Once he was satisfied that the new cuttings he'd planted had been done so properly, Juniper decided it was about time to re-hydrate. Indeed, as he left the relative shade of Han's Garden and started back up to the house, the heat of the sun hit him full force, and he realised that he'd worked up more of a sweat than he'd realised. Yep, definitely need a drink then, then, he thought to himself. He wondered idly if he should stay in the house and make it a proper break or simply grab the drink and go back as he had been planning. It was usually what he did, but in truth it wasn't that much cooler in the house than it was in the shade deep in Han's Garden, so it wasn't as if it made that much of a difference

Still, it was a relief to get back into the house and to head straight to the kitchen, wondering whether he could get away with just filling a glass with nothing but ice cubes when he realised that Tristan was in the kitchen too, staring into the fridge.

"Hey, get me something. Anything, surprise me."

Tristan sighed and pulled out a carton of apple juice, and then after a moments' thought some orange squash before closing the fridge with a slightly despondent look.

"That thirsty, huh?" Juniper joked.

"No, I'm going to mix them." Came the unexpected reply. "Want to try?"

Juniper was lost for words, and Tristan apparently took this as assent as he poured a little bit of apple juice and a little bit of squash into the glass he had already taken out. He then topped it up with a tiny bit of water and went to get the ice-cubes out of the freezer before dropping some into the glass and handing it to Juniper. He then promptly got out another glass and did the same for himself before putting the ice-cubes away and then putting the juices back in the fridge. Once again, he stared into the fridge for a while before then closing it and sighing.

"Ahh, I really just want to sit in the fridge!" Tristan complained as he sipped at his drink.

"Yeah?"

"It's so hot, I can't concentrate on anything! How are you standing it?"

Tristan pulled a face and tugged at the collar of his light cotton shirt as he continued drinking.

"Ehhhh."

Juniper thought about this, and he took a few gulps of his drink as he did so. To his surprise, he found that the concoction didn't taste half bad. It was a bit on the sweet side, but apart from that it was decent enough.

"Who gave you the idea to mix squash with a different fruit drink?" he asked.

"One of my room-mates. I've never tried it with real-fruit juice, though. Think Ai'll let me try with some of her oranges?"

"You can always ask. Anyway, your question! The heat. I have no answer except shirtlessness helps."

Juniper grinned as Tristan gave him a completely unimpressed look and bluntly stated:

"I like shirts."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I also minimise the laundry that you all have to do!"

Tristan laughed, and then sighed, fanning himself.

"I forget how old this house is, sometimes. I mean, I guess at least I've got fans upstairs but studying's going to be a complete write-off today."

"Ehh, you'll be fine. You're like Lys, a complete brain-box. But why don't you come outside?"

Tristan stared at him.

"It's shady in the garden….but actually, there's probably a lot of shade around the back too. Let's sit there a while. Maybe a break will help."

Tristan considered this and then shrugged. Juniper decided to take this as assent.

…

They didn't say anything for a while, simply sitting and staring out at the grounds below them and the sky above them while drinking their cool drinks. The blue of the sky was the same it had always been in all the hot summer days in all of the previous lives he had, and Juniper found himself surprised by that-that some things could be so constant, despite each of the lives he'd lived with Lysander and Aisa and Han having been so very different.

Then again, the pain and the hurt had all been the same right until Han had stopped it.

Okay, time to stop thinking about that. Juniper abruptly swigged the rest of his drink, and was pretty sure he gave himself a sugar rush in the process. He got up a little giddily and asked:

"Want a refill?"

"Yeah, sure."

Juniper went back into the kitchen, and refilled their glasses, adding extra ice-cubes to both their glasses before going back out.

"Normal juice this time," he said. "Also I turned yours into the old Antarctic since you're clearly melting more than I am."

Tristan, who had been fanning himself, mock glared before shaking his head in amusement and accepting the juice. Juniper sat down next to him again and gazed up at the sky, noticing that a few clouds had now appeared across the bright blue expanse. Not enough to signal a change in the weather, just a few fluffy white things. But…

"Hey, check it out, that one's elephant-shaped!"

"You what?"

"Look, that cloud up there!"

"Um….Jun…it's a cloud."

"You're joking."

The way Tristan was staring at him-as if he'd grown three heads-seemed to suggest that he was not joking. Sighing in disappointment, Juniper pointed at the clouds.

"Look-big body blob there, big ears there and the long swishy trunk! Elephant! Are you telling me you've never looked at clouds and seen shapes? Not even when you were hanging around with your friends."

"Well, I don't think cloud-shapes were ever Kady's thing. But…no?"

"Oh gods," Juniper shook his head. "But come on, tell me you can't at least see that."

"No, not really…"

Tristan paused and raised an eyebrow before grinning and pointing.

"But those ones there, they kinda look like fish, right?"

Juniper stared, and acknowledged that they did indeed look like fish. He stared at some of the other clouds, trying to find a shape in those so he could properly show Tristan the joys of discovering shapes in clouds when the boy came out with an unexpected question:

"Did you do this kind of thing with Dad and Ai when you were little? In your old lives, I mean?"

"With Han, too." Juniper added almost immediately.

Tristan just waited, and Juniper looked at him for a moment.

"Yeah, we did. And other hot-summer things…including not doing much of anything…"

Now he was thinking about it, those had been the same too. Different clothes, but still the need to wear the lightest kind possible. Different foods and drinks available, but still only ever the coolest ones. Different buildings and trees, but always shade to sit in. And that sky, that endless blue sky with clouds that held shapes. Still the same, despite the differences.

"You've got a lot of memories, haven't you? Doesn't it feel strange, sometimes? Having more memories than one person could really have?"

"Oh believe me, kiddo," Juniper shook his head. "It feels strange all the time."

"Yeah, it's…you know there are others, right? That have had other lives? Lots of people are just discovering it although it mostly seems to be happening in the cities."

"No, there's someone here, they had a life from a few decades ago. It was very ordinary, though."

"Yeah, most of them are kinda ordinary, but like, people are meeting up again. There's a couple teachers at school who lived on the same street in their previous life, but from like the 2010s or something. And Carys from my tutor group, she's actually just found out that in a past life she and this boy from the year below us were actually a married couple in….oh gosh, a really long time ago. One of the World Wars of the Old World. And then, well, this is a story from Kady's uni, not my school but apparently there's someone in one of her classes who actually became a grandmother in this old life, but one of her grandchildren died as a little kid-they were ill or something, I think. Anyway, it turns out that their lecturer is this same grandchild."

Tristan stopped as if slightly startled, the way he always did after having talked for a very long time. He drummed the fingers of his free hand against his thigh absently and then said.

"There doesn't seem to be anything like you guys though. The over and over again and the…you know, curses."

"No, I'm pretty sure that was just…us. Still, plenty of people only ever live the one life."

"That's true…do you think I will? Have other lives, I mean."

Juniper considered this for a moment, though not because he had an actual answer to that. How could he? It wasn't as if they even really knew why this had all happened to them in the first place, why Han had been so unlucky to have been cursed in such a way.

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know."

Tristan stopped then to take huge gulps of his drink before the glass was drained, leaving only a few ice-cubes still rattling. Staring down at them for a moment, he then put the glass down.

"I just…dunno. Do you think I'll see you there?"

"This is our last run, remember, old buddy?"

"Oh."

Tristan avoided his gaze, instead looking at the clouds (the elephant had long since dissipated but the fish were still there). Juniper patted his arm, not knowing what to say.

"Maybe I'll be friends with Kady again or…or maybe, maybe I haven't met them yet. The person that I might meet in other lives, if I have them."

"Maybe." Juniper said. "But you know what, kid?"

Tristan looked expectantly at him.

"I think this life is a pretty good one to be ending up on, don't you?"

And then, even though Tristan really was too old for it, before he could stop himself he reached over and ruffled his hair. Tristan squawked in protest, but let him do so all the same. It was just at that moment that Lysander and Aisa appeared, having just gotten back from the outhouse.

"What are you two doing out here?" Aisa asked, smiling.

"Nothing," Tristan said. "It's too hot to do anything."

"Oh, I agree. We wrapped up early because of the heat." Lysander said, yawning.

"Hang out with us," Juniper said. "I'm teaching Tristan the joys of finding shapes in the clouds."

"Are there even any clouds?" Aisa asked, frowning up at the sky.

Juniper simply gestured for them to sit down, and though Aisa plopped down next to him, Lysander briefly disappeared into the cottage, coming out a few moments later having changed his t-shirt and clutching some of the ice-cream cones that they'd bought the other day in anticipation of Tristan's summer holidays. He passed them around, and once they'd been unwrapped, they all looked up at the clouds, trying to find shapes in them as they ate the ice-creams.

And as the endlessly hot day passed, it occurred to Juniper that in all their lives and all the summer days there had been one important thing that was the same: that he had never spent those summer days alone.

And that, of course, was the most important thing.