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This was a real, grown-up relationship between two consenting adults, not some college level bullshit. If Finn and Aleksy wanted to go out on a date, they had to like, plan and make time and be mature about it.

Or Finn could show up at the florists unannounced, covered in mud up to his knees, and lurk by the door until Aleksy finally finished up for the day.

You know. Either/or.

As they left Burrito Barn with their food in hand, Finn felt a drop of rain on his arm. He looked up.

"s**t," he said. "We crossed over."

Aleksy didn't seem too bothered by their sudden change of location, so Finn decided he wasn't going to be, either. He dug around in his paper bag, coming up with a few corn chips. "Storm coming," he replied, though the weather looked steady for the moment. "That's what she said, I mean. Three days of fog and then a storm, and we need to rally the troops."

He popped the chips into his mouth and looked around, considering the deserted street. The Otherworld was quiet tonight.

The Otherworld was always quiet.

"I mean," he added, swallowing, "I don't know what she expects us to do. But we won't know what we're dealing with until it gets here."

Finn shrugged, peeling foil off his own burrito. "Sunny seems to think there are," he said, and took a bite. Sunny tended to be right - he raised his eyebrows at Aleksy, hoping for some kind of acknowledgment. They'd both had enough dealings with the witch to know that her hunches were usually right.

He swallowed. "We need to start finding people," he said. "Recruiting them. To stand against whatever's coming."

He'd never felt anything like the massive swell of power that was building on the horizon. There was no telling what was coming. "I mean. We both feel it. There is something coming."

Finn couldn't say that he had, but there was nothing to stop them. The library was only a few blocks from here, assuming the town was laid out anything like Ashdown proper. The weather would probably hold, and so, he thought, would the crossover. "We could go look now," he said, taking another bite out of his burrito.

He chewed, swallowed, and then added, "I mean. Only if you think it's worthwhile. It wasn't my idea."

Finn nodded. "You want me to look for the way out?" he asked. He could always find ways out of the Otherworld if he cared to look for them - but he was also confident that he could keep them here long enough to make it to the library if he so chose. "That or the library, but I can only do one."

His magic needed a destination. With no destination, anything could happen.

"Rider-Waite, Ashdown Central," he agreed. Magic liked adolescence. Periods of change. "Maybe there are others, older people, but... they're harder to find. They won't all be in one place. So we start with the schools. Get invited to career day. I don't know."

"Really?" asked Finn. They weren't even halfway to the library, but Aleksy had apparently gotten cold feet on him. "Okay," he said, putting his burrito back into the bag. Navigation came naturally to him, but it still required focus.

He looked around, getting his bearings, and then after a moment, said, "It's this way. The cemetery gate. That will get us back."

Finn nodded. He didn't feel nearly so strongly about it, but he could understand Aleksy's point of view. The Otherworld could be unsettling, especially if you didn't have Finn's talent for navigation. "Yeah," he said, steering them towards the cemetery. "Let's get out of here."

As they stepped through the gate, the rain abruptly stopped, the sky suddenly becoming clear of clouds. The moonlight glinted off the nearest row of tombstones.

"I don't know," he replied. "We don't really have enough of a sample size to know if it runs in families or not."

He kind of hoped she would be, because Tate would probably be more adventurous about the Otherworld than her brother.

"Yours," said Finn, who rented a room from an elderly couple and felt distinctly weird about bringing his boyfriend over for slumber parties.