Hey everyone! How's your weekend been? Mine was awesome-I got to go to my mother's house in Ohio, and spent the weekend cooking, shooting an air rifle (man, my arm hurts-I reloaded that heavy gun over a hundred times-but it turns out I'm a pretty dang good shot, I even beat two of my mother's friends in a competition. In the dark-at like ten at night!), spending time with my mother, and playing with my awesome dog, Remi. Only I didn't get much sleep or much homework done either. Oh is Well! It was worth it...I hope.

I was a bit disappointed that you guys didn't get this chapter earlier-I only got two reviews, so it didn't meet the quota I asked for. But Oh is Well! You're getting it as per original schedule! Don't worry, though, I'll probably be doing something like that once every month or so.

In this chapter, Selene and Klaus have a moment...! I had fun writing this chapter. Plus, as oblivious as Selene is at times, Klaus can be just as thick about certain things. Like his own feelings.

Chapter 12

Klaus's POV

She had done pretty well with the book-lessons. It turns out that she had checked out a history book and has been reading it between classes, so she was already catching up with other students, faster than I had expected. She seems to enjoy that subject. And her knowledge of herbs and their uses was more extensive than I had believed-the main problem was translation. I would ask her about an herb, and she would say she's never heard of it, but when I started to describe what it looked like, she'd go, "Oh! That's _!" and tell me what it's medical properties were. I was proud, though I wouldn't tell her that. Though my saying "good job" made her face light up like a Midwinter tree, making her look strangely young and innocent- and made that twist in my stomach return. Why does she do that to me? I connected it with her, now I have to find out the why.

And seriously, can't she act one age? She's constantly shifting from child to teen to mother and back again, like they're all different modes that she has. It makes me wonder how she was raised. Strange girl. That's what I think so often around her, because I keep thinking about her-her training, her behavior, her different expressions. Why? I couldn't tell you. She's affecting me in a way different than anyone else has before, in a way that I can't tell if it's good or bad. It doesn't seem to be harmful.

Back to the proper train of thought.

According to what she's told me, she's never used magic circles before coming here, so it's something completely new to her. She copied them over from a book she was borrowing from her roommate, careful to make it exact. She was slow but steady, and didn't do half bad. I told her to practice and learn to do it quicker, to which she responded, "If you want an artist, talk to Marvin." who is apparently one of her older brothers. She has seven. I wonder what growing up in such a large family would be like. I'm the middle of three, and Percival, my older brother, wasn't around very much, because of his training to become the Goldstein heir took up a good chunk of his childhood, so it was usually just Elias and I. It must have been chaotic, judging by her personality. But it must of been fun-a lot more relaxed than the strict household in which I grew up. I've gotten off track again. What is this child doing to me?

Afterwards, I told her training was over and she could leave, but reminded her to practice on her control of wind magic. She happily began putting her stuff away into her strange bookbag from Terra, she called it a backpack. "Oh! I completely forgot!" She pulled something out of her bag and walked over to me. "This is for you." She held out a little bag of…cookies? "I made five dozen by accident this morning-I'm so used to making things for a crowd that I made as much as I usually did. I've been giving them out to various people today. Elias seemed especially happy." I was surprised, but accepted it with thanks.

"Of course he would be. He has a terrible sweet tooth, even to the point of always carrying some around."

She laughed, "I didn't know that. I do the same thing! I'll have to tell him that in class tomorrow."

"You seem to really like my brother."

She smiled happily, making a new kind of emotion shoot through my heart, another one I couldn't identify, and spoke, "Yeah. He's a nice guy, and a friend. He's been quite helpful, always answering my questions-and I ask a lot of them." She does. I think she's asked me more questions than I've quizzed her on. "He even helped me find that history book when I ran into him at the library during lunch yesterday. Plus, he was the only one who'd pair with me in practical magic because everyone else, as nice as they are, didn't want to have their grade drop. I still feel bad about that-someone told me that it was the first time they had seen someone else besides Elias in the top spot. I was apologizing for the rest of class."

My eyes widened, "He must really like you, otherwise he wouldn't risk his grade like that."

"I'm just friendly to him. I find it works nicely with most people." Except she's rarely like that to me. But when she is, I find her quite likable, so I can see her point.

I stand up, "Would you like some tea?"

This surprises her, "Umm…okay?"

I get my teapot and gather up other supplies.

Selene's POV

"I didn't know you liked tea-you seemed more of a coffee person to me. Though I don't think they have coffee here." I was genuinely surprised.

"Of course. I have it at least three times a day."

"Wow. No wonder you seem like you're a pro at it." I was impressed, "I've never really made tea before, or had any. Unless you count those nasty medical herb ones that I've occasionally had to make." I shivered at the memories. They were utterly vile.

He chuckled. Chuckled?! That's a first. "Then I hope you like it. I made milk tea. I thought it would go nicely with the cookies." I had pulled my own bag out-I had made myself hold off on eating them, because I planned on eating them after dinner-and started munching on a cookie. Yum…

This was a different side of Klaus I hadn't seen before. He was actually being quite pleasant. It was a nice change. He handed me a tea cup on a saucer. I accepted it and took a sip. Not sweet enough. I saw that he was using this fancy little spoon to put sugar into his cup. Three heaping spoonfuls. He stirred it around.

"Looks like it isn't just Elias who has the sweet tooth." I commented, using the little spoon I had on my saucer to put three and a half spoonfuls in before stirring. I sipped. Yum. Perfect.

He rolled his eyes, but it was more playful than usual, a little amused smile on his mouth, "Mine isn't nearly so severe."

"You know what," I continued, "I think that you might like my hot chocolate. I'll make you some at some point." He raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

Klaus's POV

I refrain from telling her that hot chocolate does exist here, and that I have had it before. It's alright, but tea is still better in my opinion. It's Elias who's partial to hot chocolate.

"Trust me, hot coco is my tea. I am the master of the melted chocolate drink of the divine beings that may or may not exist." She seems proud of this, "I am able to cater it to any taste or season-though I am not fond of the new 'frozen hot chocolate' fad in Terra. I tried it, and it just tastes weird. It's a ruining of the original." She shudders, "Plus, it's cold. I am not fond of cold anything, especially when it's trying to invade my favorite drink. Though I'm going to have to say that this alone has made me fond of tea-it's really good." She eats another cookie.

That makes me smile. She can be quite pleasant when she wishes to be. I take a bite of one of my own cookies. They're quite good, the best, I dare say, that I've had in a while. They're balanced wonderfully in the areas of crunchy and gooey, soft and hard. They must of been even better when they were fresh out of the oven. I remember my mother making cookies when Elias and I were young, and she would let as us one as soon as they cooled enough to eat. Remembering this, I have an idea. I set my cup down and got up, walking over to the bookshelf to grab something.

"How would you like to see something?"

Selene's POV

He brings a book over to my and sets it in my lap after I set my cookies and tea to the side.

"What's this?"

"A photo album."

I raised an eyebrow, "Like a family photo album?" He nods, standing behind me. I open to the first page and see a picture of a young boy, maybe six, with striking violet eyes and golden blonde hair, in fancy formal wear. His face shows the type of serious look that little kids struggles to make for a formal picture, "Is this…you?"

"Yes."

I squeal, trying to keep it quiet, "You were such an adorable child!" I turn the page and it's another one of Klaus, maybe ten, with a little boy around five who shared the hair and eye color, but with a much more childish face, tugging at his sleeve-a dog at the edge, a big, slim puppy. A Doberman, I think. I gasp, "No way…is that Elias!?" I cover my mouth with my hands, "Oh my gosh! He's so adorable! You Goldstein boys were the cutest kids ever!" I contain as many of the squeals as I can as I slowly turn the pages. There's one of Klaus and Elias being tackled by the dog, who's trying to lick them as the two giggle and laugh. There's one of a five-year-old Klaus holding a little violet-eyed baby Elias. There's one of a eleven-year-old Klaus running around with a laughing Elias clinging to his shoulders. There's one of a six-year-old Elias with what I recognize as his wand, staring at it with wonder. So. Freakin'. CUTE!

Klaus's POV

I watch her face as she giggles and squeals and "awww…"s at the photos. It's making me happy just to watch her like this. I start telling her stories about some of my favorite particular photos, like when Elias first got his wand. She's mystified. It's amusing, to be honest. What is it about this child that fascinated me so?

Then she says something that makes me start, though I didn't show it. "Elias said that you guys had another brother who was about four years older than you. How come he isn't in any of these pictures?"

I sigh, "He was often too busy in his training to become the family heir to interact with us much, especially after Elias got to be a few years old. We're friendly, but not very close."

She looks sadly at the book, "That's not right. Siblings should have the opportunity to have a strong relationship with each other. I know that I love each of my brothers and would hate to not to be able to know them."

That's right. She has quite the large family. "I agree, but what's done is done."

"Not really. You two probably could gain a decent relationship if you two started communicating. Communicating is essential to any good relationship. I'd be sending him letters, friendly ones, not business letters, and the such. Doing anything I could to get to know him better." That's something I hadn't even thought about. She's right. But I decide to steer away from this subject for the time being.

"What about your brother's? What are they like?" This seems to cheer her up, and she launches into descriptions of her brothers. She chattered animatedly, and I can clearly tell she's close to them.

After that, she realized the time, and swore. Well, her version of a swear, which seems to be "Crum!" or "Crumcakes!" most of the time-neither of which made much sense to me. She thanked me for the tea and the talk, grabbed her stuff, and hurried off to go eat dinner and finish her homework. This whole thing left me feeling very warm on the inside, and not uncomfortably so. She wasn't all that bad of company once you got past the argumentative attitude. In fact, she could be downright pleasant. And this new feeling was making me panic a bit. Was it bad, or good? It didn't feel bad, but I couldn't entirely tell. My mother would definitely like her, I knew that much. They weren't all that different, albeit the fact that my mother was a lot calmer. But maybe that just came with time-my father had once told me that she was one of the most energetic girls he had ever known as a young man, excepting only one. Her best friend, the older princess of Geolune, who disappeared leaving only a letter announcing that she eloped at the age of nineteen. I also remembered him telling me that very few people knew that truth.

Now I'm starting to think like that buddy of mine-she had told me earlier that her trains of thought become so skewed and switched tracks constantly and ends up thinking about things that have nothing to do with her original thought. I shake my head at that. Strange girl.

Selene's POV

I run back to my dorm room and gather my shower stuff. I've decided that it's easier to do it at night, especially if I'm going to start baking in the morning. Afterwards, I finish my homework sometime around midnight.

As I crawl into bed, squirming into an odd but strangely comfortable position, I feel satisfied. Klaus isn't all bad. I feel like I know him a bit better than I did. Maybe this buddy thing will work out after all.

Authoress: Man, Klaus. You were such an adorable child! And look at Elias! *Squee!* He's a munchkin! But in that one photo you look like a mini-man! Oh my gosh! *laughing*

Selene: I have to agree with the authoress. You were so dang cute. *playfully smirks*

Klaus, with a amused smolder in his eyes: Aren't I?

Selene: And you're so modest, too!

Authoress: Isn't he?

Klaus: Why don't you show me some of your childhood photos sometime?

Selene: I don't look all that different now. The biggest difference is that you couldn't attempt to force me into anything other than a t-shirt and jeans without getting severe, fourth degree burns. Of course, my sisters always tried. The only reason they don't have stumps for arms is because they ganged up on me and they're all wizardesses. Plus, if it weren't for the shoulder-length hair, I would be mistaken for a boy ten times out of nine.

Klaus: *smirks his classic smirk* Well if you won't show me pictures, I could just collect a kiss instead.

Selene: *flushes and backs away from the slowly approaching man* In your dreams, Casanova! You know I can outrun you by a longshot-and am good at covering my tracks, and don't forget the fact that I can burn you to the netherworld.

Klaus, moving even closer: It's already to late for you, shortie.

Authoress hastily transports herself to the room Elias is studying his script for a several chapters later in, making him jump: Hey Eli. Klaus was starting to put the moves on Selene so I left. How's that studying going? What is it? Can I help? I'm pretty good with all of this stuff, I do have to write it.

Elias, looking up, face blank: You really need to find a way to control him between sets.

Authoress: *sighs* Don't you think I've tried? That man is like a bull, once he charges, you can't stop him, and oftentimes trying to gets you mauled.

Elias: That's your problem.

Authoress: Meanie! He's your brother, you do something! Sadly, I happen to be a muggle!

Elias: *sweatdrops* A what-now?

Authoress: Oh boy, get ready for a heck load of explanations.