Zane could feel his eyes going wider and wider as the list on the table in front of Jay kept growing longer and longer, item after item being added.

"There are that many games for children to play?" Zane asked, leaning a little closer to Jay's chair so he could see better.

"Oh yeah, and plenty more," Jay said, bending forward and scribbling another item onto the list. "But most of them need, you know, playground equipment or other stuff we don't have, so we'll focus on the basics."

"The basics," Zane repeated quietly. He peeked at the list again and did a quick count. "There are twenty-seven basic games?"

"Probably more," Jay said. Then he gasped. "Oh, definitely more! Twenty-eight, at least! I forgot to write down Simon Says!"

"Do we have time to do twenty-eight basic games?" Zane asked, not wanting to dull Jay's clear enjoyment from coming up with the list but very much doubting their combined ability to get through twenty-eight games in the two hours Jay had scheduled.

Jay paused his writing mid-word. The final item on the list currently read "Simo," which was kind of funny to Zane, as it was a word he wasn't certain existed. With a sigh, Jay admitted, "Yeah, probably not. But! If we've got a lot on the list, then you've got a lot to pick from!"

"Me?" Zane asked.

"Yeah, you. I want you to have fun! So I want you to pick what we're doing," Jay said. He turned the list a little so it was facing more toward Zane.

Zane reached out and picked up the paper. He started to read through it, but he only got to the fifth item before he looked up. "I do not think I know any of these."

"That's the point!" Jay said with a wide grin. "I said I wanted to teach you some games you don't know."

"But if I do not know them, how do I decide which one I want to pick for us to do?" Zane asked.

Jay's grin faltered. He frowned, a bit sheepishly. "I guess you… Huh. That's a good point. Okay. Yeah. How about you pick one that you just like the name of?"

Zane looked at the list again. "What is 'Hide and Seek?'"

Jay's grin returned full-force.

"Perhaps in here?" Zane looked at the end table carefully. Technically, Jay could fit inside the cabinet that made up the lower portion. It would be a tight squeeze, requiring Jay to bend his body in ways that would likely become uncomfortable within around ten minutes given general anatomy and physiology, but as Zane looked at the dimensions of the cabinet and analyzed the total volume in comparison to Jay's previously-proven flexibility and size, it would work.

"The end table cabinet is an option," Zane decided. He noted it on the back of the paper at the bottom of the list he had already created of potential hiding places where Jay could be sought out, and he kept looking around.

Now at the other end of the room, Zane considered the couch. "He would not fit into the couch. However, perhaps he could fit behind the couch. I will add it to the list. I think that covers all of the options in this room, so I shall move on."

A muffled snort came from behind him.

Zane whirled around.

No one was there. At least, no one visible was there.

"Oh," Zane said, realizing. "Mister Jay is hiding in this room! But which of my options here is most likely? Perhaps-"

The snort came again, louder this time, and now Zane could more accurately pinpoint where it was coming from.

Zane went to the end table and stood in front of it. He bounced a little, trying to think. He was fairly certain the snort, which had certainly sounded like Jay, had come from this area. But was he certain that Jay was inside the end table cabinet specifically?

"If I am incorrect…" Zane said, and he felt and heard his own voice trail off. He did not know what would happen if he was incorrect. Would he still get to play?

The snort came again, clearly from inside the end table cabinet this time, and before Zane could open the cabinet door, it opened on its own.

"Mister Jay!" Zane exclaimed, hurrying even closer.

Jay peered out of the cabinet. Positioned mostly upside-down inside of it, with his left cheek still pressed into the side of the cabinet and a crease down his right cheek, presumably from the lines of the cabinet door, he went slightly cross-eyed as he looked at Zane. "Zane. My good dude. My smaller-than-usual teammate. My ever-so-smart friend. What were you even doing?"

"I was seeking," Zane said.

Jay snorted. He tried to shake his head, but mostly just smacked his face against the floor of the cabinet. "Ow. No, you weren't."

"Yes, I was," Zane said. He held up the paper to show the side with his list to Jay. "Look, I titled it 'Mister Jay's Potential Hiding Spots.' See?"

"I do see," Jay agreed with a bit of strain in his voice as he began to pry himself out of the cabinet. "Honestly, I probably should've seen this coming. Let me guess. You were going to search the entire Destiny's Bounty, make a list of every possible place I could be hiding without actually checking any of them, and then organize them by likelihood of me hiding there based on, I don't know, my size versus their size and the distance from our starting point versus the amount of time I had to hide based on asking you to count to thirty?"

Zane blinked at him, confused. "Yes, but also your demonstrated flexibility and several other less-important factors. Is that incorrect?"

"Well," Jay said, hesitating verbally as he stood and stretched. "I mean. Um. It's not how most people play Hide and Seek. Usually when you think of a place the other person could hide, you just, you know, seek. You go ahead and look at it right away."

Zane's shoulders slumped. "I did it incorrectly."

"I wouldn't say that," Jay said, wincing. "More like I didn't explain it all the way, which, that's totally on me. And also, you know what? Even if that's how most people play? Forget other people."

"Forget other people?" Zane repeated in confusion.

"Forget 'em," Jay said firmly. "Are you other people? No! You're you, you're Zane, you do things in your own way, and you do great."

Zane bounced a little on his toes. "So, did I do it correctly for me?"

"I would say you did it exactly correctly for you," Jay said. He hesitated again. "And I shouldn't have laughed about it."

"Why?" Zane asked. "Laughing means you liked it."

Jay made a wobbly gesture, tilting his hand side to side. "Yeah, sometimes. I don't think we need to get into that right now, though. Right now, we've got something more important to do."

Something more important? Zane straightened up, readying himself for the important thing. "What?"

"We've got to play Hide and Seek your way," Jay said. "So close your eyes and count to thirty, and then go ahead and seek by starting a new list of all the potential hiding places for me."

"May I keep my previous list?" Zane asked. "I think they are all still possibilities, even if I will have to recalculate the distance versus time factor. I want to keep it, so may I?"

"Sure," Jay said, already slowly backing away. "But close your eyes and count!"

Zane obeyed, clutching the paper close to himself as he shut his eyes and began to count out loud. "One… Two… Three…"