnecessary paranoia. It's okay. ' Archie told him in his head, leading him to shake it clean and wrinkle his nose. He thanked his Familiar mentally.

"Oh, Merlin's errand boy ," said the Knight of the Round Table, pulling him out of his thoughts and replacing the previous emotion with bursting irritation.

"Apprentice," he replied, offended, only to sigh after a couple of seconds, "Pardon me for bumping into you, Sir Galahad. I neither saw nor heard you coming."

"No problem, boy. I think you've hurt yourself more than I have," the man laughed, lifting his flask and bringing it to his lips, sipping the liquor before resuming speaking, stopping Hisirdoux in place with one hand -Douxie had indeed prepared to apologize and slip away as quickly as possible, but apparently, he was not allowed to.

"Where have you been all this time? Except for your hair, you haven't changed a bit."

"The same goes for you," he replied cordially, although part of him would have liked to back away so as not to feel his breath -which reeked of alcohol in such a way as to make it complicated to avoid turning his nose up- straight in his face. "Here and there in the world, however, nothing special. Rather, shouldn't you be on guard at the moment, Sir?"

"This old man is just taking a break. Ten minutes, a chicken leg, a beer to warm me up good, and then I'll come back up. It's nice and cold outside, you know..." he said cheerfully, slapping his palm on his shoulder several times, just enough to tear him a vague grimace of pain. Sir Galahad did not have a particularly light hand. "And come on, a little more detail doesn't hurt anyone, aye? I was always in or around Camelot. And I'm not able to make the castle 'Jump' , as Merlin does. Wizards' stuff, you know. Seeing the rest of the world must have had its pearls, it can't all have been so dull. I'd be interested to know more..."

"Perhaps another time," hurried Archie to say in his place. "As you see..." he nodded to the group of Guardians with his head "... We have quite the urgent facts to pay attention to."

"Yes. Forgive us," insisted Douxie with a tugged half-smile, managing to wriggle out of the Knight's iron grip in a way that did not seem too aggressive or rude. "Take care, Sir."

Sir Galahad did not have time to retort that Hisirdoux had immediately sprinted in the next corridor, hoping for no insistence. The greetings of the group behind him echoed in his ears, and several seconds passed in which he was not blocked by anyone. And he, therefore, sighed with relief.

It was not a matter of Sir Galahad per se, the man was not so unpleasant as a Knight compared to many past ones, but it was his questions, at times quite inappropriate, that made both Wizard and Familiar wish to stay away from him, especially with an audience. He took little time to go from normal random inquiries, such as precisely ' what had he seen in hundreds of years' to downright embarrassing things. The man had no filter.

As he proceeded to reach his destination, he began to feel slightly watched. The chatter behind him had quieted down, leaving only the echo of their footsteps as noise. This was somewhat unusual considering how lively they had been up to that point.

The silence became even more apparent as they passed through the door. One could even hear the agitated whispering of the wind. Expressively speaking, they seemed to have suddenly realized something. What, exactly, Douxie did not know.

' Maybe that something was triggered by Sir Galahad's speech, ' he thought '... But it could also be anything else .'

"Is something wrong?" He asked, arching an eyebrow, causing most of the group to wince on the spot. And that led them to look at each other.

"Ah. No." Was Toby's hasty reply.

"Nope." Said Steve soon after.

'Very convincing... '

Jim merely shook his head, resting his gaze on Claire, who instead had a tense, thoughtful expression.

"...Well," said the girl in a soft tone, licking her lips.

"Well...?" Repeated Archie, tilting his head at almost the same time Douxie did.

"Uh. I..." She moved a strand of hair behind her ear, her left hand resting on her right arm, grabbing the cape and barely clutching it. "...It's about the Shadowmancy book." She looked first at the two of them, then stared down, a blatant grimace painted on her face.

"And what...?" At first, Douxie did not grasp what she could mean by that expression. Then, after a moment, before completing the question, he understood.

He could not help but remember the first time he had ever come across a Magic book under his hand, not having the faintest idea of what was written on it, while Archibald had tried to teach him how to read it, just as he had done with Latin.

"Oh... Oh," he swallowed, blinking a few times as if to wake up, slapping himself. "Right. Scriptures from different periods. Old Wizards' writing."

It was obvious. Douxie should have come to that conclusion much earlier, but the entire previous evening had been accompanied by constant flashbacks, more or less deliberate thoughts, alertness, and a desire to know what was going to happen. He could not criticize himself for not thinking about it. He still cursed mentally, though.

Claire nodded. "That's right... I... I can't read it. But it's not just that..." she frowned, inhaling and exhaling, almost to give herself strength.

Then, she dropped the bomb.

"I would like you to teach me," she said, causing everyone else to gasp with shocked expressions on their faces. "Please."

A few seconds passed. Seconds in which his brain seemed not to fully grasp what Claire had said, as if it had gone into a blackout. Then the sentence sank in and Douxie almost had a heart attack.

"Wait...What?" He gaped, both eyebrows arched, pointing to himself. His head made a slight movement of denial. "Me?... I'm not a teacher. I'm barely a decent apprentice. You only have to go to Merlin to confirm that through the three thousand anecdotes of disaster that followed my arrival at the castle..."

"Merlin's opinion in this and in many other things doesn't matter to me," Claire retorted in a tone of conviction, tightening her lips. An answer that led Hisirdoux to facepalm again in that short amount of time.

Archie made a hoarse sound over his shoulder, muttering "...It feels like I'm hearing Zoe talking."

"Yeah, okay, that's not the point of the situation anyway," he blurted out, rolling his eyes, and casting a glance at Archibald.

'Does this seem like the time ?'

'You can't tell me you didn't think the same thing. You'd be lying and we both know it .'

Douxie could feel Archie's amusement widening inside his head, taking up more and more space between his feelings. He huffed.

"It is," she said. "I don't care what Merlin thinks. He tends to belittle everyone he meets." Claire had an obvious look of annoyance, before recovering. "I trust my instincts instead. And my gut tells me I need a teacher, someone to guide me. You seem to know a lot, both of the world and of Magic itself, so, yeah." she looked a bit nervous, then she added a soft spoken "And the book won't translate itself..."

On that, Claire was not wrong. There were magical books that changed the language on their own to make themselves readable or unreadable, but that one was not among them.

Archie headbutted him. He glared a bit.

Hisirdoux then turned back to look at the girl and groaned, seeing her all too hopeful expression, which kept reminding him of his own from back in the day. "Yes, but... Listen... I don't... Ugh." He paused, sighing a low and bitter sound. And dropping his arm back on his hip heavily. "I don't have the skills or the abilities to be your teacher. It would end up being an utter disaster."

"Why? How can you say that with such certainty?" Asked Toby suddenly, flanking his friend, who always appeared rather stubborn, as if what he had said hadn't fazed her in the slightest.

"Do you see into the future, Dumbledork ?" Steve said instead out of the blue.

'Another nickname in less than twenty-four hours. Wow. I wonder how many he'll come up with in three days.' He thought, merely shaking his head.

"Then I'll tag along easily with Domzalski's question. Why?"

"Woah, big brain Steve, I didn't think you had it in you. "

"Shut up, Lake."

"I don't know how to use Shadow Magic," he said cautiously, interrupting the discussion sharply, leading them to stare at him as he looked at an imprecise spot on the wall. "I don't doubt your abilities, Claire, in fact... quite the opposite, counting the tune that belongs to you. But the thing is..." he bit his lower lip, wrinkling his nose.

He knew he had to be clear and concise, without skirting around the issue. Not cruelly getting to the point would not show her how the situation could escalate rather quickly. It would not have put all the risk cards on the table.

"If something were to happen to you... if I were to explain badly or miss something important... Fuzz it, if you lost control, ended up in the Shadow Realm, and couldn't get out for whatever reason... I could not get you out of it, either."

Silence fell heavily again. Worry was painted on everyone's faces. Especially on that of the Trollhunter, who looked at Claire as if he wanted to say something, but was holding himself back with all his might.

The girl seemed to digest the situation between thoughts, barely wavering on the spot, with one of her two hands brushing against her shoulder, while the group around her cast unblinking glances at her.

Then she stared back at him, with even more determination than before. "There isn't something that doesn't have its risks. Not trying to do something because there is danger, well, it doesn't lead anywhere." She said, dead serious.

"Are you sure, Fair Claire?" Asked Blinky. "Danger is everywhere, yes. But... Some of it is just not worth it."

The girl smiled. "I know, Blinky. Thank you for that. But I know this is worth it. We have to protect Nari from the Arcane Order, after all."

And she returned to rest her gaze on him insistently.

"... I'm still not a teacher," Douxie ended up saying again, exasperated.

He wished he could have told her to get help from someone else, not because he didn't want to do it, but because it was... well because the problem was him. She needed someone more experienced. Someone like Merlin himself, maybe.

'But honestly, where would she find that someone? Master Merlin would not accept, not after Morgana. And Nari is constantly with him, so out of the question... There are no other wizards nearby who could help .'

" Fuzz me," he muttered, pausing a little. "All right," he then said, covering his eyes with his hand and rubbing his fingers over his temples, then running them through his hair as Claire became euphoric. "But we need to get as far away from the study as possible. We're too close here..."

And how very close they were. He could already imagine his Master appearing from the doorway, while shouting " What in the Seven Rings did you do this time, Hisirdoux ?" glaring at him and making him feel as if he had done something illegal, leading him to want to disappear before he received the usual scolding.

"Merlin would sniff and see your active magic aura even before you got serious about it," he commented, already massaging his temple. He hoped that he would not find out about this.

********

The room they moved to was much larger. All the windows, even there, were already covered, the sun already undirected on them from the start... and it looked like a kind of open space, surrounded by magical armor, swords, other weapons, and paintings hanging on the walls. When Steve saw the blades, he emitted a scream so high-pitched that it didn't even sound human, immediately beginning to grab and shake a few of them idly, as if they were toys.

With the attempted use of a spiked club, achieved after five different choices with which he nevertheless did quite well, he risked hitting Jim in the head. Steve was therefore forced to sit down to avoid injuring -or worse, killing- someone, although there was no shortage of long protests to the order. No one particularly cared about the pout the blond boy put on. Their safety was more important, in all honesty.

It had taken even longer for Claire's patience to reach that environment, but perhaps the exaggerated timing had been caused by her desire. Or perhaps, just as likely, it had been the fact that Camelot did have too many rooms. A mixture of the two, yes.

In return, it didn't take long for her to find herself torturing her own hands, with the raven-haired wizard that twirled the Shadowmancy book in front of himself, moving the pages without touching them, his absorbed gaze scrolling through the words and his nose wrinkled in concentration -a habit of his, Claire noticed. Whenever he was lost in reasoning or thoughts, he always had that slight involuntary movement that betrayed him- while Archibald had returned from a brief patrol, covered with such a layer of snow that it hinted rather quickly at how hard the flakes were coming down.

Nothing new, fortunately. Although they had been in Noatak for a few hours now, there was no sign of the Arcane Order. Claire mentally hoped that the situation would continue to stay that way until they had a way to return to the past -and possibly even after that, though that seemed perhaps to be asking a little too much. Trouble never waited and always came when people were not ready for it.

"Small warning," said Douxie suddenly, looking up mainly in the direction of the others. "The situation may get a little boring to witness. In case, if you want to expend some energy, the room opposite this one is big enough to make you spar. I've already covered that one as well... there would also be barracks, theoretically, but those are in the open air, so..."

"Nah, we want to see the magic, dude ," asserted Steve immediately, apparently having recovered from his pouting moment.

"Whatever. I said it." Hisirdoux looked nervous, raising his shoulders a little, then returning his focus to her with a hint of a smile on his lips that, however, betrayed a tiny bit of tension. "If you don't understand something that I say, please tell me... Ready?"

"Yes, and yes I am," she replied with an instinctive nod. And she was. Determination and confidence ran through her veins instead of blood, accompanied by a slight tinge of elation. More than slight. Part of her wished she could jump a little on the spot, somewhat as she had done when she had found Morgana's Staff in her hands one of the first times.

"Well," he ran his hands through his hair "As you may have realized yourself, Magic is emotion. Most of the time, the first bursts of power are triggered by strong feelings that go to tickle dormant abilities. You have already tasted your own, you know what feelings pushed you the most. Which ones were they?"

"Anger," Claire said instantly. Then she thought about it for a couple of seconds, trying to remember the others as well. Because, no, although anger was the one that had set her off rather easily, there had been others. " Fear. Desire to protect."

"Okay. What is the emotion you feel the most right now?"

"Trepidation, perhaps." she asserted, moistening her lips. Yes, all the previous emotions had merged. And that was the definition of what was now running through her from head to toe.

He nodded, then raised both arms in front of her. "Put your hands like this... Head up, but don't be too stiff."

Claire executed, trying to be as close as possible to how the raven-haired boy was standing.

"Pardon me if the question seems a little bit ambiguous, really, but... Can I touch you?" He asked -Jim raised an eyebrow, even though nobody noticed.

She simply nodded, confused by the request -there was no need to ask...? He was trying to help her out. So why question it? Maybe it was because he was old fashioned, so he felt like he had to ask anyway? He was Nine hundred years old or something, after all. Which was extremely weird to think about, Dios mío. Well, whatever.

He instantly started to adjust the height and the distance of her upper limbs, giving them gentle taps -his fingers were quite cold, so much so that they reminded her of icicles- then he took a few steps away and circled her a couple of times. She could feel his gaze scrutinizing her with total attention.

"Let yourself breathe, Claire. Relax... Take your time."

To be completely honest, she had not even realized that she had held her breath. She forced herself to throw out air and take it back in a more regular manner, avoiding a second involuntary state of apnea.

"Better," he said smiling, stopping himself from moving again. "I want you to focus on your emotions. Think about what triggers them and what might fuel them. Understood?" She nodded again. "Good. You will know everything about your triggering emotion, but the main thing is another one. You don't have to let that feeling of yours control you. It's just that. A feeling. It is not you. You have to be able to detach yourself from it."

She tried to do what he told her, step by step. Trepidation swirled in her chest in waves, going up and down again and again. At times it seemed to drown it all out, making her tense, but she forced herself to reanalyze the reasons why it was trying to put her down as it rolled inside her at full speed.

'Expectation. Desire to be useful and in control of myself. Desire to be able to stand up for the people I care about .'

She returned to her trepidation. It was still in her chest, making her heart race. But it was less intense.

It was slowly detaching from her, so much so that it even seemed to back up, moving farther and farther away, though it was always there.

Douxie moved his head almost imperceptibly, but she, as engrossed as she was in her work, did not even notice. "Use it. Concentrate your feelings as much as you can and imagine throwing out a part of it, letting it take shape. Stay true to yourself. You're not your emotions. You can do it."

The trepidation was beginning to look like an object. And objectifying it made it feel like an extra in the center of her chest, a partially alien feeling. Pushing it out, just as Douxie had said, as she had always involuntarily done thanks to the Staff, turned out to be easier than expected.

Small purple shapes appeared in the center of both of her open hands, going on to join into a single ball, much larger than she hoped for, before Claire's astonished eyes. And to disappear almost immediately, as trepidation was overpowered first by surprise, then by an uncontrolled amount of joy.

She turned her head sharply toward Douxie, who had a beaming, toothy smile on his face. "I did it?" She asked, open-mouthed, unable to contain her excitement.

"You did it, all right," he said, grinning. "Congratulations, C-bomb ."

She found herself smiling and laughing a bit because of the shock, this before turning to the others who, though almost in the background of the situation, were cheering and clapping at her with excited expressions. Jim's, visibly proud of her, melted her on the spot like ice cream left in the sun.

It took her a short time, however, to get back into serious mode. She had barely begun. She was not going to stop after so little, especially with the final confirmation of her abilities, knowing that she had to improve them as much as possible.

"Let's continue with the manifestations of your magic until it starts to get instinctive, shall we?" Said Douxie, making a weird face, as if he knew what she had just thought. For a moment, Claire wondered if he was capable of reading into other people's minds.

"Don't rush it. It has to be a gradual growth," he added.

"Yes. Okay," she replied, even nodding.

********

After a very exciting first start, things had indeed become boring for those who were only watching.

Douxie and Claire, except for a few very small appearances by Archie -who mainly spent his time traveling from outside Camelot to the inside, providing updates on the lack of news, which were very welcome- seemed to be in a world of their own, exiled from the present.

The events of real magic were punctuated by long, almost interminable, periods of silence and instruction -so much so that lunchtime even arrived and flew by, then led them to get back to focusing on what to do in almost no time at all, taking a few Oranges and a couple of bottles of water with them.

The reason why Steve, Toby, Jim, Aaarrrgh, and Blinky chose to go to the room Hisirdoux had mentioned earlier, both to avoid disturbance, out of boredom and the need to stretch their legs.

It, too, was very large, but except for some cross furniture, benches, and little else, it was practically empty. It had no windows except for a small one showing the snowy landscape. On the opposite side of it, however, there was a flight of steps going down who knows where. It was dark, as it was devoid of light hanging on the walls.

"What do you think is down there?" Asked Jim, looking at it dubiously.

"I wouldn't be sure, Master Jim," said Blinky. "This place looks like a real labyrinth. But, usually, in castles, going down only leads to two places: The Dungeons... or the Sewers."

Steve immediately made a disgusted expression at the last mention, as if he could already smell it. "Ew."

"Even wanting to try to get confirmation would probably make us get lost, so that's okay," asserted Toby, enlarging his Warhammer. "But if someone or something should come from there for some mysterious reason, I'm ready to defend myself."

The blond immediately pulled out the sword he had managed to swipe from the room where Claire and Douxie were. Or which he thought he had swiped, but which they had finally allowed him to take anyway to prevent him from starting to complain about being bored in not even ten minutes. " Shyeah . Me too. Who wants to fight me? I'll knock out anyone who comes at me!... Creepslayer , remember that!"

Aaarrrgh looked at him in silence for a few seconds. "... Puny," he said, smiling a little "Squash."

"Wha... No! Not true!"

Toby and Jim started laughing almost instantly. Steve's attempts to convince the Troll made them laugh even more.

However, the laughter stopped abruptly when Camelot made a Jump, in an unexpected way.

It was always a rather unpleasant experience. As if the entire castle felt wrong, put in a way it shouldn't have been and that above all seemed about to disintegrate... and therefore, consequently, made them feel the same way, too.

Compared to the previous two times, however, the feeling of vomit and the desire to lean on the battlements to empty the contents of their stomachs was decidedly lighter. It didn't completely disappear, remaining in their throats and the core of their beings, but it was still better than nothing.

"Will we get used to it, sooner or later?" Asked Toby, his face still green, forcing himself to ignore a small voice in his head yelling for him to run and stop swallowing the bile.

"I really, reaaaally hope so," Steve whimpered. "Because I can't stand it anymore. Ugh. Couldn't the movements of the flying castle be a little more kind to us? Is that too much to ask?"

"Considering that these movements are keeping us away from two angry demigods who want to destroy the world, I think it is." Jim asserted with a slight sigh.

"Where are we now, this time?" The blond asked, scratching his head as if he had fleas. The distinct confusion, partly perhaps still due to the Jump, was painted on his entire face.

"Uh..." the Trollhunter struggled to remember the first of the names that had been listed that morning. It was like... in Russia if he remembered correctly. In a city that started with 'A'.

'... Aladri? Anadri? No, it wasn't like that... Ah, yes!'

"Anadyr. Anadyr is the name of the city we're flying upon. On the Russian coast," he felt almost satisfied to have remembered it, counting that that name had only been mentioned twice that morning.

"Ah, cool!..." Toby exclaimed loudly, and then his face darkened, albeit slightly. "It's a pity that the only real experience I've ever had in the East doesn't even allow me to see the cities. I feel as if I was a tourist, but at the same time I can't go to see anything, nor to take photographs or videos," he looked very disappointed.

Honestly, Jim got it. The effect was similar on him too. They were sixteen-year-olds traveling around the world, but they couldn't help but peek at it from the windows... As if that wasn't enough, if he looked at it with direct sunlight streaming in, he would have hurt himself. Not to say that he would directly turn to stone. He didn't want to, thank you very much.

"Come on, Tobes. It'll be better next time." He placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to reassure him. Toby looked at him, a bit saddened at first, then hinted at a smile.

"I hope you're not traveling for problems of this kind in that case, too..." Blinky said. "Yes, I don't see why you couldn't do it in the future, Master Tobias."

"Wingman well?" Aaarrrgh asked.

Toby limited himself to nodding and smiling at him, already more cheerful. Then he adjusted the helmet on his head as if he were an army soldier ready to take an oath.

"Besides, it's not certain that we won't go down even once. Maybe we won't do it during the day, but nobody stops us to go around at night, just in case... Or, I think so...?"

"Well, doesn't matter! We have to protect Nari! We'll find another occasion before or later, Blinky is right!" Toby said, smiling openly "No issues."

"Yeah, yeah... Come on, buttsnacks . Sparring!" Steve intervened. "We're not here to stay still like dead fish!"

No one told him that with that sentence he had visibly reminded them of Coach Laurence. If they had done so, the blond would surely have become a mess pretty fast, of a red that easily rivaled a ripe tomato. Both Toby and Jim chose to spare him.

The last comment, however, actually set them in motion. They immediately began to fight each other in turns, never being one hundred percent serious about avoiding hurting each other. This did not diminish the competition, however, nor the general effort.

Blinky and Aaarrrgh declared the winner each round, counting the wins and losses suffered. In total, they made nearly thirty fights.

Steve didn't win even one, much to his frustration, so much so that he tried to make excuses for several minutes.

But then he chose to listen to the advice the group gave him, trying to write it down in his mind, forcing himself to swallow his pride. If Aja had been there, Steve didn't know if it would have been easier or even more awkward for him.