“You want to see some of my pictures?”  Ren asked eagerly, pulling out his phone and opening up his photo collection before I even had a chance to respond.  “Okay, so I have a bunch on here, obviously, though this isn’t what I use for most of them – I have digital and film cameras, several of them, the high end stuff to make the best pictures.  I still take pictures on my phone though because it’s with me more often and I copy over some of my favorites.  Ah, here, look at this.”

     I bent over his phone, my mouth forming a silent “oh!” as I did.  The picture was of a family of tiny baby bunnies, so close it almost felt like the viewer was one of them.  They looked happy, curious, one of the babies nibbling cautiously on a blade of grass.

     “Fairies can get a lot closer to wildlife than anyone else – they instinctively know we won’t hurt them, prey and predator alike.  Makes for some awesome wildlife pics.  Oh, here, look at this one.”

     A fox, just poking its head out of its den as the sun set, the evening rays lighting the edges of its fur on fire with its brilliance.  The picture ended up almost being partial a silhouette of the fox as a result.

     “This is one of my favorites,” Ren admitted as he flipped to a new picture.  It was of a cat, just a normal housecat type of cat, curled up sleeping in a single ray of sun that hit the backyard where it was sleeping.  The rest of the yard was barely visible in the shadows, but the ray of sun lit up the cat like a spotlight on the stage.  Then I took a closer look, realizing that curled up between the cat’s paws, right at its belly, was a pair of itty bitty kittens, looking back at the camera with curious eyes.

     “I’ve also got some awesome flower pics.”  Ren started scrolling through pictures of flowers, some of which I’d never seen and wasn’t sure humans were aware of, talking animatedly as he told me about his passion.  My eyes lingered on one of a bright yellow carnation, wet with drops of dew, and a bee hovering just an inch away.  The picture had such good detail I could see the bee’s fuzzy legs and almost make out an expression on its face.

     Every picture he showed me was amazing in its own way, whether it was a log in the forest slowly being overgrown by moss or an elegant elk in the middle of a leap.

     I couldn’t understand why his parents didn’t appreciate his art.  And this definitely was art, and it was absolutely amazing.  I’d never seen anything as pretty as what he was showing me and even a handful of the way into the pictures, I was starting to see what he meant by taking a different look at things, pausing to see what nature was really trying to say.

     “They’re amazing,” I finally managed when there was a pause in the conversation.  That felt woefully underwhelming of a description, so I tried again.  “They’re beautiful, I think anyone would be enraptured by them.  Thank you for showing me.”

     Ren seemed taken aback, but in a good way, based on the smile blooming on his face when I dared take a quick peek at him.  He was blushing a bit, too.  “Really?  I – thank you.  My family doesn’t get it, and my classmates and teachers are either competitive or looking at it critically for grading purposes, so it’s nice to hear what kind of a neutral party thinks.”

     For some reason, I found myself laying my hand lightly on his forearm before I could stop myself and jerk my hand back, surprising both of us.  I quickly stumbled into whatever I had been going to say to try to distract from that awkward moment.  “No, really.  I really love them.  They’re amazing.”

     Ah – no, that was more awkward.  Maybe I could just melt from embarrassment and escape this whole moment that way?

     Ren’s face got even redder, but his smile got bigger, too.  “Well, I’m very glad you like them, it makes me happy to see people enjoying my pictures.  That’s the goal, right?  Someday you’ll have to come over and see some of the film pictures I have.  I don’t use film cameras as often because it’s harder to get a good digital copy of the photos but there’s something about film cameras I love, some of the quality they bring, so I have some film photos that I don’t have copies of on my phone.  Plus I have loads more pictures on my computer.  Some are not as great, sometimes you have to take a bunch to find the perfect pic, but I have some pretty funny outtakes that I didn’t copy onto my phone.”

     “Ah, that would be nice,” I said without thinking.  Then it dawned on me what I’d just agreed to.  I’d agreed to go to his house, where his family lived.  Including Sorrel, who didn’t like me, and his parents, who probably wouldn’t.  Honey…Honey might be okay but even the idea of entering one of their houses was overwhelming.  I’d never entered an area so directly in the territory of one of them before, where everything was under their control and I wouldn’t be able to just run and escape easily.  That was probably a stupid, stupid thing to agree to, but for some reason, seeing Ren’s happy smile, I couldn’t regret it, either.  There was something about him which made it hard for me to remember why I should be afraid of him, why I should be cautious when dealing with him.  Even my internal warnings quieted down around him, like they somehow knew he was an exception to the rule.

     “We’ll set it up sometime, maybe you can come over for dinner and meet my parents, too.  I know they want to thank you for saving their baby.”  He blushed a little at the last word.

     Right, that wasn’t terrifying at all, the idea of meeting his parents.  Ren might be an exception, but his family?  I wasn’t as sure about that.

     Thankfully he didn’t pressure me for an answer then, instead glancing at his phone and then doing a double take.  “Um, did you still have errands – err, job hunting stuff – to do today?  Sorry it’s gotten so late, I lost track of the time.”

     It was after four o’clock.  We’d been sitting here, talking and looking at pictures, for hours.  It hadn’t felt like that, it had felt like only a few minutes.  How did that happen?

     Ren was chewing on his lip, looking worried.  Right, he felt bad about keeping me from what I needed to do.

     I decided it might be okay to just have a break for a change.  Hanging out with him was amazing, I might as well enjoy every minute of this new, strange – and oddly addicting – relationship for as long as it would last, right?

     Part of my brain reminded me that I was on a deadline to find a new job, but that voice was quickly drowned out by the part of my heart that was craving these moments of peace, happiness, and companionship.  Some of which I’d never thought I’d be able to get before getting a programming job after getting my degree, and some – the companionship – I thought were completely out of my reach forever.

     So my heart’s excitement won out and I forgot, for the moment, that I should be being practical.

     “It’s okay, the in-person ones don’t go well anyway, so it doesn’t matter.  I might as well take the rest of the night off before my class.”

     Ren’s worry disappeared into a brilliant smile.  “So we can hang out for the rest of the day until your class?”  He asked hopefully.

     “If – if you want.”

     “I definitely want.  Definitely, definitely want.”  Ren reached over and draped his arm across my shoulder in a brief hug.  I might be starting to get used to his random hugs and not tensing up automatically anymore.

    “Okay, so what do you want to do?”  His tone was eager, enthusiastic.  I couldn’t help but feel some of that enthusiasm leak over to me.  Agreeing to hang out with him couldn’t be a mistake when it made him this happy, right?

     “We could talk some more, or walk around – there’s a park nearby if you’re into that sort of thing.  Or want to see a movie?  I think there’s some good ones in the theater right now.”

     I could feel my enthusiasm get snuffed out as quickly as it had come.  Right.  Hanging out with him could be difficult because he was used to things – like having money to spend on movie tickets – that I couldn’t afford.  I didn’t want to deprive him of things he was used to but I wasn’t sure how to approach the subject.

     “Or – wait!  I have the perfect idea.  Hmm.”  He scrolled through something on his phone, thankfully not catching my discomfort or at least pretending not to if he did.  “Ah, here it is.  So my school has a large theater crowd and they’re constantly putting on productions.  They’re doing some sort of Shakespeare thing this weekend, free to the public.  They’re doing it on the campus green, outside – like a small park – so people wander in and out during the entire thing.  I think it’s to let their members just get lots of practice performing in front of people and dealing with potentially disruptive or distracting audience?  Let’s go watch that!  I mean, if you like plays?”

     I nodded, but to be honest I wasn’t sure if I did.  I hadn’t seen one before.  Back in high school, there were occasionally productions put on by my high school, but Mom never let me stay late to see them and by the time I was 18 and could call my own shots, I didn’t have the time to deal with anything that wasn’t trying to survive.  But Ren was excited and I thought it’d be nice to see a play.

     So I let him drag me off the bench, tossing our trash away as he hurried us to his university campus where the next production was about to start.

     By the time I got back to my apartment, I was in a dizzy haze of happiness I’d never felt before.  The play had been fun, even though I didn’t understand half of what they said.  The theater group had some snacks set out for viewers to take, and Ren insisted I eat some towards the end of the production.  He’d then taken me around his campus on a tour before I had to head to my own campus for my night class.  Ren had offered to meet me afterwards and walk me home, but I encouraged him to go on home and not wait.

     The walk home alone had been cold, but had given me some time to process everything that happened.  I had just spent half a day hanging out with a friend, listening to him talk about the things he was excited about, seeing what made him passionate, sharing a meal, watching a play – all things I would have thought impossible even at the beginning of this week.

     As I locked the door of my apartment and started to change for bed, I realized something.  I was starting to see Ren as a real friend, not just as someone who was befriending me so he could keep an eye on my weird abilities or because he felt obligated to me.  Maybe that was a mistake, but…maybe it wasn’t.  He seemed so genuine, so uninhibited.  Like he wouldn’t hide behind lies and pretend.  Hopefully?

     I brushed my teeth, then took a long look in the mirror before making up my mind.  I was going to enjoy this.  I didn’t know how long it would last and I wasn’t 100% sure yet that there wasn’t some ulterior motive to this new friendship, but today had made me happy.  And I wasn’t going to ruin that by second guessing everything, I was just going to go with it and enjoy it for as long as it lasted.  Maybe it would end in burning disaster like my life experiences thus far had taught me, but even if it did, I would still have today, at least, and maybe even some more days that were actually fun.  Warmth built of friendship and shared enjoyment.  I was going to appreciate every moment I got of that even if it ultimately turned out to be a disaster.

     Satisfied with my decision, I turned back to my bedroom and fell quickly to sleep.