A/N: Wow, it has been so long. The last time I posted to this, I was still in college and not even engaged. Now I'm married and pregnant and old. Like, super old. I'm 87,000, y'all. It's been a trip.

Junior had gotten good at tearing holes through space. Time still alluded him, but that was hardly concerning. The heat that enveloped the two teens when they entered the Nergal residence was a welcome reprieve from the cold, crisp air of Alaska, as far as he was concerned.

"Dad! We have the dirt!"

"Ooh, goodie!" Nergal sang from another room. "Hurry to the lab, son! I'm ready to finish the potion."

Junior took the jar of dirt and headed toward his father's voice, Mandy trailing behind. She took the opportunity to study his home. It wasn't much, but it seemed cozy. She wondered why a being as powerful as Nergal would settle for so small a domicile. It fit a childless couple better than a family.

Upon delivering the jar to Nergal, he promptly dumped the dirt into a cauldron in the middle of the room. After the extensive excursion he had demanded of them to collect said dirt, it seemed rather unceremonious to just toss it in in such a way. Mandy frowned her concerns silently.

"Alright, friends!" Nergal declared, "Your part is done for the moment. Now I must attend to the next step. This will take me a while, so find something to occupy yourselves with in the meantime. I will summon you when I need you again." With that, he shooed them away and set to work.

Mandy balled her fists tightly as Junior blinked at the door his father had closed in their faces. "That was strange. I've never seen him act so rude like that before."

"Yeah," Mandy agreed. Her knuckles whitened at her sides, but she cooled herself and relieved them.

Junior turned and headed back down the hall. "I suppose we can wait in my room. It smells like Mom is cooking dinner. That is," he amended, remembering his manners, "if you want to stay for dinner. Obviously you don't have to. I'll take you home whenever you want."

"I'll stay," Mandy decided with little thought. His quiet house was a lot more inviting than what she expected from her own. At least here the company respected her more than they feared her. While she was fine with being feared, she liked the change of atmosphere Junior's afforded her.

The two had to go through the living room and down another hall to get to his room. Junior pushed open the door, but allowed Mandy to enter first. It was then that she realized she'd never seen Junior's room before. Though she had not been to his home as often as she would have had they been life-long friends (as she and Billy had been), it seemed she had visited enough that this shouldn't have been her first time seeing it. With their relationship at its present state, however, this new territory felt taboo. Mandy was not one to be dissuaded by such trivial concepts.

Closing the door behind him, Junior began pointing out the features of his room. It was carpeted - though the hallway hadn't been - in a green expanse that reminded Mandy of short, dark grass. He immediately popped off his shoes and kicked them into the corner by the door. On the other side of the door was a wooden desk that held a dusty computer and little more. Along the far wall set his bed. It was a full size, with one edge pushed up against the wall. There was also a bookshelf, and a waist-high set of drawers that looked more like a vanity with no bench. The top was littered in junk and knickknacks, which was the clearest indicator that Junior didn't use it often. The walls were a lighter green than the carpet, but were otherwise bare. Mandy was surprised at their lack of decoration. He had to have some sort of hobby. He didn't even have a tv in his room.

Junior dropped his arms to his sides. "Well, this is it. I'm afraid I don't have much to tinker with in here. Mostly I read if I spend any time in my room. But I don't spend a lot of time in here, other than to sleep."

Mandy had gathered as much. She picked up one of the two framed pictures he had on his desk. This one was of the four of them - Billy, Mandy, Grim, and Junior. The other was a family portrait which she paid no attention. This one had caught her eye because of the two friends who were now absent. She put it back down, sick of the melancholy she felt over their departure. It had been at least a week by this point. She should have adjusted to the change by now.

Turning back to the rest of the room, she noticed that Junior had sat down on his bed, his black legs crossed at eye-level. Mandy had been able to ignore them before. But now, in his shorts and lacking clothing from the knee down, there was so much more to see than she was used to. Decidedly, she kicked off her own shoes and joined him on the bed, leaning back against the wall.

Junior's weren't the only naked legs getting noticed. With such a soft, creamy contrast against his navy comforter, Junior couldn't help but notice Mandy's exposed skin. Discreetly he inched his knee closer to hers, little by little, until it collided with her own. He diverted his eyes, pretending not to notice. Mandy was not fooled. Neither did she push him away. She closed her eyes and leaned further against the warm wall.

After a moment, she broke the silence. "How long do you think he will keep us waiting?"

Junior jumped at her sudden voice, knocking his head against the wall. He rubbed at the sore spot and then shrugged. "Couldn't even guess. It might be an hour; it might be a day. Dad wasn't very clear."

"It will be night soon," she said.

"And then you'll have to go home." He sounded dejected. Mandy practically smirked.

"Not necessarily." And she left it at that, left Junior to wonder what she meant.

Before he mustered the courage to ask, Mandy placed her hand on his knee. Again he jolted, and Mandy actually laughed, sounding a bit cruel but not so much that he was offended or worried. Junior debated what to do next. What on earth could possibly be the right course of action with Mandy? Ultimately he decided to take her hand.

Thumbing the soft pale skin of her wrist, Junior was entirely too wrapped up in his own sensations to notice the shivers Mandy was experiencing in kind. Shifting slightly, he began tracing slow circles on the back of her hand. It was amazing, this small action, how something so simple could do so much to his insides. His chest fluttered and pounded, and it shocked him that Mandy seemed not to notice the minor heart attack their close proximity was giving him. He looked up into her face. She had leaned forward, now balancing on her arms braced against her crossed legs. When had she changed position? How had he not noticed? Her eyes were still closed, but he couldn't read her expression.

He released her hand, and she opened her eyes. Their gazes met, and for the first time in his life, Junior began to sweat. It was just a small bead right above his ear, and he hoped it would go away before Mandy noticed. But then she picked up his hand again, eyes never leaving his, and planted it squarely on her thigh.

Now Junior was terrified. Whole stands of sweat formed along his hairline and both temples, the tiniest of pricks making a tiara around his crown. Mandy's black eyes gleamed with the challenge she has bestowed upon him, and he was entirely unable to meet or refuse it. He felt his fingertips ghost the softness of her inner thigh, though they were frozen in fear. Surely she didn't expect him to move up her skirt - and he certainly wouldn't do it even if she did. But what did she want? He searched for answers in her obsidian eyes, finding none.

"Mandy," he said, his voice trembling. He made to clear his throat, failed, and averted his eyes. Unfortunately they fell to the gap between her legs, and immediately snapped back up to her face. But the image of the gap remained, however fleeting it had been. He had seen how dangerously close he was to seeing to her underwear, or so he assumed based on his classroom knowledge of female anatomy. Did she realize how revealing her position was? Mandy never did anything unintentionally. So why was she tempting him so?

Her eyes drilled into his, daring him, challenging him, refusing to back down. Would he do it? Would he breach the delicate trust she had put in him? Mandy still didn't know her true feelings. She didn't really want to catapult their relationship so drastically, but she yearned for something more than they presently had. He was smart, wasn't he? He would know better than to actually explore higher up her leg. Wouldn't he? She started to doubt herself, tension entering her shoulders, ready to break his nose if he made a mistake. But Junior wouldn't make a mistake, not if her faith in him was justified.

How long had his hand been pressed to her thigh? Too long, that much was clear. The fluttering in his chest had turned to hammering. The beads along his scalp began to trickle down to his brow; surely she would notice them now. But he finally knew what to do. Without so much as a breath, Junior slid his hand down to her knee, propelling himself forward as she leaned back. His free hand cupped the side of her face, his lips mere inches from hers. He saw her breath hitch before he heard it, and smiled. He'd chosen right.

Adjusting to his new position, she slid her back away from the wall, relieving her neck from the cramp that had begun to form. Junior adjusted in kind, removing his hand entirely from her leg in favor of propping himself up. With her legs stretched out on the bed, his only sound option was to semi straddle her, his knees on either side of her lap. She braced one hand against his chest, though did not push him away. Her other arm propped her up at the elbow. It wasn't a comfortable position, but she could maintain it for the time being.

They held the pose for a moment too long for Mandy's tastes. The hand against Junior's chest snaked around to the back of his head, pulling him into his first kiss.

The butterflies in his chest sank right into his stomach. Some dipped a little lower, but he ignored them. He pulled back to suck in a breath of air, his eyelids fluttering at the closeness of Mandy's face. Her eyes were half-lidded, beckoning him forward. He leaned into another kiss, wrapping his arm around her back and pulling her over onto her side. Dropping down on the bed next to her, his back now to the wall, he closed his eyes again and began to explore her lips blindly. Her dorsal hand clawed at his scalp, fingers twisting into his raven locks. The gap between them closed, sealed as Mandy hooked her knee behind his. Junior let his thumb stroke her ear, tucking behind it and teasing the delicate flesh where he could feel her heartbeat hammering against his. He opened his mouth slightly, and she deepened the kiss, awakening sensations in him he didn't know existed. His fingers slid up the back of her head, arousing her scalp and mussing her short, blonde hair. She breathed erratically against his mouth, her leg tensing and shifting nearly imperceptibly. Junior's hand continued to caress her scalp as hers did in kind. Her hair was too short to grasp much, but he found purchase in it all the same. His fingernails traced the expanse of her skull as he kissed her more.

A sudden knock at the door broke them apart. "Dinner's ready," Aunt Sis called from the other side.

"Thanks, Mom!" Junior yelled back.

They waited as her footsteps faded back down the hall. Then Junior kissed Mandy again for good measure. "I suppose we should go eat."