White box

Half a year

Marcus figured he might as well wait till either or all artifacts broke to take the next step. He was happy that his theory had worked and while it was unknown for how long they would last, for now, he could focus on making up for those 33 days he had abandoned his beloved.

Starting now--

He woke up a bit too early and what better opportunity there was to make use of something than at a time when it was already up. And so he got an early breakfast and a flustered gasping boyfriend who ended up opting for a different sort of exercise than running. They made very good use of the sound-blocking barrier Bill had set up.

And they still had a run, otherwise, they would be too late for the first lesson. A purification spell and a few kisses later, they slipped into the outdoor field just in time for Clem to--

"Marcus, to my team!"

They would be playing soccer.

"Then Bill is mine, I guess," Will said, having been picked as the captain of the other team.

It wasn't like Marcus would take it easy just because he was against Bill and Bill also smiled at him in a cute challenge. Marcus didn't know how or why it had started, but he was now able to match Bill while running. They could flirt by stealing the ball from one another. Although mostly it was like usual - just making passes and since Clem's team had Clem-- they obviously won.

Of course, Marcus happily returned the high five Clem first shared with him then with every other team-mate. This time starting to feel like it really-- might not be just because they were friends. This body moved really well for some reason, but Marcus liked the way it made him feel.

Being able to keep up felt good, being the last one to be out of breath felt good.

There were purification spells, but it would suspicious if he smelled nothing of sweat without taking a shower and having run a lot, he needed one.

"The hell did you do during the summer?" Clem asked as they got dressed. "Your back muscles are something."

Now, that was suspicious. Marcus looked over at Bill and Bill nodded.

"Some stuff," Marcus replied. He had no idea-- did Purple do something? "I was outdoors a lot." That was both vague and accurate.

"Actually, if you like soccer even a little bit, do come to the tryouts next week," Clem said with a serious look.

Marcus had a hard time refusing a serious, sincere request without giving it some thought. Did he like soccer?

"Clem, I had fun today," Marcus replied. "But I think it was because I could keep up with Bill and flirt with him while stealing the ball. Sadly, I do not feel any affection towards soccer otherwise."

Bill turned red and even Clem got flustered--

"Yeah, that would be-- hard to arrange," Clem replied, giving up.

Two weeks went on like usual, the only unusual part was, one classmate, walking up to ask - "Marcus, you are friends with August Gold, right?"

"Yes," Marcus replied.

"Would it be possible to send him a gift through you?" The girl asked.

"I can ask," Marcus said and took out his phone to send a text. [A girl in my class wants to send you a gift.]

[Agent.] Was the reply.

"He says to send it to his agent," Marcus said, then added: "I don't really know when will be the next time I meet him and it could be hard to bring it." Especially since he did usually teleport from a random place.