Thinking about it made me giggles to myself as I stepped a few more rooms down and turned to the elevator. My fingers glided over the buttons and my eyes were closed. There's nowhere I really got to be now so why not?

A button was pushed, then the elevator door closed sending me off.

Floor number 6, three floors above mine. I love going to the window and looking out. The ant sized people getting into their ant sized cars seemed mechanical in some way. Going up to the highest floor, 15, you could maybe see where all the individual cars and trucks are going. I got floor 6 though and I'm going to stick with my random destined choice.

It's just my imagination, but every time I change floors, I feel the of my body change along with it. It's not like i'm using my powers are anything. Connie explained to me that she has had the same feeling going up or down, the higher you go, the lighter you get.

Having a scientist as a girlfriend has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about space, like the gravity at ground level is just as strong as it is in low orbit. In low orbit on higher things tend to fall sideways which is why it revolves around the planet and not crash into it. I'm not much of a student, but I could listen to Connie speak all day.

The bell of the elevator dinged signaling my time has arrived to step off.

The floor was very similar to mine, no real difference. Walking on any floor give me an all too close familiarity to the rooms. In my eyes, they look like my neighbor flats and mine. They really pay attention to detail because I can't tell them apart.

A little farther down, a voice caught my attention. Sounds of rough grunts and heavy breathing traveled through the halls, obviously someone was struggling with something. Over the corner, there were two men having trouble fitting a couch through their apartment door.

"Twist! Twist!" one man barked, pushing with all his might.

"C'mon bro. I'm trying to." the other man responded.

By the way sweat dripped down their brows, it was clear they been at it for a while.

"Can I help?" I asked, approaching them casually.

The two men gave me a glance melting with hindrance. The couch was rested on the ground giving them a well needed break.

"Look kid, you shouldn't be bothering with things you know you can't help with. Wait until you're a little older, ok." he said to me.

To be fair, I was a little height challenged and me being half gem meant I grew abnormally, but his words still left me torn and wide mouthed.

"Uhh..." I started, finding some words to respond with. "I'm actually an adult."

The man who made the assumption that I was a kid only stared at me for a moment before going "huh."

"Tony, stop bothering the man. You're looking like a jerk again."

The first guy threw his head over the the second me burning a wild glare into his face.

"A jerk you say?!" he faced me again bubbling his lips in disappointment to what he was accused of.

"Hey! Tell this idiot that I'm not saying anything wrong to ya."

"No no no, it's fine. I'm just trying to see if you need help. That couch seem like it's giving you trouble."

The man cocked an eyebrow. "asking about THAT again, are ya?"

He hummed to himself to think. "so you are a man. I won't patronize ya. Here. Give it a shot."

"Ok!" I smiled, moving over to the couch then lining myself up with it.

"At least this will give you some time to rest Bro. I thought you were going to kill over at any time now." the other man snickered.

"Shut up!" tony laughed rubbing the sweat off his forehead.

I smiled at the two, then bent down to grab the couch. "i'm ready." I claimed.

The other guy bent over as well eyeing me from over the cushions.

"All right. When you get tired, just let me know and we'll put the couch back down, ok."

I gave him a thin smile. "ok." a reply came out of my mouth.

We began to left and immediately they began to notice that I didn't need help.

"Oh wow kid!"

"I think I can get it out." my eyes trailed back into their flat. In it I noticed a glass door much wider than the one the couch was squeezing through now. "does that glass door lead to a balcony?"

A glance was given to the glass door before a wary panicked expression engulfed tony.

"Why would you ask that? We're not doing anything dangerous like throwing a couch out a window."

"Don't worry." I remarked waving a hand. " it'll be done safely."

"Safely" tony added giving a crazy look.

I let go of the couch in the hallway and remained floating in place.

"With this ability."

"What in the world?! You have powers kid?"

It dawned on me that I was now running out of time with my little walk around. Connie would be here any minute.

"You guys. I got to make this quick. I'm meeting someone in a little while."

" Oh uh... ok. David, get the back door."

"Yea, sure!"

David grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open. "ok, all ready for you, Sir."

"Sir?" I whispered as I pushed the couch over and out the door. Dropping two steps, I was on the balcony.

"Ok, come down stairs. I'll be waiting." I commanded before jumping off with the couch.

The slight breeze rocked the couch on it's descent downwards. The sky was now a full blue, clear and beautiful. Special moments like this should be enjoyed as much as humanly possible but it can't compare to who I has waiting for me at my flat.

She doesn't know that I stepped out or how long i'll be gone. Maybe I should call her to let her know.

I pulled out my phone to first check the time. "good. It's not as late as I thought it was."

The down arrow button took me through the contact list. I could use the "recent calls" list but pearl has had everyone beat in calling me thus far, not that I mind. Well, I don't mind it that much. It's surprising that she hasn't called me y-

Abruptly the phone started ringing and it was pearl. pearl would normally wait for a time when she knew I'd be awake to start calling. Right on schedule.

"H-hey pearl. What's up?"

(Hi Steven. Nothing much, just getting ready for my class to start. Oh hey, lymei. Wow. You finished the project so soon. Not trying to get extra credit now are you? It's so gorgeous, you must have worked the whole to days on this.)

"Lymei is your best student after all."

(Yeah, i'm going to hate when she graduate. Oh yeah. Do you know that jasper just entered our school?)

I smiled twisting my face in disbelief. "what?! No way. I thought she would never come around."

(I'm not sure why she did really. Something about learning how humans fought back in the day. I think that's the only thing she's into for now.)

"Oh make sense. I mean, it's what she likes."

(Yeah. I like to think our school has a little something for everyone.)

"You guys are doing a great job." my mind snapped back to what I was previously doing. "pearl, i'll have to call you back later. Connie coming over and i'm busy helping someone."

(Ok steven. Talk to you later. Tell Connie I said Hi.)

"Ok. Will do."

The couch near the ground about around the time the phone hung up. With a soft thud the ride was over.

"That was kinda fun." my attention was aimed at the entrance of the Apartment searching for the two men. "I guess I could have stayed on the phone a little while longer since they haven't made it out yet."

A few minutes sitting there, over my shoulder I heard a voice. "Heya super human. You know, i'm not sure why you're not in a lab somewhere. I mean, you're not even trying to hide it at all."

Recognizing the voice, I rolled my eyes then responded. "seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that you bring it up, being a lab rat does sound horrible."

"Lucky it's too early for anyone to care and look around."

A recent friend of mine Henry rounded the couch other to where I sat then plopped down next to me.

"What lead to you throwing a couch out a window."

"It wasn't a window. It was a door. A glass door. I'm not saying I broke it doing so but." a teasing mischievous grin appeared on his face. I laughed with defeat knowing what was coming.

"Your case is that it's a glass door instead of a window? Cool either way. I mean it looked like you were taking a nap as you fell. There's just no boring day with you. Were you texting your girlfriend?"

My eyes wrinkled wondering if she might already be up at the room.

"Henry. can you do me a favor?"

To my words, Henry narrowed his eyes. "let me guess, you want me to stay with the couch until you get back?"

"Kinda. I need you to stay with the couch until the owners coming down stairs."

Both of his hand were thrown up to stop me from talking.

"Wait, they're not coming down here to beat the one sitting on it up, right?"

"No, i'm helping them move it down here."

"Ah, should have known you were doing a good deed this early in the morning."

"You know it."

He laid comfortably back into the couch, then closed his eyes. "sure. It's no problem."

"Thank you thank you."

I turned around to the apartment complex, then eyed my room, positioning myself towards it. The distance toward my outside balcony and I would hardly take a moment to cover. So risking that for me to make squatting down, I jumped and floated back up to my room. Henry opened his eyes just in time to realize what I'm doing.

"Steven! You can't just do things like that! People are going the cut you up and eat you to gain your powers if you keep doing things like this in public."

"Eww. That's disgusting." I mentioned.

"It's true... maybe. My point is people are weird like that and you shouldn't take any chances.

"I can't let that dictate how I live my life."

"Fair enough, but it's going against your aim for a peaceful life!"

"I think the yelling is going to get me caught faster!"

"Yeah! You might be right!"

"Stop yelling!"

My balcony came into reach. Swinging underneath, I scaled the sides until reaching the edge of the ledge. The door should be open. Despite some of my friends warning I do use this method to shortcut my way to my room.

Not to say no one haven't seen me yet, people have, but I'm hoping that in general some people would be OK with it eventually like at beach city. Showing my powers to other have lead to a few police calls and me ending up on the news, but things after that died down pretty quick. Also, I did get arrested, but I'm on good terms with most of the police around the area, however, starting from unethical beginnings admittedly.

My eyes met at Connie's as soon as I entered the balcony. Obviously, I was late to come back, which further chipped away at the time we had to hang out. Nonetheless her gaze glowed, burning bright warm and happy that I made it back.

"Stevie!" she cooed, erupting from the chair she sat.

Her voice nudged my heart, and the day felt as though it just begun. Not to say that everything else wasn't an important factor, but she's like morning coffee for me.

My feet lounged me at the door and whipped it open.

"Sorry wasn't here when you arrived. Were you waiting long?"

"Not at all. It's been like three minutes since I got here. Good to been back." she exclaimed rocketing over to hug me.

Her embrace was surreal. How horrible that I only get to do this with her at most a few times a week. The distance does make the heart more fonder, but at some point, it aches.

"Wow, I missed you." I admitted, giving an extra tight grip to her.

"And you're not so bad to see after a long day of non-stop studying. I miss you too."

We closed in the gap among our faces, snuggling our noses together. "i wasn't sure if I would make it to the apartment on time. Lion was distracted chasing a squirrel around campus. At first, waiting for him to get bored seemed like the best option, but after like twenty minutes. I thought it'd be best to come up with a new plan."

I cocked an eyebrow forming a half smile a bit bothered by the story.

"Sooo, how did you work everything out?"

"Well, I caught the squirrel, then sneak it away from under lion's nose, then let him go afterwards. After that lion calmed down."

"Good job saving it. How did you get before lion could?"

"Just running."

"You must have been going pretty fast to outrun lion. I bet you got a lot of attention going around the campus."

"Not sure if i'd say that; however, some girls from the track team wanted me to join the team, sooo yeah."

"What really?! What did you say?"

"Of course I said no."

"What? Why?"

"Because. I want to spend any time I can with you, even if that's just talking on the phone."

"Aww."

"Plus, my body might go on strike if I decide to add one more thing to my list."

She looked passed my shoulder at the glass door that I came through.

"You must have flown up here."

"Yeah. Guilty. I was a little worried that you got here before I did."

"So what did you do this morning?"

"After fixing breakfast for meh lady." a flirtatious grin grew across my face, being met by her restrained coy smile. "there was a little time to kill, so I left to wonder the halls. There were a few things that came up making the trip longer. Side note. Do you know that Onion is up here?"

"Wait, Onion? The Onion back at beach city?"

"Yeah. Somehow buster and Onion got a chance to meet. It's strange. It's only two days since I've told Buster about Onion, now he's here."

Connie gave a distant look out the glass door."I-is that him standing outside at the balcony?"

We were met with a gleeful mischievous expression that saturated his face. He waved at Connie as he step just out of view disappearing around the corner side of the door way.

"What in the world did... HOW DID HE DO THAT?!" a shout bellowed out of me.

We stood there listening for him to show back up. Thirty seconds past but he didn't appear again.

"He's... probably gone by now... maybe." Connie assured, suppressing a panic whimper in her voice.

There was a lot of reasons to doubt that he was done with his prank. "no, he's still there, listening."

I backed farther from the back door hitting something behind me. "I told you to watch your back Steven." a voice warned.

"AHH!" the sudden surprise caused me to scream louder than I'm pride to admit. Immediately after, a feeling of shame filled my cheeks. "are you guys done with the joke?"

"calm down you two, it's just me."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not sure if I should just keep screaming or not."

"you're so funny Steven. We just came by to say hi to Connie."

"Hey Baster." Connie breathed. " I see you met Onion."

"Yeah, he's pretty fun!" Buster informed her. "well, I'll be seeing you guy later. Onion and I have a job to do."

"Wait what kind of job is that?" I questioned with regret.

"You might not want to know." he simply warned before going out the backdoor. "we can't have you getting involved yet."

"That sounds a bit worrisome." I pondered with a nervous laugh that quickly fell short.

"...They seem to get along well." Connie mentioned glancing out into the balcony.

"Yep. The perfect duo." I laughed. "i'm sure they won't get into too much trouble."

"Now Buster can do it too?" Connie's voice squeezed out with curiosity. " So it can be taught."

Over the years, we have speculated about Onion, and she was as curious about how Onion "gets around" as I was. As a woman of science, She had something to ask before we continued my modest morning journey story.

She tip toed to the back door and glanced out checking for them, after fully confirming in her head that the two astounding seemingly reality bending children were gone, she faced around to me burning with a few questions I hope i'd be able to answer at the moment.

"He teleport up here, didn't he?"

"I'm not sure but it's likely." that look in her eyes hinted more to me. "So you wanna try and catch them teleportation?"

Her grin wavered to my suggestion showing a hint of anguish to the idea. "we already tried doing that. He does thing thing where he disappears just out of view. It's hard to track."

A minor hypothesis of ours is that he's not really human. Maybe generally something like me, an alien of a different type. He doesn't show any gem on his body, or at least to where we can see it. It's in our interest to just assume he doesn't have one. That leads us to the guess that maybe he was another race in all. I mean, there are the gems, why not others?

My eyes rolled away from her to the ground, realizing that the idea wouldn't fit all we know. He's Sour Cream's little brother and son of Vidalia and Yellowtail, right? Is he not related to his family? Maybe his whole family are aliens?

Connie wavered as well to the opposing contradiction before, going that route she said we'd have to assume too much.

Out of the three other family members yellowtail is only person who strengthens the idea of alien but not by THAT much. Other than him always seeming to be away a lot and suspicious method of speech similar to onion nothing else defy reason.

Just to be curious, we did do some investigation on where exactly he sailed his boat to while away. We didn't want to go the stalking method first, we asked all over the town. Strangely no one knew where he went nor ever got a glimpse of his boat at sea. Not even the fish market that buys this fish. I asked Vidalia where Yellowtail goes, but she would only respond with "well, he goes and cast his net somewhere."

That didn't help farther our investigation.

It added to our suspicion, and we felt there was a piece not fitting. Why does he not tell anybody about it? Maybe he doesn't want it to become over populated with other fishers is a thought we had guessed. It came time for us to ask him personally now finally having the time to do so. Up to that point in our investigation, he hadn't been home in a few days.

We watched for his ship to port, but somehow we missed it and it appeared right along the banks just out of view. After finding him heading towards the fish store, we stopped him and I asked Yellowtail where he goes to fish, but he wasn't willing to tell me that fact. We wondered if the answer was because of business reason or of personal reason.

We didn't understand what he said.

His language, it's not something we ever heard of or could make sense of. Finally, we decided to let him go.

"I think we're right about him possibly being part of another alien race, but I believe he might be half human like you." Connie lingered on that surfacing thought but frowned as another contradicted it. "but Buster! How long his he been able to do that?!"

"Apparently, Onion taught him. At least, that what Buster told me." I confirmed, feeling through my front hair just as puzzled.

A grain of doubt to my words glinted from Connie as she echoed what I said. "he was taught?"

She eventually believed and digested my words, placing a hand on her cheeks then gently palmed her face until it resembled a shapely pancake. Oh yeah, our breakfast.

"If you want, we can continue this over a romantic breakfast."

Her head snapped over towards me, falling out of trance. A weak shrug of her shoulders as her brilliant smile grew back. She motioned over towards me curious to what I've made.

"You're may favorite chef you know that. Been waiting to eat your cooking since I've left."

"That was three days of waiting. Sorry to not be there to cook everyday you wake up."

I said that as a joke, but deeply, it did wrench at my heart.

"Truly, a knight should never be so far, unable to serve his queen."

Hitting the microwave door, it burst open. The smell of the food was still able to roam the room. I believed it was the perfect temperature to eat at, mildly warm.

"Mmm, a queen you say?"

Connie stepped away, going to the bathroom to tend to her gracing hands.

"I'm flattered, but you are MY king, sir Steven."

I laughed at what she said, mostly because calling me Sir would still make me her lowly Knight. Not that that''s a problem.

"See, I am just a knight to you."

Through the bathroom walls, I heard a grumble of giggling leaking into the main room.

"That was a slip of the tongue, my king. Please, it won't happen again."

My body coiled over to the bathroom door. I wore a crooked grin to her meek act.

"Yeah, that the reason I won't be a king. Don't want other fearing me and stuff."

There was a pause from Connie, maybe reading between my pouting statement. she stepped out of the bathroom drying her hands with a paper towel.

"Yeah, it'd be a bothering job if I had to do it." she agreed, tossing the paper in the trash. "You wanna just be knights instead."

"Yep. I'll be your knight and you'll be my... maiden." I noted in a teasing voice.

The mocking expression my eyes gave her as she exited the bathroom was fired back at me in protest. "no, you're be MY maiden."

I shrugged my shoulders finding nothing wrong adopting the title, my hands glided over the bar and grabbed the plates and set from on the table.

"sure, why not." I sat at the kitchen table, then spun around in my chair facing forward."well, here your feast my Sir queenly knight the ninth."

She plopped down in her seat not releasing eye contact with me. A sarcastic nature slowly engulfed Connie as she fought to maintain a serious look. Suddenly she allowed herself to grin.

"Ok, lets drop the fancy titles." she asked breathing a playful pouting sigh.

From me, a look of uncertainty was given to her instead of a simple no. was the time for teasing over?

Finally I conceded. "As you wish... my love."

To my delight to see, her ability to retrain her emotions in protest to our little game broke into her brilliant smile. The eye contact she held shied away from a moment, while her opinion changed.

"Ok. I like that title. Thank you, my love."

The name was effective on me as well. It filled my cheeks with heat, and warmed my heart. That is the best name ever.

The mood started to grow a bit more serious, as we begun to dig into our plates.

"So, were you able to work in enough down time from studying?" I inquired.

"Yeah. Kate my roommate has been dragging me out of the dorm once or twice."

a nod was given from me, remembering some of the stories we already told me. "you went to that concert. I know you had a problem with the music being too loud. Hearing you over the video chat was next to impossible."

An unformed gaze doubtful gaze found me, it seemed that her opinion might be different now than what she told me.

"What I said over the phone afterwards might have been a little too negative at the time. Honestly, when you get over the loud noise, it's fun screaming your head off from time to time. It put me in a good mood to get back to work when I got to my dorm. I'm glad I went."

"Well, glad you had a blast."

"I do wish you can come too."

"Yeah, but I still haven't figure out how to travel without using two people as a medium."

Connie stared at me for a while, burning her gaze through my face.

Feeling pressured to ask, I picked her brain with a joke. "you're staring pretty hard. Do I already have something on my face?"

She reconnected back into the world from her trance, letting out a laugh.

"Oh ah, sorry. I was just thinking of an... idea."

The sparkling in her eyes hinted that the idea was something huge. Could she have thought of a solution to our long distance issue?

"You know." Connie started, falling back into a trance. "if he could teach me how to do as well, then I can come and go whenever I want!" her voice grew into a shout.

"Who?" I asked not getting it.

She looked back towards me. "Onion."

Finally, I caught on to what she was getting at. The glee in her eyes as well as the growing gleam in mine gave hope that our little problem of getting back to each other might be possibly solvable soon.

I couldn't solve this problem myself no matter how many times I tried making a regular floor or wall a portal. That ability of mine is still a bit more complicated to figure out.

When I brought Lars back from well, dying, there was some level of randomness happening that just worked. It's not anything I want to retry. I'm against turning a living being into something like that if it can be helped. It's already an inconvenience for lion to be our taxi driver all the time. We do ask a lot from him.

Speaking of which, coming back to my flat, I didn't see the fluffy pink mellow monster with Connie coming back.

"Oh yeah, where's lion?" I wondered, noticing no one hugged in any corner taking a nap.

Connie gave me a nervous grin. "i'm guessing he went to the zoo after dropping me off"

I fell back into the chair slapping my hands to the side.

"Oh, right." a laugh slipped out.