"This is so not fair!" Jim was laughing as Braxton held up his sheet of paper. "How am I supposed to guess what that blob is!?"

Braxton shrugged and just grinned back at him.

"Is it a…blob?"

Braxton gave him a look.

"An ameba!" Varian shouted with excitement.

Braxton sighed heavily.

"Not an ameba. Uh, is it the top view of a jellyfish?"

Braxton shook his head.

"It's a stain." Jim offered his second suggestion. That one, too, was incorrect. The boys fell into momentary silence as they studied the awkwardly shaped doodle.

"Maybe it's coral?" Varian was sounding much less confident.

"Are all of your guesses going to be aquatic?" Hogarth laughed on the other side of the room.

Varian blushed and shrugged. "Your last round got it in my head, sorry."

"Hey, it's not our fault that Sy's "shark" looked just like a fish!" Matt replied happily.

"You didn't need to name every species of fish you knew, though!" Varian protested. "He said "fish" wasn't the answer."

"I didn't even know what some of their suggestions were," Sy admitted with a small smile.

"Varian, focus!" Jim promoted over the group's laughter. "We only have thirty seconds left!"

"Sorry!" Varian returned his attention to the blob shape on the paper. Braxton was adding what looked like a smiley face in the middle of it, but it was doing very little to assist them in their troubles. "It's a happy ameba!"

"He already said no amebae!" Jim groaned good naturedly.

"But he didn't say it wasn't a happy one-oh. He's shaking his head. Fine, no happy ameba." Varian sighed. "I don't know. A nebula?"

"Oooh, that one's not in the ocean," Hogarth teased.

Braxton shook his head again.

"A galaxy?" Jim suggested.

Still no.

"Oh! I know! It's gotta be a-"

"Time!" Matt shouted over him.

Braxton threw down his marker. "It was Morph!"

"Oops." Jim blushed hard.

Having heard his name, his troublesome pet trilled happily and floated up from where he had been seated on Braxton's bed nibbling at some snack he had found. Morph zipped around the room, then settled down on Sy's shoulder.

Sy reached up to rub his side with one finger. "Aww, don't worry Morph, we didn't forget about you. You're just so sneaky and good at changing shapes, we totally just forgot you could have a fixed form is all."

Morph seemed pleased with the flattery.

Braxton sighed. "Alright. Fine. No points for us this round."

"Looks like I'm up!" Matt leaped to his feet.

"Next time I'm on Matt's team," Braxton, Jim, and Hogarth all shouted at the same time. No one could get as many points as Matt.

Matt just laughed. He grabbed the stack of papers and a marker. He quickly popped the cap and gave it a quick test to be sure it wasn't dry, then nodded to Varian. "I'm ready. Start the timer."

Varian nodded and tapped his tablet. Matt's marker started to fly over the paper.

"An apple!" Sy got the first one the moment Matt lifted it up.

Matt nodded and grabbed another sheet of paper.

"A street lamp." Hogarth got the next one straight away.

"A pumpkin!"

"A carriage!"

"Muffin. Cupcake."

"Pineapple."

"Fern."

"Time!" Hogarth cut them off before Matt could finish his next drawing. "Good round, guys!"

"I think we need to start blindfolding Matt before his rounds," Jim laughed. "He scores them way too many points!"

Sy stood up. "As much fun as this is, guys, I should really get going."

"What? Why?" Jim was on his feet in moments. "Are you tired? I didn't know you wanted to turn in early."

Sy shook his head. "I'm not going to bed. I want to check on Zephyr. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Are you coming back tonight?"

Sy didn't miss the second meaning behind Jim's words. He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I'll message you if I can stop by before lights out."

Jim couldn't help his shoulders slumping. If Sy stayed away all night, it would be the first time they'd spent a night in separate rooms since their arrangement started. Sy didn't even have a pillow in his own room any more. How would he get a good night's sleep if he wasn't with Jim?

Sy leaned in to kiss his cheek. "It'll be okay, I promise."

Jim pulled him into his arms and kissed him for real. "I'll leave my boots outside the door," he whispered softly. "Don't worry about waking me." He doubted he'd get any sleep without him, anyway.

"Thank you." Sy kissed him one more time, then pulled out of his arms. "I'll see you all tomorrow! Have a good night!"

The group waved their farewells before turning back to the game at hand.

"We've got uneven teams now," Braxton observed. "Wanna switch back to the way we used to play it?"

Jim nodded. "Sounds like a good plan."

"How was that?" Varian asked curiously.

"We would take turns drawing, as usual," Jim answered while he took a seat, "but it was more a free for all for guessing. If you guessed it, you got one point. If someone guessed your drawing, you also got a point. Whoever had the most at the end won. We'd just hand the drawing to whomever guessed it, then tally points at the end of each round to make things faster."

Varian accepted the stack of papers and tub of markers from Matt. "That sounds good." He selected a color from among the options and tested to make sure it wasn't dry. "Someone want to start a new score sheet? Let me know when you're done, I'll start us off once that's ready."

"Yeah," Jim pulled up a spreadsheet on his tablet with only a couple of quick clicks. "Give me just a moment and I'll have that all sorted out."

Minutes later and the game was back in full swing, just one player short from their earlier rounds.