Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Author's Note: I've been in a classical mood today, probably a result of watching, and reading, Gilmore Girls. I read some Hemingway and some Joyce, but then my fingers were itching to write.

It is officially summer vacation and I am now a senior. Still need to learn how to drive properly. My friend's genius advice? Don't run into the mailbox.

-/-/-/-

A boy becomes an adult three years before his parents think he does, and about two years after he thinks he does. ~Lewis B. Hershey, News summaries, 31 December 1951

-/-/-/-

"Maybe I'll grow more this year and I'll be taller than you." Kratos said conversationally one morning.

"Maybe." Yuan agreed. "And maybe it rains gumdrops."

"What?" Kratos looked over his shoulder at Yuan, who was now sprawled out on the bed, watching Kratos try and fiddle with the uniform to make it fit properly. They had said that it would take about a week for a new uniform to be made and, until then, Kratos had to go through inspection with the too-short pants and a shirt that was starting to get a little too small.

"It's an old song for kids. You've never heard it?"

Kratos shook his head. "How's it go?"

"If aaall the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be…Standing outside with my mouth open wide, ah, ah, ah, ah ah ah, ah ah ah…I can't remember the rest."

Kratos laughed, not unkindly. "Who taught you that?"

"My mama." It had been on one of her good days, which had also been rainy. Yuan remembered sulking because he didn't want to be stuck inside on one of Mama's few good days. Mama had shaken her head and taken his hand. "It's just rain." She'd said. "We won't melt if we walk in it. There's a song I used to sing as a little girl when it rained. Do you want to hear it?"

"But what are gum drops?"

Yuan sat up on his elbows and stared at him. "You've never had a gum drop?" Kratos shook his head. "Do you know what gum is?" Kratos shook his head again. "Yeah, and I have a lot to learn. Gum is this chewy, sticky candy that they get from this one tree's sap. You're not supposed to swallow it, but it tastes good sometimes and it's fun to blow bubbles with it. Gumdrops are made from the same tree, but you can swallow them and they're usually a lot sweeter, even if sometimes they do stick right here," Yuan opened his mouth and poked the roof of his mouth with his tongue to demonstrate. "A lot."

"Yeah? That sounds really cool. We don't have any candies like that."

"Maybe it's 'cause the trees don't grow in human lands."

Kratos set the uniform down and sat cross-legged by Yuan's feet. "Now that I think about it, what is your favorite candy?"

"I haven't tried a lot of them. Gumdrops were mostly what we could afford, but every year, right at the beginning of spring when there's still some frost on the roof, there'd be people selling sweet ice. That's my favorite."

"Sweet ice? Like ice cream?" They'd stolen away into the kitchens over the summer more than once to have ice cream sitting on the step to the back door. Yuan had been amazed that they could keep ice cold enough that it wouldn't melt through the summer.

"No way. They're actually really different. Sweet ice is exactly what it sounds like. They get some of the syrup that they made over the winter from the summer harvest and they pour it over ice that they put in a little bowl about…this big." Yuan held his fingers about five inches apart. "Then they give you this little wooden spoon—it's hard to hold 'cause it's so small—and you eat it just like that."

"They have different flavors?"

"Oh yeah. There's sweet plum, cherry, sometimes some wild berries. Lots of pomegranate where I'm from, so there's pomegranate in like everything—even in stew! One time, I swear, our neighbor made this pomegranate and rabbit stew! It had some pumpkins and some beans in it too!"

Kratos' nose wrinkled. "That sounds gross."

Yuan shrugged. "It wasn't too bad. I've definitely tasted worse."

Kratos leaned back until he was lying down on the bed side by side with Yuan, who had to scoot over to make more room. They lay in comfortable silence for long minutes, watching shadows play out across the ceiling and listening to the cicadas outside the open window.

"…When's your birthday?"

Yuan had dozed off. Kratos poked him in the shoulder and the half-elf came back to wakefulness with a snort. "What?"

"When's your birthday?" Kratos repeated.

Yuan shrugged. "Sometime in the winter. Why?"

"Because we never celebrated it."

Yuan turned his head to look at him. "Did you want to?'

"Don't you?"

"We never really did much for birthdays. It's always cold or snowy on my birthday, so it's not like we can really leave the house and Mama…well." Yuan has never told Kratos about Mama, about her bad days and good days, about the way that, sometimes, she'd look at him and see Dehua or Kail. "I'm Yuan, Mama." He'd say. "Oh. Of course." She'd look sad after that, so he'd stopped correcting her.

"We can't let your birthday be uncelebrated."

"It's not that big a deal, really."

"It is to me." The slightly baffled expression on Yuan's face told Kratos that his friend didn't understand, but that he wasn't going to argue anymore. " What's today?"

"Tuesday."

Kratos rolled his eyes. "The number."

"Um…The fourth of August?"

"Today can be your new birthday. Unless you remember the other one." Yuan shook his head. "Then happy birthday, Yuan. You're officially a teenager."

Yuan grinned. The words felt like there should be a flash of…something…to go with them, but, as Kratos said, he didn't feel any different. "You know what I wanna do tonight?"

"What?"

"Well, you know the bell tower…"