Lion stood at the front desk awkwardly. He had hoped he would manage to change and sneak over to the receptionist before Inn came out of the studio, but no such luck. Inn stood behind Lion like a great looming shadow, radiating heat.

“It will be four thousand baht for this set of upcoming sessions,” the receptionist told Lion, her nails were painted in a cute Japanese style, with small jewels stuck to the pale blue polish.

“I normally pay in instalments,” Lion swallowed tensely.

“The four thousand is including what you already owe us from missed payments,” the receptionist stated, swivelling her monitor so Lion could read the spreadsheet data.

“Okay,” Lion nodded politely with a small smile. He drew out his wallet and stared hard at the plastic blue Bangkok Bank card that he knew only had just over a thousand baht on it.

It was no good, Lion was going to have to stop the ballet lessons this semester. Maybe if he budgeted carefully over the next couple of terms he could start up again when school had ended. He wasn’t going to be able to afford college anyway so perhaps he would manage to get a job that paid him enough to support the hobby.

“Excuse me,”

Lion jumped as Inn leaned across him to the receptionist. Inn’s smile was wide, revealing pearly white teeth and the receptionist immediately put down the phone she had just picked up.

“Is there a shop nearby where I could exchange jewellery for cash?” Inn enquired, his green eyes sparkling.

“Oh,” the receptionist looked surprised for a moment before giving Lion a sympathetic glance. “Of course boys, there’s a pawn shop just two streets over.”

Lion turned on Inn as soon as the humid warmth of the outside air hit them as they exited the dance studios. “Why did you ask her that?”

He felt worried. Inn hadn’t come through the portal with any possessions, he hadn’t even had clothes. Lion felt his face heat up as he remembered that exact realisation. What could Inn possibly be wanting to sell?

“Are these worth anything in your world?” Inn asked, holding up his hand and opening his large fingers to reveal a small cluster of bright green gems.

“Oh my god, are those real emeralds?” Lion squeaked.

“Yes,” Inn nodded.

“But how?” Lion shook his head. “Where on Earth did you get them from?”

Inn gazed hard at Lion for a moment before grabbing his hand and pulling the other boy into a small alleyway. Lion gasped at the feeling of being manhandled before Inn was pushing him back against the wall.

“W-what are you doing?” Lion stammered, he could feel his heart racing a mile a minute and Inn was so close to him, he could smell the faint scents of jasmine and palmarosa that he had come to associate with Inn.

Inn pulled out a small pocket knife from his trousers, flicking out the blade.

“Inn!” Lion cried out, scrambling further back against the wall, he didn’t understand what was happening. In his mind he knew he should feel afraid but something in his body was telling him it was alright, Inn would never hurt him.

Inn gave a dry chuckle as he noticed Lion’s expression. “Relax little human, I’m not going to cut you.”

“Then why?” Lion frowned before letting out a panicked shout as Inn quickly ran the blade across the flesh of his own palm. A moment later beads of blood gathered along the angry red line, their ruby colour fading and taking on a distinctly green hue. Inn took a deep breath before closing his hand into a fist and muttering some unintelligible words.

When Inn opened his hand again, a new perfectly cut emerald sat on his jagged life line.

“Shit!” Lion exclaimed. “That’s incredible!”

“Glad you think so,” Inn retorted smugly. “So we can go to a shop and get money for these. Then you can give that dancer studio what they require of you.”

“I-“ Lion faltered. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that he could use Inn’s powers to help himself. “Would that be okay? I mean we won’t get into trouble or anything?”

Lion felt a little silly as Inn raised a thick eyebrow and smirked at him.

“Oh my god,” Lion burst out with sudden realisation, “we can go shopping now!”

+++

Paragon Mall was huge, like its own city. Lion had rarely been, owing to the fact that he bought most of his clothes from local stores or the market. He giggled to himself as he followed Inn through the automatic doors and passed a large group of foreigners laden down with shopping bags.

“This is so exciting!” Lion whispered nervously to Inn as they ascended up one of the escalators. “Are you sure you’re okay with spending your money?”

“Money is meaningless,” Inn shrugged.

Lion figured the monkey warrior must mean that there were far more important things in life, he was totally right of course. Lion felt a little guilty for being so excited about the emeralds and the cash they had brought them. It was an incredible amount, more than Lion had ever seen before and they had easily paid for the next semester’s ballet sessions.

“We need to get you a phone,” Lion declared, walking over to a lime green AIS store and nosing through the glass at the various makes and models.

“What type is yours?” Inn frowned, coming up beside Lion as they entered the shop.

“Oh, the kind you don’t want,” Lion laughed, “it barely functions.”

“I see,” Inn replied before a pretty saleswoman with coral lipstick hurried over to them.

Lion bit his lip fondly as Inn listened carefully to all the in depth details about the different models. He seemed to be taking choosing a phone very seriously. Lion could understand of course, it was a big investment to get something like a top of the range smartphone.

Lion wandered over to the far side of the store to look at small green plushies of the AIS mascot, bending down to retrieve one that had fallen on the floor before putting it back on a shelf with its buddies.

“We can go now,”

Lion squeaked as Inn’s warm breath tickled him. “You got one?” Lion asked excitedly, turning around to see Inn brandishing a branded canvas bag.

“No,” Inn shook his head before leading Lion out of the store. “I got two.”