Walking over to the kitchen island and climbing up the stool that was by Seth, Bayley took a breath and let it out before saying "OK. Here's what's bothering me."

After all of the cuteness of last chapter, have some more Bayley and Seth bonding cuteness. =3 I hope you guys enjoy. =)

(Disclaimer: The author is not responsible for any blood sugar spikes, "Squee!"s, or "D'aawww!"s you may have while reading this. I only write what I feel/know will work in each chapter.)

"So, you know how I like to go play in the trees, right? Well...I went to practice climbing one of my favorite trees, when, as I'm going down the hill, I get to the bottom and, there, at the bottom of my tree is a boy! Can you believe that, Seth?" Bayley asked, looking over to the two-toned man.

"Well, a bit I can. After all, even though Roman, Dean, and I own this property, we allow the residents of the city to come here so long as they aren't doing anything dangerous and after they get our say-so. Although, I don't think I remember letting any kids come here," Seth said, musing out loud. "Just what did this boy look like, Bayley?"

"Umm... Well, he had curly red hair and he was wearing a dark blue shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of blue and white shoes. I think I saw him doing something in a book too," Bayley said. "The weird thing about the boy is that he looked like he was probably about my age."

"He did? Bayley, that's great news! That means you could make a new friend other than me and the others and Josh and Emma," Seth said, obviously excited to hear this. "Did you go and talk to the boy?"

"No! That's why I'm talking to you right now! The boy is what's bothering me!" Bayley said, a bit of a pinkish blush starting to climb up her cheeks.

"I don't quite understand. Why is this boy bothering you so much?" Seth asked, feeling a bit confused.

"Because...well...I've never met other kids my age before, let alone a boy. I'd like to try to make friends with him, but I don't know how to go about doing that. What do you recommend I do, Seth?" Bayley asked, looking over to the older man.

"Hmm. For starters, calm down. You're not going to do yourself any real favors if you're so wound up about this before you could even go talk to the kid," Seth said, trying to calm the preteen down. Seeing that Bayley had closed her eyes as she took a few breaths in and out, Seth went on with his pep talk with Bayley. "Now, would it make you feel any better if someone went with you when you go to talk to the kid? Something's telling me that you might need a bit of support to help you break the ice with your prospective new friend."

"That'd be pretty great, but...you know I don't exactly have any other friends my age that could go with me to talk to him," Bayley said, hanging her head a bit.

Hearing Bayley say this, Seth couldn't help but grin as he said "Never say never or don't, Bayley."

Feeling confused upon hearing Seth say this, Bayley looked over to the older man and asked "Huh? What do you mean, Seth?"

"What I mean is...well, what if you had someone your own age go with you to meet the kid?" Seth asked, his grin still in place.

"It's like I said, that'd be great, but I don't know any other kids my age. And, even if I did, I think they'd all be in school right now, anyway," Bayley said. "Why do you say so?"

Leaning forward, Seth asked "What if I told you that you could have someone your age go to meet the kid and he was here?"

"Really?!" Bayley asked, very surprised to hear Seth say this. Seeing the older man nod his head, Bayley smiled and excitedly said "That'd be so great, Seth! Where is he? Where is he at?"

Pointing at himself, Seth said "You're looking at him", his grin never leaving his face.

Immediately feeling confused again, Bayley said "Um, Seth. You're not exactly my age."

"Not yet, I'm not," Seth said, grin still in place as he slid off of the stool. Once he was standing in front of Bayley, Seth closed his eyes as he took a few breaths in and let them out.

Bayley wasn't quite sure what to make of Seth doing all of this until she saw the gem in Seth's forehead start to emit a white glow that seemed to spread down and around Seth's body. What happened next surprised the brunette preteen: As she watched Seth, Bayley was very surprised to see Seth's body begin to shrink down from the taller adult that he was. He had shrunken down a good many feet and inches before the glow surrounding him dissipated and what was left standing in the kitchen was a much younger version of Seth, a four foot-four inch tall boy with a sorta shaggy crop of two-toned hair and who was dressed in a blue t-shirt that had a picture of a Squirtle and its evovled forms on it, a pair of black pants, and a pair of dark blue Converses.

Combing his hair down to cover his gem, Seth said, in a much younger sounding voice, "Ta-da! You have a new friend to go with you to make another new friend! I don't normally shapeshift unless it's for something crucial, but I felt that it'd be okay to bend my rules just this once."

Still in awe over what she just saw, Bayley just blinked as her mouth hung wide open in surprise. Bayley still didn't know a lot about just what she, Seth, Roman, and Dean were as the only thing she really knew was that they had powers that they used to help protect the people that lived in their city from the creatures that they encountered. So, to see that Seth just turned himself from the older version of himself to this child version was pretty surprising to the brunette. Finally managing to find her words after hearing Seth call her name, Bayley grinned widely and said "Whoa, Seth. That was so cool!"

Grinning widely at Bayley's surprise over his transformation, Seth said "Thanks. I figured doing this is the least I could do to help you break some of your nervousness so that you can try to make a new friend. You're going to need people your own age to play with and talk to, so just consider this me helping you out."

Leaping off of the stool as she caught Seth in a big hug, Bayley said "Thank you, Seth!"

Returning Bayley's hug with one of his own as best he could, Seth said "It's no problem, Bayley." Pulling away from Bayley with the ponytailed brunette doing the same thing, Seth, grin still in place, said "Now. Let's go help you make a friend!"

...I feel as though I gotta apologize for laying on so much cuteness here, but...I just feel like it worked. I mean, think about it. Bayley needed a pep talk if she was going to try to make friends with the boy she saw, so Seth decided to help her out the best way he could. And he felt the best way to do so would be to go with the preteen as emotional support. His own way of lending emotional support...that's actually an idea that I got from watching a good number of Steven Universe episodes. Shapeshifting is a power that the Crystal Gems have, so I decided to impart that into the fic. I hope you guys like how I used it here. Next installment's going to be all about Bayley and Seth making friends with the red-haired boy. Until then, don't forget to R&R please. =)