Garfield's nose twitched. Not in the "I smell fish; get an epipen" way, but in the "something is different" way. He leaned over and told Victor this as they rode to school.

"You're just nervous about tomorrow," he said, brushing it off. "Don't sweat it, man. Mr. Wayne promised a fish-free, fully-lit party with minimal stimulation. It's gonna be fine!"

"I'm telling you, dude, my eighth sense is seriously going off right now," Garfield insisted.

"Eighth?"

"Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, balance, position, and intuition."

"'Position' is a sense?"

Dr. Stone piped in with "Phantom limbs, Vic."

Victor instantly started scratching at his false arm at the words. "Man, I just stopped, Dad!"

"Garfield's right. The ability to know where your body is in space is one of the senses we have. It's called proprioception."

"Yeah, proper-ception is we- focus! Something weird is gonna happen soon, I'm telling you."

Victor laughed. "I'm friends with you, man. Everyday is weird."

"Touché, but I mean weirder than normal, even."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, but it's gonna be big. Like, there's gonna be hugs big."

"Okay, this is your stop," said Dr. Stone.

"Gar, you're the hugger of the group, man. Kori doesn't shake hands with boys, Rae doesn't want her dad to think she's dating, and I'm not sure Robin even knows what a hug is."

"Dude, that's the point! I'm feeling very off about something, and it's gonna be jarring. Like, seriously out-of-line stuff!"

"How about working on the out-of-car stuff first?"

"Sorry, Dad. C'mon, man, let's go. It's gonna be fine."

Garfield grumbled, scratched his nose, and slid out of the car. Something weird was about to go down, he was sure of it. For starters, a sleek black car pulled up next to him once Stone left. An old man rolled down the window as his passenger climbed out.

"Good morning," the elder said. "Master Grayson called you Garfield?"

Garfield gaped for a second and said, "Uh, yeah? Who are you?"

"Alfred, sir. I'll be helping you tomorrow. Just to confirm, you have the allergy, yes? No fish whatsoever."

"Yeah, I'm real allergic. I'm actually vegetarian, so if you-."

"Not a problem, sir. Have you had eggplant parmesan before?"

"Uuuh, not that I know of…"

Alfred smiled kindly. "I think you'll like it. I'll make sure there's no fish product anywhere for your game. Now. Off to class, sir."

The window rolled back up, and the car pulled away. Garfield blinked before refocusing on Victor, who now had a familiar slim boy next to him. Robin. And he was smiling.

"Hey!" Garfield smiled back and said, "You got out of lockup!"

"Yeah, I had some serious therapy the last few days. They made me really think about what I'm doing and why and how to do it better," Robin said. "Which brings me to the first thing I need to do." He inhaled and exhaled slowly then said, "I forgive you. And I'm sorry I pushed back instead of actually talking to you."

Garfield shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't have listened."

"But I should have tried. The orphanage left me with some trauma I didn't want to deal with, and you insisting on using that name kind of made me. So. Bygones?"

Robin held out his hand nervously. Garfield looked at it, smirked, and took it.

"I don't do handshakes, though," he said.

He jerked his arm and trapped Robin in a hug. To his surprise, the raven boy didn't fight back. He returned the embrace. Victor quickly wrapped them both up and cooed.

"Aww, look at you guys! Group hug!"

"Told you," laughed Garfield.

"That's cheating. You started it," said Victor.

"You joined it."

"Are we doing the group hug?"

Garfield looked up and saw Kori's face over Victor's shoulder, her arms on his chest. Garfield raised a brow in shock, which Victor apparently seconded by his expression.

"Kori, you don't touch guys," Garfield said slowly.

"Not straight guys," she happily replied. "But Victor is not straight. He is mukhannath, not interested. Hadith allows this."

"Aww, thanks, K! Yesterday, it seemed like you were gonna bail on us," Victor admitted.

"Mmm. I was uncertain. Now I have talked to scholars and read much information," she said sweetly. "And I prayed. I am very confused, but I know that you are my friend. This is what matters."

"Kori, we're all confused."

The ball of teens jumped apart to stare sheepishly at Rachel. She adjusted her bag and pulled a hoodie down over her eyes. Kori seemed to instantly understand and rushed to her side.

"We will see you at lunch," she said, putting an arm around Rachel.

She quickly steered the shorter girl away and vanished into the school. Robin shrugged.

"So, what happened while I was gone?" he asked. "And what did she just call you and why?"

"Well…"

Garfield threw his hands up and explained, "Oh, so here I am, telling everyone that I'm autistic- this was Tuesday, by the way- and the big guy here decides it's a great time to tell everyone that not only is he on the homecoming court, but he's planning to ditch the invite because he's asexual. Way to steal my thunder, Vic!"

"As for what a munka-huntha is, I have no idea," Victor admitted. "Must be an Arab word."

"Oh, welcome to the club," Robin said, grinning. "I'm pretty sure I'm aspec, too. Or I just haven't really matured yet."

"Yeah, that seems to be a common thing in our bubble, the idea that attraction will just show up some day."

Garfield pouted. "Cool, another thing for you to bond over."

Robin shot him another grin, which honestly started looking a little unnerving to him, like watching a cartoon that was trying to be realistic and epicly failing.

"I've been looking into BattleCasters," he said. "Maybe it's something we can all three do together?"

"Yes," Garfield practically shouted. "We need a healer for our team. I'm an illusionist wizard, and Vic is a tank, but we need a medic if we want to take on the big dungeons. It's hard cycling through randos every time, because they don't know the play style we use, and I forget to say what I'm thinking. Do you think we could convince the girls to play? A five-man team is so much easier to work with than three."

"I dunno. We can try. But we should get to class first, huh?" Robin said, looping an arm over Garfield's shoulders. "I've been playing an assassin, but I can switch to a medic. We'll have to do a practice run on Sunday, okay?"

Garfield beamed. He wasn't sure he'd ever been so happy that his eighth sense was right.